Assembling a team to develop an EV platform in Brisbane

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A_Ram
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Assembling a team to develop an EV platform in Brisbane

Post by A_Ram »

Hi everyone,
I'm a huge fan of electric vehicles and I want to develop an Australian EV. (Like build everything in house, made in Australia style from xx% Australian components) I know it is possible. I also know what it would cost and how to start. I take a Croatian company Rimac as an example. They started as a small team of enthusiasts in a garage working in their free time and now they sell their technology to big players, and they even built their own super car.

I already designed the heart. It is 100kW nominal 160kW peak PM electric motor which was designed taking some ideas from a Nissan Leaf motor, some from books, across the internet, and properly calculated using Siemens electric motor software. I realize that my goal is too big for one person, so I'm looking for enthusiasts who knows how electric motors works, how cars are built, maybe who can draw some vehicles sketches, and maybe who has a workshop. No negativity please. I know that for some people this idea can be too wild. It's also not paid. I also doing everything after work at my free time.

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And a little bit about me. I'm a hydraulic engineer who fork for a construction company in Brisbane. I'm an immigrant from Russia, and came to Australia not so long ago. I spent some time in Austria, Germany and USA because of my work. I closely monitored European and USA progress on EVs, and I was surprised that nobody is doing the same in Australia. Hey, they even have electric buses in Russia, Moscow (literally at service) and autopilot electric vehicles in the development. There are tons of EV startups in Europe. So I thought that since I know how everything works I should make a difference in Australia.

My current progress is the motor is designed. Magnets will be from China N42SH, Rotor and stator cores are laminated silicon iron non grain oriented sheets from Japan (Still hope that there is an Australian production at least low grade... can adjust some things to avoid eddy currents). Liquid cooled with copper refrig tubes inside the case and outside. Case is aluminium (preferably recycled) designed it that it will be easier to cast. I'm currently working on a controller, and learning some stuff about it. The market that I think I would go for is utility vehicles. But it will be an EV conversion first to test all the components.

If there are people already working on something like this, I'm ready to join. If not, join me.
Cheers!
Last edited by A_Ram on Wed, 05 Dec 2018, 04:57, edited 1 time in total.
Rusdy
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Re: Assembling a team to develop an EV platform in Brisbane

Post by Rusdy »

You make me wonder what's going on with those in Evans Motor team. I was so bloody certain back then (maybe as far as early 2010-ish?) that these guys will take over the world. 8-)
francisco.shi
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Re: Assembling a team to develop an EV platform in Brisbane

Post by francisco.shi »

I am working on a similar project but I am not building the motors from scratch. The biggest problem making the motors is that it is very difficult to make them for the right price. For example you can buy a 3ph 3kw induction motor from China for under $200 but you couldn't make just the stator for that price.
So I think you are better off buying the motors and in the worse case just rewind them to suit your requirements. As for the case it is better to make it out of extruded aluminium and push the stator in. The extrusion would have the water cooling passages.
I am trying to build a kit that can be easily used for ev conversions.
You can see what I have been doing here:
https://forums.aeva.asn.au/viewtopic.ph ... 706#p70706
The battery design is on the same level as a Tesla battery pack. I just haven't been able to get thermal data on a Tesla pack but as far as energy density is the same even I am using lower energy density cells.
If you want to have a look let me know.
A_Ram
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Re: Assembling a team to develop an EV platform in Brisbane

Post by A_Ram »

Wow, it's nice project you are doing, and I sure would like to have a look and to chat!
As for a motor. Yes I know that it would be cheaper to buy it straight from China. But I want to try and build it in Australia. I want to develop a very well balanced and calculated platform with a controller at the back of the motor and differential assembly attached to the front motor plate. If something is super expensive I can change the design. For instance, stator laminated sheets can be expensive, but I can always opt for a cheaper transformer sheets. Transformer sheets can heat up easier due to eddy currents but then I know how to reduce it. The trick that I saw in BMW i3 motor. They divided this stator core profile at small peaces. Have a look:
Image

There are even crazier solutions. I've seen ironless composite high performance stator motors https://www.thingap.com/ironless-composite-stator/
However, I have no idea how to calculate them :D
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