There was a number of buzz about GM doing this final yr, however I learn that the motor they had been utilizing was from the small “Bolt” EV, so it didn’t sound that fascinating. Nicely now, I not too long ago came upon that their new equipment permits builders to make use of this well-designed motor at 800V as a substitute of the Bolt’s 400V, so that may be a vital enhance in energy. Additionally, Ford not too long ago introduced that they’re making a builders conversion equipment with nice specs, so…let’s have a look…
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Ford
First, I’d prefer to cowl a few of the electrical autos that Ford and Chevy are utilizing because it pertains to the electrical motors they’re utilizing, so you’ll perceive which autos to match their kits to.
Numerous Ford followers obtained irritated when Ford unveiled an electrical SUV, and dared to make use of the honored “Mustang” identify on it. The Mustang Mach-E 4-door SUV is out there in a RWD, AWD, and a higher-powered GT AWD mannequin.
Within the pic above, the motor on the left is the rear motor on the base-model Mach-E, with the smaller motor on the suitable driving the entrance of the AWD model. The Grand Tourismo / “GT” model of the Mach-E will get two of the bigger motors proven on the left. In case you order Fords “crate engine” (see under) you’ll get the motor on the left inside a mountable housing, with a present record worth of $4100 (doesn’t embody controller or battery).
When mated to an acceptable controller, and fed roughly 400V, the Ford equipment ought to return the efficiency of the inventory base-model RWD Mustang Mach-E.
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The Ford “Mach-E 1400”
It is a PR halo construct, solely meant to shine the picture of the Ford efficiency division. It’s deliberate to be proven at road-race programs, and likewise at NASCAR in 2022.
It’s a formidable technological train, however I don’t anticipate them promoting these to the general public. The Mach-E 1400 makes use of seven YASA motors to supply AWD.
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YASA MOTORS
Yokeless And Segmented Armature / YASA
The Oxford YASA firm is doing fairly properly. They designed a skinny pancake motor that’s stackable, so it’s simply configurable to a wide range of purposes, moderately than carrying a half-dozen sizes of motor. They had been chosen to be the power-plant for the Ford Mach-E 1400, which makes use of SEVEN of the YASA motors to supply at the least 1400-HP.
This motor is liquid-cooled, and it’s a 3-phase axial-flux, with one central stator and two outboard permanent-magnet rotors.
The central shaft tunnel is longitudinal, and it’s pancake form makes it compact when it’s driving a entrance wheel drive module. The Mach-E 1400 is AWD so it has one other drive unit within the rear. The Mach-E 1400 splits up the seven YASA motors with 4 within the rear, and three in entrance.
Vehicles are usually not the one software for these. In 2021, Evolito additionally selected YASA motors to energy a flying air-taxi that they’re growing. They use them in 2-motor modules, which energy two contra-rotating propellers on 4 spars, producing carry with eight motors, which supplies vital redundancy. For a look at these, click here.
Yasa motors have additionally been utilized in different efficiency purposes up to now, most notably the three YASA motor within the hybrid Koenigsegg Regera super-car. For a look at these, click here.
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Ford Cobra Jet 1400
This bundle won’t ever be offered to the general public in a equipment, however I discovered it fascinating so as to add. It makes use of 4 in-line BorgWarner HVH250-115 motors mounted longitudinally (two are seen within the engine compartment), 4 inverters within the engine compartment, and a 3-speed automated transmission coupled to a really typical Ford 9-inch differential, which is kind of in style within the drag-racing world.
These motor-inverter packages are being run at 800V and utilizing as much as 700 amps, with most output of 350-kW per motor, whereas spinning at as much as 10,000-RPM’s. Ford collaborated with Cascadia Movement to create the CJ-1400’s RWD drivetrain. Ford is claiming1502-HP on the wheels from the automobile, and it achieved a finest ET of 8.27 seconds at 168mph within the 1/4-mile. The automobile is rumored to weigh roughly 5000-lb.
NHRA Humorous Automobile driver Bob Tasca III was behind the wheel of the CJ-1400 when it posted an 8.27 second 1/4 mile time…he’s the grandson of famed Rhode Island Ford seller Bob Tasca Sr; the very man accountable for the creation of the unique Ford Mustang Cobra Jet. Again in 1967, Tasca was not impressed with the efficiency supplied by the inventory 390-ci Mustangs, so he offered customers a special-order 428-powered conversion.
“My grandfather invented the Cobra Jet again in 1968,” wrote Tasca III. The electrical Cobra Jet accelerates like a slingshot. It pulls so laborious I didn’t wish to pull the ’chutes. I simply needed to maintain going”
The Ford Mustang Cobra Jet 1400 drivetrain was designed and assembled by Cascadia Movement.
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Cascadia Movement
International auto-parts provide conglomerate BorgWarner has progressively acquired a portfolio of electrical powertrain companies together with Indiana’s Remy in 2015 for $950 million and the UK’s Sevcon in 2017 for $200 million. Then in 2019 additionally they acquired Reinhart Movement Techniques together with AM Racing, each being primarily based in Oregon.
BorgWarner fashioned Cascadia Movement LLC to accumulate these belongings and merge their complimentary operations beneath one company roof. Cascadia Movement is positioning itself to be a significant participant in EV and hybrid drive system improvement within the US.
BorgWarner calls these motors the “Excessive Voltage Hairpin” HVH sequence. The diameter of the rotor may be 250mm, 350mm, or 410mm for his or her massive hybrid bus unit. Additionally they may be had in varied lengths, which is the 115mm quantity within the identify.
The hairpin identify refers back to the lengthy and skinny “U” form of the copper runs, which have an oblong cross-section (as a substitute of frequent spherical wire) to supply glorious “copper fill” within the out there stator-coil air-space. After insertion into the stator, the unfastened ends are linked in a sample to type the loops of copper. This methodology is used as a result of it simplifies the fast motor meeting by industrial robots.
This household of motors are particularly designed to work properly with both a permanent-magnet rotor, or an AC induction rotor, relying on the appliance.
The 800V battery pack is produced from 4 200V modules in sequence from XALT Vitality, a division of Freudenberg Sealing Applied sciences in Midland, Michigan.
“Half No. M-9000-MACH-E, the e-crate motor is now out there at approved Ford elements warehouse sellers or on-line at Ford Efficiency Components. Retailing at $4,100, it’s focused for builders in search of a transverse-oriented powertrain to impress a spread of autos from fashionable to classic automobiles, vans and SUVs. Every Eluminator e-crate motor produces 281 horsepower and 317 lb-ft. of torque (when utilizing 400V), and is street-legal in all 50 states.”
The motor spins at a most of 13,800 rpm and comes with a gear ratio of 9.05:1. It weighs 205 lbs (93 kg) and it’s roughly 370 mm (14.6 in) tall and 345 mm (13.6 in) large. The meeting is 570 mm (22.4 in) lengthy. The inverter and battery are usually not included.
Superior Engine Administration/AEM was acquired by Holley, a long-term accomplice with Ford, and AEM programmed a VCU-200 controller to work with the Eluminator bundle.
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Normal Motors
Previously, Chevy has supplied particular order choices packages, to save lots of sellers the difficulty of needing to select and select from a whole bunch of choices when speaking to clients who needed larger efficiency. Essentially the most well-known might be the 1967 “Z28” Camaro (raced by Penske-Sunoco), which was the homologation bundle that Chevy needed to promote a sure minimal variety of them to the general public, to be able to race it as a “inventory” Camaro on the Trans-Am circuit.
Successful races usually supplied free promoting. However…previous to the Z28, for a wide range of causes, Normal Motors determined to cease all “official” manufacturing facility help for NASCAR, Trans-Am, and drag racing in 1962.
Nonetheless, there have been nonetheless Chevy sellers who preferred to race their product. A Pennsylvania seller named Don Yenko used GM’s ” Central Workplace Manufacturing Order” system (COPO) to begin ordering 1969 Camaros with choices that made it a street-legal drag racer. The uncommon “ZL1” packaged Chevys are actually price fairly a bit. I solely point out these historic tidbits to clarify the place the “COPO” identify got here from, since GM selected to call their new electrical PR mule an “eCOPO”
This previous February 2021, McCue & Lane took the eCOPO electrical Camaro to Pomona, California, for the 2019 NHRA Winternationals, and achieved a run of 9.83 sec
The eCOPO’s twin-motor module generates 760-HP and a formidable 651 lb-ft of torque. The battery pack consists of 4 modules which are situated beneath the rear seats and within the trunk, which supplies the eCOPO Camaro an approximate 56 % rear-weight bias
Chevrolet has introduced they are going to be offering an electrical crate motor to the general public, though it presents much less energy and torque than Fords equipment. GM’s electrical “Join and Cruise” eCrate is sourced from the Chevrolet Bolt and makes 200-horsepower and 266 lb-ft (360 Nm), with a 60-kWh battery pack. That’s fairly snappy in a lightweight Chevy Bolt, however with any bigger heavier car, you’ll want to attach this to a inventory transmission, and…the excellent news is that the eCrate makes use of the mating interface of the trendy in style “LS” household of engines and transmissions.
The equipment comes with an inverter to energy the drive-motor, a DC-to-DC converter to energy the 12V-systems, as properly wiring harnesses and pumps for the battery heating and cooling. The 800V battery pack for the Chevy eCOPO is produced from 4 200V modules in sequence from XALT Vitality, similar to the Ford above it.
To see a closeup of the Chevy Bolt motor internals within the video under, quick ahead to the 49:00 mark to see the rotor, after which the stator is proven simply after that.
To showcase their eCrate equipment, GM transformed a 1962 Chevy C-10 pickup truck to electrical (the “E-10”), and likewise a 1977 K5 4WD Blazer.
The brand new K5 Blazer-E retains as a lot of the inventory Blazer as doable, and about 90% of the brand new elements put in for the eCrate bundle are manufacturing facility elements which are re-purposed from the Chevrolet Bolt
Vitality for the eCrate equipment is provided by a inventory 400V, 60-kWh Bolt battery pack. Through the use of manufacturing controllers and wiring harnesses, it preserves many Bolt EV options, together with electrical-shock safety, battery heating and cooling, battery-overcharge safety, and regenerative braking.
These motors will work at 800V, however GM is not going to provide a controller for that, so that you’d be by yourself…
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Electrical GT
Southern California-based “Electrical GT” has developed a number of sizes of conversion equipment, and they’re at present most well-known for his or her EV conversions of V8 classic automobiles. The pic under reveals certainly one of their smaller kits that they used to interchange a 4-cylinder engine in a classic Fiat 124 sports activities automobile.
Their costs appear a bit excessive to me, however…they will promote you a equipment to put in your self, or they will do a turn-key set up in your automobile. For more info click here.
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EV West
This firm is situated in San Marcos, simply north of San Diego, California. They had been one of many early adopters of EV conversions.
EV West has been doing conversions of many classic automobiles utilizing the rear-wheel-drive motor of a Tesla Mannequin-S P85. It’s a liquid-cooled induction radial-flux inrunner, rated at 310 kW / 415-HP (additionally they have kits utilizing varied different motors). The inventory configuration in a Tesla mounts the motor and inverter pack transversely, and this explicit equipment (that’s proven above) re-configures it with their {custom} adapters right into a longitudinal mounting to permit a simple conversion to classic RWD automobiles.
Tesla doesn’t promote their motors and inverters to the general public, so EV West harvests them from automobile wrecks. For a pic of the original traversely oriented configuration, click here.
For extra details about utilizing EV West for changing a automobile to electrical, you can contact EV West by clicking here.
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Swindon Powertrain
The Swind firm is within the UK, simply west of London. They not too long ago started offering an electrical conversion equipment for the Austin Mini, utilizing their HPD-80 unit, and the identify means “Excessive Energy Density, 80-kW” (107-HP). The drive unit seems prefer it may very well be simply tailored to fairly just a few small entrance wheel drive automobiles.
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Ford “Eluminator” equipment
These “would possibly” be out there now, however you’ll need to hold checking to see. It’s part number M-9000-MACHE
The module makes use of the BorgWarner HVH250-115 motor in a self-contained module that has an built-in oil-pump, which makes use of a skinny oil for immersion motor-cooling, and shedding the motors warmth by the aluminum housing and likewise by two ports to hook up with an exterior radiator (proven on the high/proper of the pic above).
The Eluminator identify comes from the “Inventory Eliminator” class of drag racing. The automobiles in Inventory Eliminator are restricted to utilizing 9-inch large slicks, and varied different restrictions as to what the proprietor can modify on a manufacturing facility engine, whereas sustaining the automobile in a barely street-legal configuration.
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Normal Motors
The GM “Join and Cruise” program is generally fashionable gasoline engines and transmissions designed in kits that may be swapped into classic autos. They do have a small one-page part devoted to their “eCrate” which makes use of a single Bolt motor and controller.
That won’t sound very highly effective, however it’s at present designed to mate to an present transmission, so the street efficiency ought to be close to inventory for a mean 6-cylinder. Essentially the most strong frequent automated transmissions use 3-speeds, and because of the frequent interface, the builder can in fact use a inventory clutch and handbook transmission with 3, 4 or 5 speeds.
The small Chevy Bolt is taken into account an “economic system” EV, however it does have peppy acceleration at 400V with just one gear. Utilizing a inventory 3-speed transmission in a classic automobile conversion ought to present common V6 efficiency. For a comparability, the beautiful efficiency of the eCOPO Camaro was achieved with two Bolt motors at 800V, so…
I haven’t discovered any pics but of the GM eCrate, however once I do, I’ll publish it right here. It is going to seemingly look similar to the Bolt motor module within the “Deep Dive” dis-assembly video proven a pair pages up. For more information on the eCrate, click here.
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My Conclusions
In case you assume the Ford and Chevy motor numbers within the article above appeared like they may be related, return and examine once more. You’re proper, they’re each the identical BorgWarner HVH250-115 motor inside their respective housings. It may appear uncommon for 2 such opponents to make use of the identical elements, however…your tax {dollars} had been used to develop an ideal motor for everybody to make use of.
“… In Might 2010, the U.S. Division of Vitality finalized a $60.2 million American Restoration and Reinvestment Act grant for Indiana-based Remy to develop its HVH electrical motor expertise. This design can be utilized with both a everlasting magnet rotor or AC-induction rotor…”
This was earlier than Remy was purchased by BorgWarner in 2015, so the analysis and patents can be found for use by a wide range of American firms.
The Ford Cobra Jet 1400 was a hair quicker than the Chevy eCOPO Camaro, however their occasions had been very shut within the quarter mile. They each used 800V batteries from Xalt, and so they each used the identical BorgWarner HVH250-115 motor that’s discovered within the Chevy Bolt…with the Chevy utilizing two of them to maintain its weight down, and the Ford utilizing 4 of them for extra torque.
EV West has an ideal conversion equipment utilizing the rear motor from the Tesla P85, however since they’re salvaged from wrecks, it’s important to look ahead to a Tesla to crash earlier than they will get their palms on one to transform for you.
The Ford and Chevy module housings are barely totally different for his or her respective purposes, and I believe the Chevy equipment will do fairly properly as a result of it comes with an interface that matches the highly regarded LS V8 transmissions. The Ford equipment can be utilized to make a FWD, RWD, or AWD automobile, however as a swap from a gasoline automobile, it will require a custom-cut and welded sub-frame. That’s not a deal-breaker, however it’s going to restrict builder enthusiasm…
I actually do wish to see a number of classic automobiles transformed to electrical, moderately than have them melted all the way down to recycle the metal. There are even just a few vintage steam-powered automobiles which are stored working by fanatics, however I doubt they’re actually pushed fairly often. Most of my favourite automobiles are from the 1960’s, and it’s unhappy to see any of them crushed. It could make me very blissful to see a few of them transformed to electrical and pushed on daily basis, and these kits are going to be a great begin in that path…
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Written by Ron/spinningmagnets, January 2022