Thread: Electric Defender 90

Originally Posted by manic

Some teslas have had the dcdc charger fail. They can run hot, need to be watercooled, and can fail. But this is an example of an overly complicated system where the dcdc can put out as much as 200amps to run all the onboard systems.

Yes, I read in the Tesla Owners Manual that when parked up you need to leave the car plugged in as the onboard electronics will deplete the 12V battery , The car wakes up & charges the 12v battery as it gets low .

The biggest fail on Teslas is the 12V Lead acid battery , Why the hell don't they use Lithium ??

I had a 12V SLA 18Ah Motorbike battery in my conversion & I worried the 50 Amp DC-DC was too much for it as it exceeded the safe Lead Acid charge rate, So replaced it with a Motobatt Lithium , about 1/4 the weight, Much better & it switches itself off if it gets below 11.4V so instead of the immobiliser drawing it down it will turn off to protect itself . The car wont turn on with a flat 12v battery but the traction pack cells will happily sit at 3.2V for years, they don't need a float charge to stay healthy.

Originally Posted by Zeros

Cheers GB, very helpful.

So theoretically battery tech will become much more affordable as the market increases as will electric motors...making converting vehicles to EV with a decent range a financial reality down the track.... Many spend $20k or more on upgrading components / accessorising their 4x4's now anyway.

How much does a new Nissan Leaf engine cost and what battery does that come with? ...would that be a realistic option for a non-tech minded person to have their Defender or Discovery converted EV now? Or would you wait a couple of years?

Think Engine = ICE , Motor = Electric . I doubt you could buy a new Leaf Motor ,
Its cheaper to buy a $5000 Salvage Leaf just to Harvest the Motor & Batteries, basically throw the rest away unless you can hack the controller & CANbus,
The motor can be separated from the east west transmission and has a splined shaft that can be coupled to an existing gearbox or Transfer case .