Atv electric conversion

Old Spot

Member
Location
Glos
Hi all I have a 2wd Honda 300 (1995).
been a brilliant quad for what I need.
the engine uses more oil than fuel.
so I am thinking of converting it to electric.
has anyone done this? It looks fairly simple with one of the kits.
we have a flat farm, I use the quad for electric fencing/ stock checking/slug pelleting and a mode of transport.
any advice/info,
are there any threads running that I haven’t found
 

sjt01

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
North Norfolk
For inspiration and a bit of fun, follow Rich Rebuilds with his Cyberquad


or for a bit more sense there are multiple kits on ebay and the likes. Here is one from Ali Express
1633446705602.png
 

Oldmacdonald

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Scotland
Hi all I have a 2wd Honda 300 (1995).
been a brilliant quad for what I need.
the engine uses more oil than fuel.
so I am thinking of converting it to electric.
has anyone done this? It looks fairly simple with one of the kits.
we have a flat farm, I use the quad for electric fencing/ stock checking/slug pelleting and a mode of transport.
any advice/info,
are there any threads running that I haven’t found

What kits have you found?

I'd half wondered about using old nissan leaf battery packs.
 
Hi all I have a 2wd Honda 300 (1995).
been a brilliant quad for what I need.
the engine uses more oil than fuel.
so I am thinking of converting it to electric.
has anyone done this? It looks fairly simple with one of the kits.
we have a flat farm, I use the quad for electric fencing/ stock checking/slug pelleting and a mode of transport.
any advice/info,
are there any threads running that I haven’t found
I've given it quite a bit of thought as a farmer's son who happens to be an electrical engineer. There's lots of online forums for DIY EV conversions that might be a good starting point for your research.

You can also buy kits with motor, motor drive, and twisty hand throttle all set up for you. All you need to do is add your batteries, which are normally somewhere from 48V to 96V. Easiest way to do that is with series-connected 12V lead acid batteries, but they're obviously heavy. Nevertheless, there's a company that sells bikes done that way - Ecocharger I think? Lithium Ion would be the real way to go but it's more expensive and, unless you use 12V modules, it's almost certainly beyond the realms of the DIYer to build the required battery management system. At least with 12V lead acid, you can charge the batteries individually with ordinary battery chargers.

As for power level, I think you'd be looking around the 15kW level for something remotely useful. Something like this might give you food for thought: https://www.electricmotorsport.com/...-liquid-cooled-motor-drive-system-72-96v.html
 
I take it with elec motor you remove the whole engine gearbox etc and just chain drive to rear axle? How many 12v batteries @TechWise for a sensible power/range
You certainly don't need a clutch with the electric motor as it's happy to pull away from zero RPM. You don't need a gearbox either so long as you set a good gear/chain ratio that matches the speed range of the motor with the speed range you want for the bike. Not unlike how you can mess around with the sprocket ratio on petrol bikes with a centrifugal clutch. If you're working on something with four wheel drive, it gets a bit more interesting. You either keep the transfer box and centre diff in place to deal with 4wd or you remove that too and have a drive motor for each wheel, which is quite complex.

In terms of battery voltage, something from 48 to 96 V seems to be the standard with most off-the-shelf kits like the one I linked to in post #5, so that's between 4 and 8 12V batteries in series. Power is volts multiplied by amps, and the motor/motor controller combo you buy will generally state its maximum current. The one I linked in post #5 says 220A continuous, 660A peak. Multiply that by 96V and that gives you 21kW continuous, 63kW peak. That's 28hp continuous, 84hp peak, which is much more than you probably need for a quad! In fact, 84hp peak of instant electric torque would probably turn a quad bike into a terrifying instrument of death. A smaller kit would probably do the job.

The battery capacity - that's a bit more tricky. It's very hard to try and put a figure on how litres of petrol translates to kWh of electrical energy when you consider the huge range of driving conditions. The first Ecocharger quad offered 7.2kWh of battery capacity and their new lithium ion one seems to offer 11kWh of storage. The Polaris Ranger reportedly has around 15kWh. My electric Vauxhall Corsa offers 50kWh which translates to 150 miles of average driving, but then that's a car which is much heavier but maybe driven more economically than an ATV. I think I'd be aiming around that 15kWh mark to be a serious competitor with petrol, which means 8 12V batteries at 150Ah nominal rating. However, the batteries won't achieve their full rating in practice or over their lifetime, but that's a story for another day! You also need "leisure" or "caravan" type batteries which can stand the deep charge/discharge cycles.
 
You certainly don't need a clutch with the electric motor as it's happy to pull away from zero RPM. You don't need a gearbox either so long as you set a good gear/chain ratio that matches the speed range of the motor with the speed range you want for the bike. Not unlike how you can mess around with the sprocket ratio on petrol bikes with a centrifugal clutch. If you're working on something with four wheel drive, it gets a bit more interesting. You either keep the transfer box and centre diff in place to deal with 4wd or you remove that too and have a drive motor for each wheel, which is quite complex.

In terms of battery voltage, something from 48 to 96 V seems to be the standard with most off-the-shelf kits like the one I linked to in post #5, so that's between 4 and 8 12V batteries in series. Power is volts multiplied by amps, and the motor/motor controller combo you buy will generally state its maximum current. The one I linked in post #5 says 220A continuous, 660A peak. Multiply that by 96V and that gives you 21kW continuous, 63kW peak. That's 28hp continuous, 84hp peak, which is much more than you probably need for a quad! In fact, 84hp peak of instant electric torque would probably turn a quad bike into a terrifying instrument of death. A smaller kit would probably do the job.

The battery capacity - that's a bit more tricky. It's very hard to try and put a figure on how litres of petrol translates to kWh of electrical energy when you consider the huge range of driving conditions. The first Ecocharger quad offered 7.2kWh of battery capacity and their new lithium ion one seems to offer 11kWh of storage. The Polaris Ranger reportedly has around 15kWh. My electric Vauxhall Corsa offers 50kWh which translates to 150 miles of average driving, but then that's a car which is much heavier but maybe driven more economically than an ATV. I think I'd be aiming around that 15kWh mark to be a serious competitor with petrol, which means 8 12V batteries at 150Ah nominal rating. However, the batteries won't achieve their full rating in practice or over their lifetime, but that's a story for another day! You also need "leisure" or "caravan" type batteries which can stand the deep charge/discharge cycles.
Very informative reply thanks
 

Old Spot

Member
Location
Glos
Ok so rough envelope calculations about 3k plus to properly convert my quad.
it’s an interesting calculation, the main one being not fetching cans of petrol from the garage up the road.
im not saying never but at the moment maybe better to rebuild the engine.
I am sure sometime in the future it will be more common place.
motor £850, converter/controller £700, charger £100, battery £1200, plus grips and couplers.
 
Ok so rough envelope calculations about 3k plus to properly convert my quad.
it’s an interesting calculation, the main one being not fetching cans of petrol from the garage up the road.
im not saying never but at the moment maybe better to rebuild the engine.
I am sure sometime in the future it will be more common place.
motor £850, converter/controller £700, charger £100, battery £1200, plus grips and couplers.
Yes, I'd say you're not far out with that. For occassional use, the sums don't yet stack up. For us at lambing time, we're easily burning a jerry can of petrol a day, possibly two, plus the hassle of going and filling them, so the sums add up better. I just haven't yet found the time or money to do it.

The engineer in me wants to over complicate the job and go for a lithium ion battery pack with a 15kW three-phase charger that could charge it from flat to full in an hour.
 

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