Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Battery Box

One of the most critical components in any hybrid or electric vehicle is the batteries. We decided to use a total of 90 3.2 V 90 amp hour LiFePO4 batteries made by ThunderSky to power our vehicle. This should give us an all electric range greater than 60 miles.

The batteries take up a lot of space, almost as much as the original engine, transmission, and radiator. The only place we have to put all of these components is under the hood.

We created a battery box that will hold the batteries on two levels and allow for easy access to the lower level. The complete box just barely fits inside the space that was allotted so we had to modify the bumper slightly to make it fit by trimming some excess plastic from the inside of the bumper.


This photo shows the rough lower level before it got welded into the car.


Now the lower level is complete with half the batteries installed.


Now the top level is complete and ready for wiring.