A battery of boxes

It's been a busy time, mostly holiday related instead of EV, but I've accomplished a few things along the way. The rear battery box is finished and I think it turned out nice. The next step is to cut a big hole in the trunk, weld in the mounting brackets and frame, place the battery box, add some safety brackets, and fabricate the ventilation.

Front Battery Box

You'll notice in the photo below that the front box is angled: the motor mount in the front takes up too much space for a nice, square placement. At times like this it is easy to imagine how nice it would be to design an EV from scratch so you weren't working around existing designs and parts.

Rough outline of battery boxes

Side view of placement

Like the rear battery box, both of these will be insulated and have a small heater or warming pad for the really cold driving months. Again I'm designing the box to take either of the twelve volt batteries (5SHP or 27TMH).

A friend has a MIG welder that he'll let me borrow to fabricate and install the battery box mounts, both front and back. Also some form of mounting board or enclosure will need to be constructed and mounted for the controller, contactors, and associated parts. A point of consideration is that the entire drive electronics (144vdc) must remain isolated from the chassis and normal 12vdc system.

Next: It's a Control Thing