# Electro Vehicles Europe (EVE)



## tylerwatts (Feb 9, 2012)

I mentioned them but not from experience. What trouble have you had? I like the look of their motors and PowerPac systems but only from browsing their website.

Do you have others' feedback also? What was the trouble about?


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## Stiive (Nov 22, 2008)

tylerwatts said:


> I mentioned them but not from experience.


Yup, it was you 




tylerwatts said:


> What trouble have you had?


What trouble didn't we have? That's an easier question to answer.

We didn't have the trouble of a motor and controller combination that actually worked and was drivable. _Everything _else we had trouble with.




tylerwatts said:


> Do you have others' feedback also? What was the trouble about?


Main trouble (I think) was the motor they sold us was meant to be a 288V motor. The motor we received was a 96V motor. The controller they sold with the motor as a 'matched pair', couldn't spin the motor correctly - they had infact never tested that the motor and controller could work together or were compatible.
We spent hours typing emails to the company (because they never wanted to speak on the phone), listing all our connections and providing pictures, sending in the data setting files from the controller and documenting our problems. They would send a few very unhelpful words back, telling us everything is fine. They tried sending us a controller setting file one time (which we had requested over-and-over) which they were confident would spin the motor, upon loading it onto the controller it infact blew the controller up.
In the end we spent a small fortune on IGBTs that kept blowing trying to spin the motor, with two catastrophic failures (fire!) of the apparently "short proof and indestructible" controller.

No technical support from EVE, and they didn't take any responsibility even when we had proved in many different ways they had sent us the wrong motor. They weren't even sure of the technical details of the motor, taking 2 weeks of fluffing to get back to us whether the motor was in star or delta. 

A luckier consumer we were in contact with lived in Germany and would often visit their site to harass them for them to fix his identical problems. I'm not sure if he ever got it working, or a refund - but unfortunately being on the other side of the world we were left helpless. We bought 2 controllers (7,000euro? each) from this company, both of which ended up being completely useless, they asked for them back so they could "fix" under warranty or provide refund - we never received anything back, or any money whatsoever, even after threatening legal action. It has been 2 years since then..... 


Luckily (I think?) we didn't send the motor back to EVE, and instead sent it to Tritium to try get their controller to work with it, which they couldn't. The motor only had a few puff of inductance and was pretty much uncontrollable. We then had to spent another few thousand dollars rewinding the motor. We then sent it back to tritium and viola, we now have a working system...


Moral of the story? Never eat soggy wheatbix


Here is a video that captures our anguish
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_9-WTgZS_Y

This video shows saw-tooth waveform out of the controller, and some success we managed by placing inline inductors on the motor phases. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuhiSfeETfw


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## tylerwatts (Feb 9, 2012)

Canyou share what motor and controller that was? They seem to have been very busy lately with good oe success so I'm surprised and disheartened to hear of your woes.


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## Stiive (Nov 22, 2008)

tylerwatts said:


> Canyou share what motor and controller that was?


A 60kW motor, M2-AC30-L I think it was. And the MES-DEA TIM600 controller. 
Although that controller is _absolutely _rubbish, the motor could also not be controlled with a Tritium which is one of the best IMO.

The fact they supposed manufacturer of the motor (EVE) could not tell us what the winding configuration was suppose to be, number of poles, or if the motor was star or delta, leads me to believe they must get these made in China... Though they do show machining some parts of the motor in their videos... 
Crazy, if the manufacturer doesn't know a thing about their motor, who does? If I designed a motor, I would know everything about it. 

Upon checking the windings, the ratings on the name plate were completely misleading and wrong.

The winding mag wire was also cheap, and best practices were not used to insulate and secure the windings. The balancing of the rotor was also poorly done.



tylerwatts said:


> They seem to have been very busy lately with good oe success


This is why I created this thread. The 5-6 people I have spoken to about this company have all had major and similar problems. 
EVE provided some contacts of happy customers, who ended up to be phonies or non existent - Perhaps this is your source of "success" stories.

I have not heard of anyone using the EVE branded controller - i'd be interested to know how well it works and if it lives up to its spec's.


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## tylerwatts (Feb 9, 2012)

My only source were links to supposed independent news reports on their work.

Regarding 'their' controllers, they only package a Curtis or Sevcon controller with charger, contactors, fuses etc all into one housing to simplify installation. It is neat. I guess their chinese supply turned bad so they've moved away from it. And they offer MES-DEA motors also now which is better, though I'm not sure their own motors would be so bad, but I'd be hesitant from your feedback.

Shame they aren't very supportive. they seem to show alot of activity and progress here in europe...


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## Stiive (Nov 22, 2008)

tylerwatts said:


> My only source were links to supposed independent news reports on their work.


I'd be very sceptical. I think you've been had.



tylerwatts said:


> Regarding 'their' controllers, they only package a Curtis or Sevcon controller with charger, contactors, fuses etc all into one housing to simplify installation. It is neat. I guess their chinese supply turned bad so they've moved away from it.


Thanks for the info. Didn't know that. They kept blaming our problems on the fact it wasn't 'their' controller and that after their controller design was finished they wouldn't be have any more problems (they were aware that we knew of other people with the same problem and a few of us would often group email EVE).



tylerwatts said:


> And they offer MES-DEA motors also now which is better, though I'm not sure their own motors would be so bad, but I'd be hesitant from your feedback.


They also did when we bought the EVE motor, but we were assured it was plug-and-play, and the specs looked better for half the price! We should've known it was too good to be true.




tylerwatts said:


> Shame they aren't very supportive. they seem to show alot of activity and progress here in europe...


In order to provide service they would have to know a thing or two about AC motors, then after problem solving (which we did for over 6months for them for free and provided all results) they would have to admit something was wrong and replace/refund the goods. Instead they claim ignorance and take no responsibility.

If they honoured warranty, they would have been out of business a long time ago...


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## Korben_Dallas (Feb 27, 2009)

tylerwatts said:


> My only source were links to supposed independent news reports on their work.
> 
> Regarding 'their' controllers, they only package a Curtis or Sevcon controller with charger, contactors, fuses etc all into one housing to simplify installation. It is neat. I guess their chinese supply turned bad so they've moved away from it. And they offer MES-DEA motors also now which is better, though I'm not sure their own motors would be so bad, but I'd be hesitant from your feedback.
> 
> Shame they aren't very supportive. they seem to show alot of activity and progress here in europe...


I think you are talking about two different items.
The "powerpAC" is a metal casing that houses a Curtis or DMC controller, contactors and fuses, etc. This system was never meant to work at 288V, but due to the controllers it was 96-120V max. It's very nice packaging for a clean installation. You basically get rid of a lot of loose wires and it's the only way to get a certificate for an EMI emissions test. Without that there's no driving on european streets.

Their own controller is meant to be high voltage and has nothing to do with the powerpAC. AFAIK, this controller was developed together with a university in Italy. I don't know of any installation of this controller or if it's good or bad.

Korben


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## Jordysport (Mar 22, 2009)

Korben_Dallas said:


> I think you are talking about two different items.
> The "powerpAC" is a metal casing that houses a Curtis or DMC controller, contactors and fuses, etc. This system was never meant to work at 288V, but due to the controllers it was 96-120V max. It's very nice packaging for a clean installation. You basically get rid of a lot of loose wires and it's the only way to get a certificate for an EMI emissions test. Without that there's no driving on european streets.
> 
> Their own controller is meant to be high voltage and has nothing to do with the powerpAC. AFAIK, this controller was developed together with a university in Italy. I don't know of any installation of this controller or if it's good or bad.
> ...


Pretty sure you don't need anything for the UK I think we've opted out for most of the Driving laws implemented by the EU? be interesting to know as i'm sure theres a lot of people in the Uk without that certificate.


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