I'm not sure off hand. I'm the guy who did the video. Tom's the guy who built this car. He's the electrical genius.

I don't think it's a particularly high rev motor. He did do the math, and it worked out to get to highway speeds just fine within specs of the motor.

 I don't think that version of the car came with air conditioning.

The motor is an industrial Baldor brand AC motor. I believe it's a 20 hp.

 Sure you can have air conditioning in an Electric Car!

Just hook up an electric motor to the AC compressor instead of a belt off an engine.

In fact, the EV-1, GM's first electric car, could even heat or cool itself BEFORE you got in it! Pretty neat, hey?!

Another example is the air conditioner on the Prius, which runs off the battery. What other car can you have air conditioning WITHOUT the engine running!?

Keep in mind that energy for air conditioning has to come from somewhere. Since many folks with "home conversions" are using plain old lead-acid batteries, the focus tends to be on conservation of energy to maximize range.

On the new electric car coming out, like the GM Chevy Volt, and the Nissan Leaf, they will have air conditioning to keep you nice and cool!

Going with or without a clutch is personal preference more than anything.

Clutchless is very simple. It works fine. No messing around with careful measurements and figuring out how to attach the flywheel to the electric motor.

I think clutchless is best when it is on a lighter vehicle with a higher voltage. That way, shifting is minimal. In my Metro, I shift very little, using mostly just 2nd and third. Also, that car is used mostly in town, with a 35 MPH speed limit max, so I just don't need to get from 0-65 quickly, such as you do getting on the freeway.

Tom's Dodge Neon is all electric, without a clutch.
He goes through all the gears, but needs a fancy little system to run his AC controller to make everything work right. He's an engineer and loves the challenge, but it's maybe a little complicated for the regular guy.

My friend Brian has converted two pickup trucks to all electric. Both had the clutch, and 24, 6V batteries, which is a LOT of weight. I drove his truck once and was impressed that it drove very similar to my gasoline S10 truck.

To leave the clutch intact, you need to take careful measurements of the original gasoline system, so that the final distance between clutch and flywheel are the same when you put the flywheel on the electric motor.

You will have to figure out exactly HOW you attach the flywheel to the motor.

Sometimes people with use a replacement for the flywheel, or cut the flywheel down on a lathe. You need the surface area of the flywheel to mesh with the clutchplate, but you don't need the weight of the flywheel. The weight helps make a gas engine run smoother. Additional weight on an electric motor just makes it a little harder for the motor to spin.

Additionally, your electric motor needs to have bearings in it that are designed to take the force of clutch pushing against the shaft of the motor.

Hope that helps!

-Ben Nelson

I have heard of guys using "racing clutches" in EV conversions. Supposedly they grip better and can take the extra torque better than a standard clutch.

 The car is going to be using the original industrial motor controller that operated the motor in the first place.

The controller either could operate off AC OR DC, or it was only some simple modification to make it run on DC, I don't remember which.

Still, even on DC, it needs a HIGH VOLTAGE input, so there are a LOT of batteries in the car. That is covered in later videos.

All of the videos on my EV Geo Metro and the ones on Tom's Dodge Neon can be seen on my YouTube account:

There are a number of software programs that allow you to download videos from places such as YouTube. Also, there are a few web pages that let you do the same (for free!) You might want to try a site like
http://keepvid.com/

Also, I am working on an instructional DVD on my Geo Metro, and will probably end up working with Tom to make some long form video about his Neon.

Probably the best place to keep up on these electric car projects is through my YouTube page at:
http://www.youtube.com/user/BenjaminNelson

It's far easier than you think.

Just let off the go pedal, pull the stick out of gear, and gently push it into the next gear. All you need to do is let the motor spin down for just a moment.

On my car, I let somebody test drive it last weekend. It took him about 15 seconds to get the hang of it.

Also, because an electric motor has so much torque, you can just change gears less often. My car can pull away from a dead stop in 4th gear, although that does pull a lot of amps. I can put it in 3rd gear and use it like drive between 0 and 35 mph.

Good idea!

Here's a link to video 2!

http://www.instructables.com/id/Electric_Car_Conversion_101_video_002/