Eric Tischer's VW Passat EV Conversion

Update 2010-05-29 I made some major improvements to the inverter and knocked two seconds off my 0-60 time! Here is a graph showing 0-60 in 14 seconds (6800rpm) only using 2nd gear. DC Bus Voltage (0-400 VDC) (The DC voltage sag is indicative of battery current, every 10v sag = 100A). Motor RPM x 20 (0-8000 RPM) Motor current (0-400 Amps/Phase) I find myself driving 75-80mph on my commute home now! There is much less traffic since NUMMI has closed. At 100A, the car maintains 78mph, compare this to 60 amps at 60mph. My range at 60mph should be 100 miles. At 78mph it looks like my range gets reduced to about 75 miles. I got a $2400 tax credit which covers 10% of the cost of converting the car to electric. My insurance company required me to get an appraisal for my car after I told them I just installed a twelve thousand dollar battery pack. Their appraiser estimated the cars value at $52k! At first I was upset I had to deal with the hassle and expense of an appraisal, but if anything ever happened to the car, the appraisers 45 page report clearly shows why it is worth more than blue book.

Update 2010-02-15 Lithium upgrade complete! I put my first 300 LiFeYPO4 miles on the car this week. Got the car officially weighed, it is 3700 lbs.

Charging Station

I wired in a GFI and timer to take advantage of our $0.03/kWhr electricity rate after midnight. Electricity during peak hours is 9x more expensive! Charging from midnight to 7am brings my cost per mile down to 0.5 cents per mile ( I charge at work for free 50% of the time). Cost to drive 1000 miles in the Electric car = $5 Cost to drive 1000 miles in my Land Rover = $244 (plus oil changes, tune ups, fixing oil leaks...)

Update 2009-12-31 My battery shipment was delayed, all in all it took 3.5 months for them to arrive. Since I had nothing better to do with the car, I made some super awesome battery racks. I added a "Battery Upgrade" link to the left window frame. I also rotated my motor 90 degrees to put the junction box and coolant fittings on the side, this allows the battery rack to sit 2" lower in the car.

Update (car had old lead acid battery pack) 2009-07-31 After 41 days of waiting I finally got my carpool stickers!! It's hard to tell, but I also installed my custom wound rear springs. These springs are designed to support an additional 500lbs, and my car sits perfectly level now.

Update (car had old lead acid battery pack) Offical weight of my Passat (including driver) is 4200 lbs Non-official dyno reading of 83.5hp (running daily driver mode, 95% power) 2009-07-14 Results from this test were within 1% of the average. The average was made up of 10 runs 0-60 in both directions. There are other torque/current profiles I have created which produce higher hp numbers, but 95% current limit has proven reliable, and that is likely what will be used for production. This is horsepower measured at the wheel, which includes drivetrain losses.

EV Parking only 2009-06-01 Solyndra installs six Electric Vehicle Parking stations

Top speed (car has old lead acid battery pack) 2009-05-31 New speed record, 98.6 MPH! The car was still accelerating, it will easily break 100 MPH on flat ground now.

Update 2009-04-28 There is an article about my car in Wired magazine.