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Citroen Ami E hackable you bet it is
robint:
Yes guys there is another Topic on here but I want to utterly dissociate myself with the low grade response therein. Pls get serious. We are dealing with a seminal mode of Urban transport and no one yet seems to have spotted it as a Londoner would when you live within Ulez. I am a lifelong professional engineering designer and have always been fascinated by some of the eminently successful products that comprised of elegant simplicity. Unlike coworkers in this sphere who spend their live prostituting designs for built in obsolescence (eg inkjet cartridges crippled so they cant be refilled, AGM batteries designed to fail after a couple 100 cycles etc).
So I refer to the original classic french farmers family car designed to cross a ploughed field without breaking an egg. Just examine closely the ingenuity of its design features and how it was an astounding success for its duty for over 40 years Between 1948 and 1990, more than 3.8 million 2CVs were produced, making it the world's first front-wheel drive car to become a million seller after Citroën's own earlier model.
Now Je vous propose, that the Ami E is the new EV evangelist
Joke about the lack of modern auto amenities as you will, but EV,s in London are a nightmare to charge up.
So take our loveable bug and make the batteries/ trolley mounted, so they can be simply exchanged in 5 mins at your nearest provider and you are on your way for 40miles (will you do that around London). Also you could wheel your battery pack indoors for recharging overnight, or keep a spare set on hand.
Well thats my prospectus - you may all now pooh pooh on me from a dizzy height - let battle commence :box:
tom66:
I've driven an EV in London and not found the charging particularly difficult? It's much more of a problem in other cities but London has thousands of lamppost chargers and provided you've set up the app on your phone beforehand, it only takes a minute to start charging. Rapid chargers are also common - e.g. Shell has this thing in Fulham which replaced an existing petrol station with chargers.
The problem as always with easily removable battery packs is going to be security, safety and cooling. EV batteries are usually cooled during charging, so you'll probably need to hook a coolant circuit up to your battery whilst charging it indoors. They're pretty heavy (maybe not in the Ami but any reasonably-sized car you're talking 200kg easily). And they cost a lot to replace, so you don't want to make it easy for them to be nicked.
I don't see why the petrol station & lamppost charging (and on-drive charging for those with a driveway) isn't good enough; introducing exchangeable batteries does not solve enough problems to make up for its complexity.
mikeselectricstuff:
Any useful sized battery for a car is going to be too heavy to be practical to remove.
Cooling isn't an issue at home charging levels, but does complicate any removable battery concept.
tom66:
--- Quote from: mikeselectricstuff on February 22, 2024, 08:08:24 pm ---Any useful sized battery for a car is going to be too heavy to be practical to remove.
Cooling isn't an issue at home charging levels, but does complicate any removable battery concept.
--- End quote ---
My ID.3 runs the cooling pumps when charging at 7kW. I can see pretty easily on the thermal camera that the radiator is warm. (Poor quality - because I took the picture with my phone. This thermal camera didn't have an SD card slot.)
Presumably VW think there is some need to cool the charger and/or the battery. An external 7kW charger is either going to be very loud with air cooling or will need liquid cooling and a large-ish radiator.
robint:
--- Quote from: mikeselectricstuff on February 22, 2024, 08:08:24 pm ---Any useful sized battery for a car is going to be too heavy to be practical to remove.
Cooling isn't an issue at home charging levels, but does complicate any removable battery concept.
--- End quote ---
I did some homework before posting my OP, batteries are ca 11kg ea 2 off
they can be charged at 3kW from a domestic socket ca 3 hrs
there is no battery cooling , its only 5kWh storage and 8hp max output, not like a ^&*(&^( dick drive EV with 1000hp on tap). Have you noticed how the industry has lost the plot here?
Which is why I made this post
Average traffic speed in London is 11mph.
The gluttonous Uber Hype we are subjected to everyday wasnt around when the original 2CV was born (nor the VW not to neglect another supremely successful design). But the I owned a 1935 Austin Ruby, weighed 500kg 7hp, 40mpg, 40mph brilliant little car https://classicsworld.co.uk/cars/road-test-1937-austin-seven-ruby/. My recent car was a Toyota Aygo, also 40mpg (70mph on motorway but we are Urban drivers here - compare the two as people carriers?
We are looking at a 2 person urban carrier. The Twizzy failed cos of lack of weather protection (like sitting on a motobike) and also you had a monthly rental charge for the battery. We now know that an Ami battery will likely outlast the car with Urban use.
Batteries on a caddy system, whats not to like.
OBTW over the pond some buddies have already hacked the Amie (with some local agent connivance), doubled battery size and system volts and get a respectable 40mph and 60 miles range. We dont allow that here cos the vehicle is classed as a quad bike and bypasses all the type approval stuff. It was never meant to go fast neither was a golf cart - but that performs a very useful service in its category.
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