# Converting Toyota PU 4x4 to electric



## Tim2000 (Jun 21, 2008)

I have a 1991 4x4 Toyota Pickup. I want to convert from gas to electric. It seems it would cost less to convert a gas to electric than buy a brand-new hybrid. Here are the facts:




The truck:

It has manual transmission, no power steering, no power brakes.
It has a 2in lift kit with Rancho Suspension & Steering Damper.
The commute/work:

I drive 130 miles round-trip to work, all on the freeway.
99.9% of the time, nowadays, I use it for my commute, no more "4-wheeling".
At work we have plug-in electric vehicle charging stations that I can use.
The questions:
How much will this cost? (estimate)
I am no expert in conversions, only a novice to moderate when it comes to engine repairs. Is there a company that can do such a conversion for me?
Do I really need to pack in 1,000+ lbs of Lead-Acid Batteries in the bed of the truck? there has got to be a better way, Lithium-Ion?
What is the range? Can I realistically expect to go 130 miles r-t + plugging into one of the charging stations at my office all in 1 day?
Thanks, 

Tim


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## ga2500ev (Apr 20, 2008)

Tim2000 said:


> I have a 1991 4x4 Toyota Pickup. I want to convert from gas to electric. It seems it would cost less to convert a gas to electric than buy a brand-new hybrid. Here are the facts:


You had another post that I think I answered elsewhere. This one has more detail.


> The truck:
> 
> It has manual transmission, no power steering, no power brakes.
> It has a 2in lift kit with Rancho Suspension & Steering Damper.


Can you remove the 4x4 tranny? Since you are strictly onroad it'll just be dead weight.



> The commute/work:
> 
> I drive 130 miles round-trip to work, all on the freeway.
> 99.9% of the time, nowadays, I use it for my commute, no more "4-wheeling".
> At work we have plug-in electric vehicle charging stations that I can use.


It's a big stretch.



> questions:
> 
> cost?


With new components a minimum of $7k - $8k. And that's with lead acid. Lithium is a whole nother universe in cost.




> Company?


There's actually a converters forum here. But of course this is DIY, so the expectation of having someone else do it doesn't come up much here.



> 1000+ lbs of lead acid


Oh no. It's literally going to be a ton of lead acid.


> Lithium Ion?


Let's see if we can get a sense of the amount of energy you need. Your truck is in the ballpark of 3400 lbs. Say we strip 500 lbs of engine and associated components. So that gets us down to 2900 lbs.

It's all highway. Let go with 60 MPH. Matt has a formula here that estimates your energy needs:

http://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15508

Using average values for rolling resistance, A frontal area of 4.2 m^2 (average for light duty trucks according to Wikipedia) and a coefficient of drag of 0.45 (gained from Ecomodder forums) you get 27 kW. You'd need about 75 minutes drive time which means you'd need about 33.7 kWh worth of battery.

Now for lead acid which has about 44% energy usability including peukert and DoD to 80% that means that the pack size would be 33.7 kWh/.44= 76.7 kWh.

Now it's time to explain the pain. For lead acid that means you'd need a 168V @ 450 Ah pack. Unfortunately that's 56 6V golf cart batteries that weighs 3800 lbs. So you're talking about not only filling the bed, but towing a pack also.

Now for lithium. You could pull it off by purchasing 138 [email protected] Ah lithium modules and organizing it into a [email protected] pack. Lithium has 76% energy utility so you'd get the same usable energy. The pack would weigh 1070 lbs. Cost: $34,500 at the $250/module price that I saw available yesterday here somewhere.

Now I feel something is wrong with my numbers somewhere. The famed Red Beastie claimed to have 120 mile range at highway speeds with a smaller pack.

Hope this gives you some idea of the challenge. The one thing that I see in Matt's formula is that speed has a serious impact on energy usage. Just another reminder for all of us to slow down.

ga2500ev


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