Solectria Force Electric Vehicle

[WorldStove]

very helpful and informative video. thanks for posting

[miniUMM]

Clutchless car ?

[nvpatentlawyer]

In an electric car with a manual transmission, there is no need for a clutch. Just take your foot off the accelerator and the motor stops. So you can shift gears without a clutch. Some electric cars do not use a transmission at all, but having gears can optimize efficiency dramatically by keeping the motor running in its most optimal RPM range.

[DanFrederiksen]

@nvpatentlawyer it's not just about rpm. you need a map of the efficiency over rpm and torque and then shift to pick the most efficient.

but I believe in a purpose built drivetrain that you can design a motor to have wide efficiency even if slightly more expensive in order to just have the one gear. fixed gearing has huge advantages

[nvpatentlawyer]

@DanFrederiksen I agree. In fact, the transmission on this car was not up to the task of the high torque of an electric motor (remember, this started life as a wimpy Geo Metro) so I had to replace it with a used transmission imported from Japan. After making this prototype, Solectria switched to their own transmission. Designing a gearless electric car is fine for ground-up manufacturing, but for a conversion like this it is generally easiest and cheapest to keep the manual transmission.

[cant7think7clearly]

I'm impressed. What voltage batteries was the car using when you owned it? 11 x 12v?

I'm also impressed with your one-handed-driving- while-commentating skills! Nicely done!

:)

[nvpatentlawyer]

Fully charged it was about 154 volts. Of course it would drop as driven. Once the batteries were down to about 12 volts (132 volts) it was pretty much at the end of its range. Solectrias come up for sale on eBay pretty frequently and there are support groups on line for help with repairs, parts etc.