Porsche 914 EV Conversion

APRIL 7, 2008

I would like to see the same thing done for a more modern, practical vehicle for much less cost. I really appreciated the high-quality parts and detailed instructions provided by Electro Automotive with their 914 kit.

Kits 100

Kits Cheap Conversion Honda 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

OCTOBER 12, 2006

After seeing the movie Who Killed The Electric Car , I got the nutty idea earlier this year to purchase an all-electric vehicle to commute to work. The motivation was to see if I could get by with as little oil products as possible.

2007 100

2007 NMG Kits Oregon 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

JULY 14, 2007

I was amazed at how accessible these vehicles were to the general public. I was able to walk inside the "pit" area and talk with the designers directly and see all the vehicles, up close. Thanks to my friends Ruth and Joe for coming out and hanging with me during the event. The next NEDRA event at PIR is August 17-18.

Lead Acid 100

Lead Acid Honda Insight DC Portland 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

MARCH 29, 2008

This is one of the prime candidates for the open-source vehicle conversion kit I'd like to work on, so there's lots of information to leverage. On a side note, I purchased a DVD from Bob Bath regarding his CivicWithACord project. He's documented much of the work needed to get a fifth generation ('92-'95) Civic converted to electric.

Portland 100

Portland Kits Conversion Convert 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

FEBRUARY 2, 2007

My friend Pete drove me out to Camp914 today to pick up the vehicle. Craig did a wonderful job on detailing it and showed me all the required controls. I drove it home without a hitch and spent a bunch of time reading the instruction manual (you're not supposed to do that!).

Cars 100

Cars Vehicles 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

MAY 11, 2007

I'm happy that Azure sent these before I started driving the vehicle around, although no major field failures have been reported. Apparently, the nylon washers weren't good enough to hold the bolts in under all conditions and some of them may get loose. Update: DOH!

Kits 100

Kits Motor Motors Motoring 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

OCTOBER 14, 2006

This is a picture of the yellow 914 that I'm going to be purchasing from Camp914 near Portland as a base platform for the electric vehicle conversion. The picture was taken back on October 14th before it was ready to operate. Craig, the owner of Camp914, has been working to get the car ready to go over the past few months.

Portland 100

Portland Kits Conversion Purchase 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

MARCH 8, 2007

Today is the last day I will drive the 914 as a gasoline vehicle. I ran out and got another floor jack and a water-proof label-maker so I can mark all the wires and hoses as I take them out. With the busy-ness of life and the delivery delays from ElectroAutomotive, I don't know how long this will take.

Conversion 100

Conversion Water Gasoline Clean 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

FEBRUARY 4, 2007

I'm going to start commuting to work with the 914 to get used to the vehicle's capability and have some fun while it's still has the range of a gasoline car. It was a beautiful day and having the Targa-top down allowed us to see all the mountains and cliffs on each side as we drove down I-84.

Oil 100

Oil Gasoline Light Range 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

AUGUST 24, 2007

I brought over jumper cables and tried to charge the battery with my ICE vehicle. It looks like there's a pretty serious short in the DC/DC converter. The car is still stranded at Krista's place. The voltage drop across the 300amp jumper cables was 0.8 volts so I'm guessing the 12V battery was mostly dead.

DC 100

DC Convert Volt Plug-in 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

DECEMBER 28, 2006

Several friends of mine have offered to help with the conversion and give (ahem) objective test drives of the vehicle afterwards to make sure it's operating properly. Overall, everyone I've talked with has been fun to work with and excited to hear more about the progress of this project.

Portland 100

Portland Conversion Kits Porsche 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

FEBRUARY 12, 2008

The federal rebate on qualified vehicles (all hybrids at this point) is up around $2000, I think. Federal tax law doesn't let me get a rebate from the feds because the car isn't a fully qualified conversion; however, I applied to the State of Oregon to get the state rebate of $750. It's better than nothing.

DC 100

DC Conversion Oregon 2000 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

JANUARY 31, 2007

One of the major issues with electric vehicles is keeping the battery pack healthy so it lasts a long time. The issue with having a long string of batteries is that when you charge them, not all batteries charge at the same rate.

Batteries 100

Batteries Battery Charging Water 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

FEBRUARY 9, 2008

Many things have passed through my mind over the past year and a half while converting this vehicle. This included the folks at the Oregon Electric Vehicles Association, the motor control engineers at my work (HP), the communities at 914world.com, the other 914 EV conversion folks (Thanks to Randy, Ross, Roger, Matt, Paul, and many more.)

Convert 100

Convert Kits Conversion DC 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

APRIL 5, 2008

I drove the electric 914 back out to Camp914 where I originally purchased the car and drove it away as a gasoline vehicle. Yesterday was fun. Craig was happy to see me and took several pictures. Overall, the car handled the freeway and hills well.

Kits 100

Kits Porsche Gasoline-Electric Honda 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

SEPTEMBER 30, 2007

If I pull it towards the rear of the vehicle, it tries to depress the clutch, but I don't have the strength with my hand to move it. I lightly pushed it towards the front of the vehicle and it hit the face of the clutch pressure plate while it was still spinning! Just for yucks (DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME KIDS!),

Motor 100

Motor Motors Motoring Porsche 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

JULY 20, 2007

I mounted the tray as far to the right as possible to open up space on the board to the left for one of my favorite pieces of equipment on the vehicle: the WooGah horn. And here's the whole assembly in the vehicle. Note: The AC kit instructions don't say what to install the charger tray with.

Installation 100

Installation Exhaust Batteries Battery 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

MARCH 1, 2008

On a slightly non-914ev related note, I'm going to be running for a co-chair position within the Oregon Electric Vehicle Association. I hope this pack lasts 2-3 years while the costs of lithium batteries come down.

Oregon 100

Oregon Connect Connected Kits 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

AUGUST 25, 2007

Unfortunately, the circuit relies on the fan inside the motor interrupting an optical emitter-receiver pair which doesn't exist on the AC24 motor in my vehicle. He graciously faxed me a circuit to generate a tach pulse from an ADC8" or 9" motor, but he didn't really understand the circuit.

Golf Cart 100

Golf Cart Kits DC Personal 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

JULY 5, 2007

I suspect this will keep water and other outside elements from getting into the vehicle. In addition to sealing the driver-side heater duct, there's also a cap-plug provided to seal the passenger side heater duct in the engine compartment. Today was a bit slow.

Kits 100

Kits Plug-in Plug DC 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

JANUARY 20, 2007

After listening to him, I get the idea that the biggest issue with these vehicles (no surprise) is maintaining battery health. He also highly recommends the BMW320i brake upgrade for the 914 to handle the extra weight of the batteries. Having a high-current charger and a BMS (battery management system) is a must.

Golf Cart 100

Golf Cart Kits Conversion Volt 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

APRIL 21, 2007

I spent most of today researching the wiring diagrams in the Haynes 914 manual and comparing them to what I see in the vehicle. I'll have to cut open the lower bundle and tap into it so that the regen function of the motor controller will activate the brake lights.

Light 100

Light Kits Motor Motors 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

JANUARY 27, 2008

The buyer of the tail shifter transmission is also in the process of doing an electric vehicle conversion, so he asked a bunch of questions about my project. I've been noticing that my auxiliary battery seems to drop in voltage significantly as I commute to work.

DC 100

DC Light Climate Recharge 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

AUGUST 6, 2007

I just sent an e-mail to a local guy who has helped a few folks out with mechanical issues on their electric vehicles. After rummaging around in my leftover parts from ElectroAuto, I also found a temperature sensor for the Zivan NG3 charger, plugged it in and tie wrapped it to the inside of the front battery box.

Installation 100

Installation Portland Plug-in Charging 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

SEPTEMBER 13, 2007

However, if I start from a stoplight in the same way as a gasoline vehicle (rev the engine and slowly let out the clutch), I can start much more quickly than if I just leave the clutch out and floor the accelerator from a stopped motor. Apparently, the AC motor feels like it has more torque at non-zero RPMs (perhaps just a false perception).

Portland 100

Portland Plugin DC Gasoline-Electric 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

FEBRUARY 6, 2008

EVParts.com sells it as a DC-DC converter for many of their electric vehicle conversion kits. I've been biting my nails over the past few weeks, living in fear that my 12V battery would suddenly run out on the freeway in the rain as I drove with my headlights on. Here's the Iota DLS-45 12V power supply.

DC 100

DC Kits Convert Conversion 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

MAY 4, 2007

Despite the high compute power, I still think this algorithm is worth pursuing because of its accuracy and the possibility of its use in more mainstream electric vehicles for the average user who doesn't want to know all the details of monitoring a complex battery pack for SOC or SOH.

Batteries 100

Batteries Battery Lead Acid Convert 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

FEBRUARY 9, 2008

Beyond that, I'm just trying to get out as many thoughts as I can before just commuting with the vehicle and enjoying it. At this point, the last major thing to fix on the car is upgrading the front brake calipers to BMW320i parts to improve braking. I've started an 914 Electric Conversion Wiki at the URL below.

Neighborhood 100

Neighborhood Conversion Kits Convert 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

FEBRUARY 7, 2008

With the added weight of the batteries, the vehicle is very difficult to stop, especially on downhills at stoplights. So far, I'm very happy and will report back in a week or so if there are any problems. The next big problem I'm working on is improving the brakes.

DC 100

DC Installation Parts Convert 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

MAY 1, 2007

We might possibly work together on a project after chatting at the next OEVA (Oregon Electric Vehicle Association) meeting. I've been in contact with Victor at Metric Mind here in Portland who is developing the state-of-the-art EVision battery monitoring system. Off to some interesting bedtime reading on lead-acid modelling technology.

Lead Acid 100

Lead Acid Golf Cart Batteries Battery 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

AUGUST 24, 2007

Just before noon, I drove with the ICE vehicle over to the 914, charged the accessory battery with jumper cables for about 20 minutes, then quickly drove the 914 back home to the garage for repairs. Since the stranded EV was only 2 1/2 miles away, I walked back to the ICE car and drove it home too.

Volt 100

Volt DC Light Electric 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

AUGUST 9, 2007

My vehicle has 18 batteries, but I chose to purchase a total of four monitors due to the distribution of batteries in the car. Three extension battery monitors are in the other three bags. The serial cable in the lower left can hold 2MBytes of log data before dumping it down to a laptop. Each monitor can handle six batteries.

Batteries 100

Batteries Battery Motor Motors 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

JULY 30, 2007

There's very little power from the system, I can't go much above 30mph After sending error logs to Azure Dynamics, they came back with the following: " Vehicles with improper or substandard grounding and shielding sometimes exhibit nuisance errors flagged as EE3LastError = 16. Many times the controller doesn't even start up at all 3.

Exhaust 100

Exhaust Kits Power Powered 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

JUNE 28, 2007

I hope I can keep these in the vehicle. Here is the same area with the bracket removed and edges hammered flat. The tube off to the left is the drain for water that hits the engine compartment hood. Here is the rear battery rack sitting in place.

Batteries 100

Batteries Battery Installation Parts 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

JUNE 26, 2007

My garage is quickly running out of space with the batteries on the floor and the boxes and parts stored beside and under the vehicle. Inside the front battery box is the middle battery box (goes in the fuel compartment) and a bunch of other parts. Here's the leftover crate pallet and cardboard.

Kits 100

Kits DC Store Personal 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

JULY 15, 2007

Note the thick battery cable going through the lower grommet on the left to connect the front batteries to the rear of the vehicle. Here is the bundle of added wires tie-wrapped to the main wiring harness going into the front luggage compartment. Here's the front relay mount plate with the relays, terminal strip and fuse block bolted on.

DC 100

DC Kits Connect Connected 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

APRIL 27, 2007

I'm thinking that if I can make a user-friendly system to tell people the state-of-charge for their battery packs that also monitors the health of each battery, that could be very useful knowledge as gasoline prices go up and more people get interested in electric vehicles.

IDEA 100

IDEA Plug-in Installation Kits 100