Morris Minor Owners Club

I've obtained a completely rotten (well, saveable but v. bad) '62 two-door. The engine is in runnable condition, I think the gearbox is fine and most of the ancillaries- including the carb- have been tested and work fine. However, they might all be up for grabs, depending what people think of this idea:

The ELECTRIC Minor!

Anyone know of this having been done before? I'm a bit of an environmentalist, and although I already love the Moggy for its outstanding economy (my other, considerably more complete Moggy gets 30-odd to the gallon), I'm tempted to go that step further. Do people think it's sacrilege? I'd strip out all the oily stuff, replace it with an efficient electric motor and maybe solar cells on a rack in the boot, plus a generator for emergencies and a way to charge it from home! Otherwise I would make the car as correct as possible, the interior's pretty nice and I'm too fond of the car as it is to do "radical" paintjobs, cutting and slamming, all that hot-rodding stuff which I'm not very fond of...
This could be fun! And certainly, it could improve performance... People have managed to get 100mph out of a Fiat 500 by converting to electric.
So, what do you think, people of the forum? Anyone feel like adopting a nice condition 948cc plus 'box? Plus dynamo, carb, fuel tank, fuel pump, and exhaust etc...

you wouldn't be the first to do this - somewhere there is a project underway.
please see;

http://www.morrisminoroc.co.uk/index.ph ... c&start=15

Well electric = very fast !
Have a letter here somewhere from the CEO of Toyota from some years ago, they brought out a very limited edition of the Rav4 EDIT - it was Electric EDIT as it was called in the UK.
Suggested to him that they should sell them with a windgen & solar set up so low mile users could motor for free without having to mains charge.
They kindly declined my offer of letting them send me a new one to have a play with but thanked me for the suggestion.

If you get over to the otherpower board you'll see that building your own windgen isnt rocket science nor that costly.

you will not have the lovley engine noisethats half the appeal

Electric is not environmentally friendly unless you generate all the electrcity yourself by wind/solar/water power etc, and even then- no range and heavy batteries.

Good for you, Jack

Multiphonikks is yer woman if you want to compare methods etc She's gone well into the whole ecological thing and knows her stuff

Enjoy your project!!!

wibble xx

There was one done in the 80's but I've yet to find any info on it. I'd guess the link placed above was to Nikki's project. I've not checked to see if that has got off the ground yet.
The Minor is a reasonable starting point as it is relatively light, but to be of any sensible use, you want to keep the engine as well - (maybe installing the motors under the rear seat to drive the propshaft, and switch to regen when braking)

If you get over to the otherpower board you'll see that building your own windgen isnt rocket science nor that costly.

Electric is not environmentally friendly unless you generate all the electrcity yourself by wind/solar/water power etc, and even then- no range and heavy batteries.

Well, I was planning indeed to not use mains power... A Charging station at home, powered by wind, sun and potentially (depending on what house we buy) water. That would be my primary source.

switch to regen when braking

I was planning this as my secondary source, a sort of "top-up"; plus a fold-out rack of solar cells in the boot (couldn't permanently destroy those lovely Minor curves, so it would have to retract when not in use) and even maybe a fan inside the grille, just to generate extra. These would all add to the range but none would, I think, be sufficient for long-term power.

to be of any sensible use, you want to keep the engine as well

Around where I live, the Minor will only be making short trips, never more than thirty miles in a day, I would estimate. This in itself greatly increases the viability of an EV. Also I thought a generator could be installed- a small standing engine, either still in the engine bay or in the boot, and smaller than the current engine for weight reasons.

Well electric = very fast !

Finally, someone who agrees! Not many people believe me on that. Have you seen the new Tesla sports car? Seriously impressive, 150 mph and 200 miles on a charge! Not that a Moggy might do that without some impressive engineering... I think I'd be too scared to do that in a Morris! (Bad luck on not getting the free one, by the way )

you will not have the lovley engine noisethats half the appeal

I agree it's nice, but I have my other Moggy for that. It's in fine condition and I've just rebuilt the engine, so that one stays petrol. At a stretch I could fit a sound playback thing!

Multiphonikks is yer woman if you want to compare methods etc She's gone well into the whole ecological thing and knows her stuff

Thanks! I'll look that up. She's on here, I assume?
Keep the comments coming! It's good to have such constructive comments to think about, and practical issues raised. Thank you!
ps The car needs to be shipped over the pond first. Judging by responses so far and my own mood I think I'll carry through with the EV idea; I'll set up a topic when I recieve the car, and people who want to can follow progress!

The problem is weight - and cost of batteries !! But - I am a strong fan of the idea, it's just prohibitively expensive unless you can some ex submarine batteries very cheaply from a scrap yard!

Oh, and on the "no range and heavy batteries" thing, I've been looking into current technologies and there are some effective ones floating around. The weight's not such an issue with no engine block! And as I mentioned range isn't an issue round here.

Here's the Tesla link - http://www.teslamotors.com/

I'll have a look at the batteries around, but not all of them are prohibitively expensive, or so my preliminary investigations have suggested. Thank you for posting the link, BMCE... It should persuade a few people!
I'm glad the idea has support, though. And I just noted that Multiphonikks is the author of the thread that RogerRust showed me to- thanks to you too!

You might want to go look at the BVS (Battery Vehicle Society); Nikki whilst she's still got plans with the Minor's been somewhat sidetracked by her other EVs.

The minor (indeed any medium sized classic) is a great base to start from for EVing because they're light (comparitively speaking). Indeed I've been faintly debating attacking my poor Viva in such a way; depending on how long I end up staying in the UK (my partner needs a PR visa too; and hers might be somewhat harder to get than mine).

There's lots of choice on the battery front, and LiIons seem to be the popular choice. There's also a lot of discussion about the greeness of batteries.

As for the 'it's still dirty if you use ordinary electricity to charge it'; well:

1) It's much easier to clean up power generation than millions of individual car users.
2) You can pay companies (such as GreenEnergy UK) and buy only solar/wind/wave generated electricity (Nikki does that)

I'd check out the bvs at any rate - they have a forum too

It's much easier to clean up power generation than millions of individual car users.

I'll say! I just get bored of people saying that normal power is still dirty, so I decided to go completely clean. Plus, generating my own electricity will be an interesting challenge (as if the car itself wasn't...)!
LiIons were one idea, and I was also considering the LiPo- cheaper and more durable than Li-Ions, I've heard. I'm going to have a look around for something that balances charge hold and power output well, though, to get good speed and a reasonable range.
Thanks for the pointer to the BVS, I'll visit the site!

This might be an interesting read - http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/08 ... d_mini.php
The electric idea is especially interesting here, NZ, where power mostly comes from hydro-electric and geothermal sources.

Thank you! That's a great article... So it seems LiPo is good, especially when combined with high-performance capacitors. Interesting. I wonder if it's possible to get those at a reasonable price?.. I really like the way that's been done, pity I'm not a programming whiz. I would love to have self-regulating wheels! The generator seems a great thing, though. That's basically what I had in mind, only slightly more practical. It might be a system worth adopting. Of course, for extra kudos the generator must be powered by biodiesel...
Oh, and Pyoor Kate, I've joined the BVS forum. Thank you for telling me about it! I think it will be very beneficial.
Here in America 70% of electricity is coal, which is not so good... That's why I'm planning a home recharger from a different source. The other thing is, I have a logistical issue in that out on the highways it can become extremely rare to see any kind of civilisation more than once every two or three hours. I certainly need to plan this to be reliable enough that if I were forced to take a hike in my car, it had the capacity to make it between stations... A decent challenge, that's what I like!

I bought a load of 100ah UPS batteries for £25 each.
Very heavy but a bargain as around 10 x that new.
They are for use on a friends farm in France that has no mains power - just solar panels and wind turbines.
The company had different types / sizes / capacities / weights
Maybe worth considering ex UPS batteries for your electric Moggie ?
BTW did people know besides electric vehicles being road tax exempt electric commercials are also MOT exempt !
Electric pick-up or van would be neat

Paul Humphries

Or Landy!
BTW - Solar panels are thought to NEVER reclaim the energy that goes into making them in the first place ! And - a panel on the boot lid - or even on the roof of your car will generate only a tiny fraction of the power needed to move the car at anything more than a crawl.

jackkelleher wrote:generating my own electricity will be an interesting challenge

How about pedals, Jack?

BTW taking into account that in order to make your vehicle as efficient as possible the load needs to be as light as possible, it might be worth your while looking at the rallying sites to pick up tips on lightening a vehicle? I'm thinking that for instance those heavy heavy doors must be an obvious target - perhaps removing the inner skins? (she says wildly, having no idea about whether that would compromise safety etc ) There are some guys on here who do racing who might have some ideas about that side of things?

keep on trucking with this plan, dude

a top-of-head beginning of list of stuff which could be jettisoned:

headlining
carpets/mats
bonnet struts
some of the floor screws
ICE
passenger seat (unless you have a passenger)
brake servo
fuel tank (she types before slapping forehead DOH! )
chrome trim
front bumper
replace window glass with perspex
fluffy dice
rear seats
door trims

blah blah