Hybridization of FWD

Hi, I know this is probably going to be a completely crazy idea, but I am really interested in finding out the feasibility of making my S70 hybridized.

My basic idea is to try to attach either 2 seperate electric motors to each of the rear wheels, or add a rear axel and one electric motor. Although unless extremely too dificult or costly i'd prefer the 2 motor method.

To get started with it i would only be pushing the car with the electrics while in neutral for the engine, so as to not have to worry about the electric and gas engines fighting eachother.

As far as power is concerned i was gonna load up my trunk with an array of batteries and put some solar cells on the car to provide free power for short distance city trips.

My main first problem though of course is how would i attach an electric motor to the rear wheel?

My next concern would be how to control 2 entirely different systems? 2 gas pedals or a switch to change between? I'm guessing you're in for quite a project!!

My current idea, since the idea of mechanically switching the lines for the accelerator and a sensor for the electic would be difficult, i thought it might be fun to have a throttle similar to a motorcycle, and if I wanted to have a lot of fun, i could get a friend to help me fabricate my own shifter with the motorcycle style throttle on it

I also like the idea of the hand controlled throttle because it would allow me to do more interesting things later. Like control the electric motors speed independent of the gas. You know for "quick" turns

And, yes I know this is quite a project. But currently i'm more worried about actually trying to strap some motors on the car, and finding motors. To that end, does anyone know how one would attach to the rear wheels. I was trying to find some info on converting a S/V70 to AWD, since that may be helpful for this problem.

interesting... but I would think you would be better off by doing a complete motor swap out of a new hybrid car. Would probably be cheaper too.

Its like I've been saying for awhile, I'd drive a hybrid, but they are all so damn ugly. An S70 hybrid would be awesome looking.

Yeah, probably would be cheaper, but i can't imagine the power drop, as well as the manual transmission drop i'd have to deal with by doing that.

I'm looking at spending probably $4-5k on this. When I first thought it up, i was thinking like $1k, but that's a bit out of the question.

If I can assume an overall milage boost of like 40mpg (25->65) with the $2/gallon rate... so like 80-100k miles later i've paid for it! Then i can start seeing the REAL gas savings....

Hmmm, maybe this whole "saving money" thing doesn't work out as well as I had thought.

I found the motor is should use... now all i need is a new suspension system, a transmission and a fuel cell that'll give me 4,160 Volts

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=42922&item=3817040307&rd=1

If Anyone can find a pair of decent (identical) motors for under $1,000. Let me know. Or if you're local junk yard has any electric/electric hybrids. The search for a motor has been a long painful one... with the most promise being from a motor which would definatly make the car GO, but cost me like $2-3k, not to mention a headache when it comes to power management/batteries.

Electric power

In my area here. There is a guy building an electric power VW Karmann Ghia. You can check them out. He knows how to build stuff affordably. The name of the shop is called Volkstech. They are in Burlington NJ. Don is the guy you want to talk to. Their number is 609-387-3031, iirc. If that isn't correct they are listed in the phone book. Give them a shout, I'm sure Don would be OK with helping you with information. He used some type of affordable heavy duty electric motor. His setup is driving the transaxle and took the place of the stock motor location.

Best regards,

Sounds interesting. I may be interested in using some of what you learn on this project. I'll help out if I can too. For one thing, that electric motor would be much too heavy. I think the best way to do it would be to grab the rear drivetrain from a 70 AWD and install it. You can then mount it such that a single electric motor can go in the trunk to drive the rear wheels. It will be much easier and more reliable to use a single motor than to try to synchronize two. I would also be inclined to work out the electronics and the transmission issues so that the gas and the electric drivetrains work off the same controls. Somebody who knows a little more about electronics than I could figure out how to modify the ignition circuit to function like the other hybrids. IE, electric only during low speed, gas only during cruising, and using the electric motor to assist during braking, also charging the batteries. Another option is to use a small gas engine to charge the batteries, and a big electric motor to drive the car fulltime.

As far the link i posted from ebay for a motor... if you didn't realize, that was a joke... clearly it's way to heavy to make work, not to mention, i'd need a rediculous power supply.

While the idea of using a gas engine to power the electric motor/charge the batteries would more along the lines of what is already available, however it's terribly ineffiecent. I'd be better off with gas engine. Since losses are taken at every energy transfer, there is a lot more loss in that setup.

I think the best effiecency/power comes from having both electric and gas. an example to show this is in this link below. I think this is a great testament to not being able to get away from the gas motor

http://www.jstraubel.com/EVpusher/EVpusher2.htm

I will undoubtably make this run automatically from the cars normal systems eventually (same gas, ignitino switch, etc). But to get started it's more of a convience than a necesity. Though it does make it so that i'll be the one of few able to drive my car

Yeah, I figured the ebay motor was a joke. It'd be great for the quarter mile though! Another thing to keep in mind when looking at electric motors is the torque. A torque limiter, or clutch or gear reduction of some sort might be needed to keep from twisting axles off.

Who's got an 850 or 70 AWD they want to take pictures of for me? I'd like to see how the rear end is setup.