Transmition
Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 12:35 am
How does the transmision work on a front wheel drive car. I can't get my head round how you would connect the motor to what drives the car. And would you keep the gearbox?
You can keep the gearbox though it's wasteful energy wise and an electric motor has a much wider rev range where there's oodles of torque. We've got 2 vehicles of different design using front wheel drive donor vehicles and rear wheel drive donor vehicles.
There's also a number of other possibilities such as is used in the Sylva Riot / MK Middi where a bike engine drives the diff through a chain link. There are a number of people offering such chain driven diffs and I'm hoping to get some articles on these in the BVS magazine, Plugged In
You often don't need to use gears in an EV at all in fact our RWD car has the motor attached to the diff and no gearbox. Take a look at the Tesla, it was to have a 2 speed box but they are currently producing off the production line with a single ratio.
If you do use a gearbox then the chances are you'll stick it in 2nd or 3rd and leave it there. Keeping the gearbox in general makes life more easy but as I say you can just mount straight to the diff which is easier still particularly on something like a Sierra set up.