The Nissan Leaf is only worth 23% of it's new value after 3 years!

So you should be able to pick one up for 6k or maybe less. Good value if you can use everything from it.

But how long do the batteries last? (Thought I'd read they only last a few years). Would they need replacement & aren't they quite expensive?

Sven the batteries weigh 300 kg as they are used in the leaf. Lots of people on the net take them out of the heavy steel battery box and split them into smaller packs which they then connect back up into one pack where they want them. You could place them almost anywhere you can get a power cable to.
A working vehicle is still a problem of expense, however the prices are starting to drop now that the cars are moving to 3rd or 4th owner. I work for a council who has been running a fleet that is about to be replaced, these may be available to employees at a very good price. This also opens up the chance to use the councils free charge points which makes the car even more tempting.
Prices should continue going down over the course of the build time I have in mind.
Using the petrol engine as suggested is still an option I have a 1.6 and 1.8 ready to go just now. I am just looking into something different and possibly future proofing the projects at the same time.
Thanks for the comments.

Would be great to se this happen just be careful with the lithium ion polymer batteries they are monitored for equal charge per cell so be wary if splitting them if they catch fire you cannot put water on them the fire brigade will just let them burn out along with your garage/house. I had a friend who worked for a company that put these battery packs together and they had one catch fire.
Ian

Great care is required when working on these battery packs, as they store a lot of energy and it is surprisingly easy to make a silly mistake and cause a short when handling them.

Neil

Regarding the comment on battery life, my daily driver (company car) is a Prius+ (the big seven seat estate version). To make room for the 3rd row of seats they ditched the bigger NiMH batteries from the standard Prius and used LiIon in the central console. My car is now 3.5 yrs old and has done 75k miles and there is no noticeable drop off in the battery performance, although as its a "traditional" hybrid with no plug-in capability the battery life on pure electric driving has never been much, 2 miles tops, but thats not the point of hybrid. It does get off the line tremendously well though, even though the electric drivetrain is a bit puny. I can usually show up most other cars from a standing start at the lights, up to about 15mph, but by then I've a nose in front so when the lanes go back to 1 I'm in front!!!

Good luck with the electric build - should be great in a light car and if you aren't too bothered about range then you wouldn't need masses of batteries.

Can't believe we are talking about electric GTMs come on guys yuk think I'm going to be sick right now

Wait until you try to blow a Tesla away from the lights
Ian

Dont knock librakv6 for feeling sick. Its understandable when he realises the potential of electric.
He has obviously woken up and fully researched the modern world.

His engine produces variable power and torque across the rev range.
Hp ranges from 25hp at tick over to 174 at 7000 revs. in an unmodified standard engine.
The torque ranges from about 73 lbsft at tick-over to a maximum of 169 lbsft at 4000 revs dropping to 118 lbsft at 7000 revs.
interesting he has to trade maximum power and maximum torque at 2 different points, and at no point can he get maximum of both. Even a highly modified petrol engine cant do that.

Now lets look at the new modern world where we have moved on with heat light and the cave has a door to keep the weather and animals out. Sorry for my cheek but I thought this was a progressive site to discuss keeping these wonderful cars on the road. One day oil will run out or become very very expensive. I suppose librakv6 will still enjoy looking at his car when this happens. Personally I would rather drive mine.

So what do you get with the bottom of the ladder electric.
Constant torque at all revs. Torque is what turns the wheels and pushes you along the road. You get about 200 lbstft from 1 rev to 10390 maximum revs.
Due to all this torque you dont need a heavy gearbox, in fact you only need one gear for forward and reverse. So you gain maximum torque at every rev point.
So that wee thrill that librakv6 gets for a few second at the sweet spot of his revs and power an electric car gets from the moment it starts moving.
Use better electric equipment or add a gearbox and you will get performance to dream about, all for a lot less than replacing or tuning a petrol engine which will still only give you a single small band sweet spot.

Now like lots of things there are down sides, electric is as flawed as petrol in some ways. An example would be easy to see with the post from librakv6 you wont be welcomed and encouraged on sites like this and I dare say I wouldn't be welcomed at any meet he decided to go to. I may not manage to get to the meet if its more than 500 miles away as there are very few charge stations once you hit the coast in Britain. Mind you it would only have cost me about £20 to get there.

Sorry techead obvious I hit a nerve somewhere, I am just a petrol head and you cant knock me for that, I even wince when guys at work talk about cars that used to have larger engines but now have smaller turbo'd motors and have engine sounds piped into the cabin to make it sound sportier!
I just like cars that talk back to me, you cant get exhaust notes that pop and crack from an electric car (only if its piped into the cabin) nor can you get the satisfaction of heel and toeing into a bend feeling the car in the seat of your pants, rather than point and press electric power. BUT you do have a point, I like the idea of the minority using electric cars as it leaves more fuel for the rest of us, and as for the Tesla I would love to see up against a Aluminium Kirkham Cobra that I had a ride in last year, 900kg with 620HP you do the maths as Carrol Shelby once said "there aint no substitute for cubes".

Everyone's entitled their own opinion and if its amps that light your fire so be it mate.

Jamie

With you all the way what a thrill to feel, hear and smell the beast of a proper engine. I would have to say I drive a serious bit of heavy metal as my daily v6 turbo, 240BHp and well over 400lbsft torque. If I am lucky and drive in my slippers I can sometimes get 30 MPG. I also sometimes have to drive a we Japanese motor with a great reputation for being a quick bit of kit, its engine is often used in our cars and is loved by most petrol heads, type R heavily modified suspension and engine.
My point was if you look at the post from the start was. What if? and Has anyone thought about ?
I have at the moment the following engines as possible drive systems.
1.4 rover and gearbox
1.8 MG tf whole car.
Subaru Impreza 2lt whole car, but we are only looking at using the engine and box at the back or the whole 4 wheel drive system squeezed in the front and back. I love this engine package the sound is so different.
At the moment I have no electric drive system, I have still to drive anything electric. What I do have is a F24 electric race car that I am building with a group of kids.
The shock to me was 24v battery system, nothing fancy, a tiny electric motor and this thing takes off like a scalded cat. It is very low to the ground and you are very exposed it feels so fast, so much fun. We can out drag some of the sports cars in the car park over 200m. It runs 25MPH with ease for ages. Building the car we managed to get a motor sport engineer to give us some advice. 1st class motor sport degree, worked on the touring car championship 2 years ago, at present being paid to complete a masters degree in advanced materials and manufacture. It was his discussions that started the electric research.
Read back in the post and you will find that a lot of the problems we have disappear instantly, weight in particular is not shaved off its dumped in 10s of Kg with ease.
Then you stack up the numbers side by side and the electric starts to look very interesting.
Its different, it has us talking, it may or may not be a good idea, it may or may not be done by me. What we need to do is pull our knowledge and share our skills. I had no idea about the battery problems when you get a fire, now I understand after researching a bit more why they are sealed in a bomb proof steel box. I was not going to encase them, I will be now if I continue the project.

Surely the point of these forums an exchange of information
Ian

found this on the net may be an interesting watch. lotus evora converted to electric. watch from 6 min to 7 min for the car on the road. There are other videos showing the car development.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt4fGIoVMpM

Am selling a Honda Civic IMA hybrid - this is the one after the original Insight (alloy body and now very sought after). There's a fault on the IMA system as it keeps blowing a fuse after I left the batteries on charge for too long.

The electric motor is rated at 13HP but as with all electric motors more volts equals more power. It's integrated with the engine behind the flywheel. The petrol engine is similar to the Honda Jazz and built for economy with twin spark plugs per cylinder, lean burn mode etc. The gearbox has long ratios - 5th is about 25MPH / 1000 revs.

It may be a viable alternative to what you want and comes with a spare battery pack (Nimh 144 volt which charge to 160 volt).

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Honda-Civic- ... SwnTdaA0Xc