BigMouse wrote: It's a bit hard to see, but it looks like there are 4 terminals on the motor. Normally, two of those would go to the brushes (and armature) and the other two would go to the field. This means you could wire it up as either series or shunt (or switchable, or sepex with the right controller).
Regarding range:
Your pack is 90*48 = 4320 w.Hr
30 miles is 48 km,
So if you got the full capacity out of your batteries (100% depth of discharge and neglecting the peukert effect), you'd be getting 4320/48 = 90w.Hr/km, which is probably pretty close. I'd expect something closer to 110 for a small, light car with that battery pack and non-EV components.
At 110 w.Hr/km, you'd use 110*20 = 2200 w.Hr of energy. With your pack, this should be feasible after peukert effect and a reasonable depth of discharge. You'd even have some buffer left over (for a year or two at least).
Yes there are 4 terminals. So it's just a matter of how it's wired up as to what motor it's classified as? That's good news, means I can get this controller and then the batteries.
Thanks for the equations, this electrical speak is starting to make a lot more sense to me now. So you're saying we'd probably be OK for 20km range? Which is excellent. I guess it's just an issue of the speed that the car will reasonably travel at as to whether it'll get me there and back without serious honking from other drivers.
We've decided to go with the 48v configuration Richo to try to prove an EV can be converted on a serious budget (it seems as though you are pushing us to go with more power straight off the bat

)and get it on the road. If it proves viable for commuting to work and back, great! If not, we'll add more voltage later and you're more than welcome to say 'I told you so'
Could be wrong about this, I don't want to make too many assumptions! Haha!
That said, you do seem to be something of an authority on this stuff, so in your honest opinion, do you think deep cycle will do the job for our modest needs? If not, what batteries/suppliers do you recommend?
ALSO I will switch back to the build thread after this, it seems all questions are answered everywhere on the forum, which is awesome! I am looking forward to having finished the conversion so I can help other people out. Definitely very appreciative of all the help we get on here!