Electric Crate Motors

An local off road guru I know of is wrapping up an electric 4x4 buggy build. Just watched a video of it driving in his yard. It’s cool as F
 
Video of the video but you get the point.
Does something like this have or need a transmission or a 2 speed transfer case? In my first post, the linked article mentions bolting the motor up to a manual transmission, but not an automatic. I don't understand why a transmission is needed.
 
Does something like this have or need a transmission or a 2 speed transfer case? In my first post, the linked article mentions bolting the motor up to a manual transmission, but not an automatic. I don't understand why a transmission is needed.

I have no idea honestly. I’ll ask him for some more details.
 
I have no idea honestly. I’ll ask him for some more details.

Tesla doesn't. Though there seems to be a single gear reduction at the motor.

I ask because of weight. I'm wondering what the weight difference would be if we could somehow put a Tesla battery and motor into a TJ today.

The Model S battery is 1200lbs. The motor is 70lbs. Let's make a wild guess that everything including the wiring, coolers, computer and controller stuff is 1700lbs.

515lbs Jeep 4.0
12lbs motor oil
130lbs NV3550
114lbs 19 gallons gas
20lb gas tank
15lb radiator
22lbs coolant
10lbs wiring
40lbs exhaust
10lbs emissions
50lbs battery
===
938lbs of ICE stuff that gets removed.

What else is there that we can get rid of?
 
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Fyi... Electric powered jeeps have been around for awhile.

W0028_1_large.jpg
 
Tesla doesn't. Though there seems to be a single gear reduction at the motor.

I ask because of weight. I'm wondering what the weight difference would be if we could somehow put a Tesla battery and motor into a TJ today.

The Model S battery is 1200lbs. The motor is 70lbs. Let's make a wild guess that everything including the wiring, coolers and computer stuff is 1700lbs.

515lbs Jeep 4.0
12lbs motor oil
130lbs NV3550
114lbs 19 gallons gas
20lb gas tank
15lb radiator
22lbs coolant
10lbs wiring
===
838lbs of ICE stuff that gets removed.

What else is there that we can get rid of?
Looks like he is running an auto and dana 300 looking transfer case. I need to do some more homework on the different electric vehicles to understand how they work better. Here's a picture from his build.

FB_IMG_1571370338500.jpg
 
Looks like he is running an auto and dana 300 looking transfer case. I need to do some more homework on the different electric vehicles to understand how they work better. Here's a picture from his build.

View attachment 120532

The transfer case I get, at least the 2/4 part of it. I don't understand what the transmission is for.
 
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The transfer case I get, at least the 2/4 part of it. I don't understand what the transmission is for.

I really don't know unless it's there to take some of the load off of the transfer case? Or it's the only was for DIY guys to adapt an electric motor to drive train at the moment?
 
My TJ should be about 4100lbs right now. Then we subtract the 938lbs of ICE stuff listed above and add back in the guestimated 1700lbs of Tesla parts. That leaves me with a 4862lb electric TJ.

A Tesla Model S weighs 4647lbs. 215lbs lighter than my electric TJ.
 
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I don't know about distance, but you can get the smaller fork truck batteries that weight about ~400 pounds. That would keep you right around the 4100 mark.
 
One major shift that needs to happen is hot swapping batteries. It’s ridiculous to expect that someone waits at a supercharger for a few hours vs a pump for 5-10mins.

Hot swapping fits into the packaging problem. A ground up design can have an easily accessible standardized battery pack or two to change out. I can see an electric conversion being difficult to include this feature where multiple small batteries might be scattered throughout the body. Though, the more energy dense and compact these batteries become, the easier that problem becomes to solve.

Looking at the gas tank area and for the purposes of convenient swaps, wouldn't it be great to put a big battery there?
 
I saw an electric TJ a few years ago. They just had a bunch of car batteries daisy chained under the hood and a secondary set behind the front seats in the cargo area.

I'll never be comfortable wheeling something electric. I've driven a Tesla a couple of times and I'd definitely drive electric cars on the road. Off-road seems to pose too many problems to be worth the trouble.

Wonder if that buggy has a "tuned down" electric motor. I couldn't imagine trying to deal with "0-rpm" max torque off-road. Seems like a recipe to snap a whole lot of driveline components.
 
...

Wonder if that buggy has a "tuned down" electric motor. I couldn't imagine trying to deal with "0-rpm" max torque off-road. Seems like a recipe to snap a whole lot of driveline components.

One of many things I wish I understood better. Wouldn't something like a torque converter be beneficial? And even moreso for an off-road e vehicle?

Regarding range, charging and infrastructure, that is something I am ignoring for now. I trust that things like that will sort themselves out as the vehicle itself becomes increasingly viable.
 
One of many things I wish I understood better. Wouldn't something like a torque converter be beneficial? And even moreso for an off-road e vehicle?

Regarding range, charging and infrastructure, that is something I am ignoring for now. I trust that things like that will sort themselves out as the vehicle itself becomes increasingly viable.

I would want some type of "driveline shock absorber" to protect me from snapping everything if my tire gets jammed up (especially with a clutch). I don't know much about how electric cars do this since the motors are pretty much directly attached to the wheels. Tesla definitely has some software trickery going on whenever you hit the gas pedal. It isn't like you have a throttle cable in a TJ. I bet the software on electric cars takes care of all of that.

With something like a manual hooked up to an electric motor and then through a transfer case, I think that would definitely take some getting used to and a lot of trial and error.