Open Source Civic EV Kit

APRIL 7, 2008

After spending the past year and a half converting a Porsche 914 to an electric vehicle, I decided to expand my horizons by designing an open-source electric vehicle (EV) conversion kit for a commonly used car. There are already commercially available kits with excellent, detailed instructions for how to convert a vehicle.

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Kits Conversion Golf Cart Saturn 185

CleanTechnica EVs

JUNE 4, 2021

After 1 year in its new premises, Kit Lacey of eDub Services gives a tour of his latest projects. In the video Kit talks about the 1973 VW T2 “Indie” that we followed in its making earlier, which unfortunately has had a bad scratch. He shows us the super cool Tesla-powered 1991 VW Golf Mk2 […].

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Conversion Kits Tesla Power 126

Teslarati

JUNE 3, 2023

It is also over 8 seconds faster than the 7:33.350 record that was set by a Porsche Taycan Turbo S with Performance Kit last August. With the Model S Plaid with Track Pack’s new record, the gauntlet has been thrown once more, and it would be interesting to see how other automakers such as Porsche would respond.

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Tesla Porsche Ferrari MPH 145

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

OCTOBER 12, 2006

Since I live in Portland, Oregon, I went to a meeting with the Oregon Electric Vehicle Association and found out about several companies that provided drop-in electric conversion kits for existing cars. I'm currently working with Craig Loughlin out at Camp914 to purchase a 1976 Porsche 914 for the conversion.

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2007 NMG Kits Oregon 100

Revenge of the Electric Car

FEBRUARY 26, 2009

Open Source Civic EV Kit. Porsche 914 EV Conversion. . * DIY Electric Car. Electric Car Blog. Electric Cars are for Girls. Green Car Congress. Green Gearhead. * My Green Wheels. Plug In Partners. Plugs and Cars. Revenge of the Electric Car. Robs RAVolt. EV Driven is the brainchild of Dr. Tony Karrer.

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DIY Congress Kits Porsche 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

FEBRUARY 9, 2008

Here goes (in no particular order): Things That Went Well During the Conversion The 914 AC kit from Electro Automotive is a good one. If you do your own conversion, tap into all these resources whenever you have an issue. The conversion car came from camp914.com Most people are very happy to help.

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Convert Kits Conversion DC 100

Creative Greenius

FEBRUARY 24, 2009

Open Source Civic EV Kit. Porsche 914 EV Conversion. In addition to Creative Greenius you’ll find these great EV Driven blogs: DIY Electric Car. Electric Car Blog. Electric Cars are for Girls. Green Car Congress. Green Gearhead. My Green Wheels. Plug In Partners. Plugs and Cars. Revenge of the Electric Car. Robs RAVolt.

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Mini E DIY Obama Climate Change 150

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

DECEMBER 28, 2006

The conversion process highly recommends installing a new clutch assembly, so I ordered a clutch kit from Driving Source NW in Salem, OR (part # POR055822) on December 27th. I enjoyed talking about the conversion project with him and hearing about his own experiences with Porsches.

Portland 100

Portland Conversion Kits Porsche 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

APRIL 7, 2008

With almost 3000 miles of cheap, reliable operation, I think it's time to move on to something that will help more people do their own conversions. I really appreciated the high-quality parts and detailed instructions provided by Electro Automotive with their 914 kit.

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Kits Cheap Conversion Honda 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

NOVEMBER 25, 2007

On a more positive note, Ross Cunniff got his 914 AC kit running recently and Bob has been making progress on his BMW 325i performance EV (see links at right). I also had a phone interview with a journalist named Kristen that I met at NEDRA who's writing an EV conversion article for the February issue of SportsCarMarket.

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Kits Conversion BMW 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

JANUARY 20, 2007

Over the past few weeks I've been trying to contact the folks at Electro Automotive to get the status of the EV 914 kit. They finally responded last night and apparently they're completely buried under the demand for EV conversion kits. He got one of the earlier DC motor kits for the 914 from Electro Automotive.

Golf Cart 100

Golf Cart Kits Conversion Volt 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. It's a bit larger than the CCPower C400 DC-DC converter supplied with the kit, but it still fits in the same space and can be plugged into a 115V AC outlet for charging the accessory battery offline.

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DC Kits Convert Conversion 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

JULY 28, 2007

One of my fellow 914 AC kit EV'ers is Randy Pollock. He's been extremely helpful in my understanding of how this kit works. About three weeks ago, he sent me a few pictures on his own 914 AC EV project that uses the Electro Automotive kit. Here are his pictures and text (verbatim) from his e-mail: (Thanks Randy!)

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Kits Light Porsche Exhaust 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. He's documented much of the work needed to get a fifth generation ('92-'95) Civic converted to electric.

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Portland Kits Conversion Convert 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. I'm looking forward to getting the car soon since the kit from Electro Automotive should be here by mid-January.

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Portland Kits Conversion Purchase 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

MAY 8, 2007

My 914ev partner-in-crime Randy (who purchased the very first 914 AC kit from ElectroAuto) e-mailed me some photographs of how he's wiring up his terminal blocks and relays. Here are some pictures and descriptions from his 914 AC conversion. Excerpt from Randy's e-mail: I've also started on the wiring kit. Thanks, Randy!)

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Kits Connect Connected Installation 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

APRIL 5, 2008

Camp 914 is a fun place with many 914s as well as other Porsches and classic cars. I've mentioned before that I'm working on an open-source EV kit. Since the round-trip drive was 44 miles and included several long hills, I charged up for an hour out at camp just to give myself a bit of breathing room.

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Kits Porsche Gasoline-Electric Honda 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

FEBRUARY 8, 2008

I found quite a bit of water in the rear trunk during these rainy days, so I added the weather-stripping that I had never installed from the original ElectroAuto kit. This picture shows the weather stripping on the bottom edge of the trunk lid just above the silver PORSCHE letters.

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Batteries Battery Water Kits 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

FEBRUARY 9, 2008

One of the annoying behaviors of the motor system in my AC 914 kit is that the default DMOC445 parameters causes the acceleration and braking to have oscillations. I've started an 914 Electric Conversion Wiki at the URL below. Please contribute to the Wiki as you can. link] Thanks to everyone for their support on this project.

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Neighborhood Conversion Kits Convert 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

APRIL 13, 2007

Note: the kit instructions mention that the bolts that tie the motor mount in the kit to the front Porsche motor mount are 3 1/2 inches long; however, I think this is a typo because I had to go back and purchase 2 1/2 inch bolts because the 3 1/2 ones were almost exactly one inch too long.

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Motor Motors Motoring Kits 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

NOVEMBER 20, 2006

The motor and controller from Electro Automotive (sent from Azure Dynamics) arrived on November 20th and are now sitting in my living room awaiting the remainder of the kit parts. Due to the high demand for kits resulting from the movie Who Killed the Electric Car , Electro Auto has been completely swamped.

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Motor Motors Motoring Kits 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

SEPTEMBER 13, 2007

I called around to several Porsche repair shops and finally found Dan Hall's Auto Machine. With the motor out, I'm going to look into RPM kits for electric cars that use spinning magnets on the flywheel with a magnetic sensor to generate a signal. I haven't touched my gasoline car in two weeks now. Stay tuned.

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Portland Plugin DC Gasoline-Electric 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

JULY 5, 2007

I've already added the 3-hole cap-plug provided in the kit. After cutting all the tape that bound the engine compartment cables together, I slid on the three-hole cap-plug from the kit and bonded it in place with silicone sealant. This tells us when to stop pulling the cables through. Next up: More wiring.

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Kits Plug-in Plug DC 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

AUGUST 12, 2007

They run on 48 volts and the company sells them as a kit for about $3500. He built the DC version of the Electro Automotive kit awhile back and challenged me to a drag duel at Nedra next week. With batteries and additional items, the final cost is around $5000. Not bad for something that has a top speed of 50mph.

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Portland Belgium Kits Neighborhood 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

JUNE 23, 2007

They provided an upgrade kit with lock washers and loctite to remedy the problem. Here are the pieces for the upgrade kit above one of the motor bolts. In short, a lock washer and flat washer replace the nylon ones that came with the kit. Notice that I've already removed one in the upper right position on the round endcap.

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Kits Motor Motors Motoring 100

Cars That Think

APRIL 23, 2022

For this baby-blue Rover, the conversion includes a powerful electric drive unit from a. There, more than 60 employees and two production lines will have the capacity for 100 conversions a year. Around the world, specialists like E.C.D. Tesla Model S P100D, which provides 450 horsepower (331 kilowatts) in this application.

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Land Rover Tesla Conversion Ferrari 101

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

MARCH 6, 2008

If I don't get elected co-chair next Thursday, I'm going to start an open-source EV conversion kit sub-group within the OEVA. You'll also notice that the "steady-state" voltage at the end of the chart is lower than at the beginning, showing that the pack has gone through some discharge during the 15-mile commute.

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2000 Miles Volt DC 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

FEBRUARY 18, 2007

I'll have to modify the circuit with a voltage doubler in the final stage to work with 8-volt golf-cart batteries for the 914 EV kit. Any feedback on how to improve the circuit would be welcome. Big thanks to Max at and all the other supportive engineers at HP for designing this circuit.

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Golf Cart Batteries Battery Kits 147

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

JULY 18, 2007

Also, the instructions for the DC kit may not apply to the AC kit. Here's where the real fun begins since there are no wiring diagrams from Electro Automotive for the AC kit yet! I was somewhat blindly following the instructions up to this point so I'm guessing there's a bug. Off to sleep to prepare for another day.

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Kits DC Batteries Battery 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

AUGUST 25, 2007

Apparently I'm the only person with an operational AC kit currently, although several other people are hot on the trail to finishing theirs. Mike doesn't have an AC kit 914 back at the ranch. When I told Mike that I easily pulled > 150 amps during acceleration, he seemed a bit surprised.

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Golf Cart Kits DC Personal 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

OCTOBER 5, 2007

I wish all the other 914 AC kit owners luck. I wish Ross the best in getting the second 914 AC kit on the road! I suspect that there's something up with looseness in the transmission shafts or perhaps rattling in the pilot bearing. I got a new pilot bearing yesterday so I'll see if that helps.

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Kits Plug-in Plug Oil 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

FEBRUARY 20, 2007

The real gamble is how fast the rest of the kit shows up. Unfortunately, I'm betting that ElectroAuto is going to take awhile before delivering the remainder of the kit, so I'll probably hold onto these for a bit. If I go to the shop and have these replaced, I won't really be able to drive the car around.

Golf Cart 100

Golf Cart Kits Volt Batteries 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

MAY 11, 2007

I received a package from Azure Dynamics yesterday with a field upgrade to the bolts on the AC24 motor for the EV kit. Apparently, the nylon washers weren't good enough to hold the bolts in under all conditions and some of them may get loose.

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Kits Motor Motors Motoring 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

JULY 23, 2007

A modification of the prior strap is basically what is suggested in the DC kit instructions. It turns out that the only copper interconnect that fit right out of the kit bag was the completely flat bar with two holes. I found a funny shaped link in the kit, but could simply not get it to fit anywhere in the system.

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Connect Connected Golf Cart Kits 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

AUGUST 24, 2007

pre-made 24" battery cable with lugs (from NAPA) #2 philips/standard screwdrivers pliers small utility knife to cut insulation small 12V SLA battery to bootstrap the system if 12V battery dies Again, what would you add/subtract/modify in this kit? Next up: fixing the stranded car, looking at the PakTrakr and getting the heater fan to work.

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DC Kits Convert Connect 100

Porsche 914 EV Conversion

APRIL 9, 2007

I still need to add the spring, cotter-pin and 5mm threaded barrel listed in the instructions, so I hope those come later with the remainder of the kit parts. Electro Auto shipped their first AC wiring harness to the first AC kit customer and it arrived today. I'm excited to get my own terminal blocks, relays and harness soon.

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Kits Installation Purchase DC 100

EV Central

OCTOBER 4, 2022

Spy the back end at the wrong angle and it could be the lovechild of a Porsche 993 and Ford AU Falcon. Safety kit for Australian Ioniq 6’s should match the range-topping Ioniq 5’s. It’s striking in the metal. Distinctive. Challenging. Catch it on a good angle and it’s bloody gorgeous. And not in a good way.

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Hyundai Re-Charge Light Australia 96