# Electric ATV Project

## Preamble

This is an insane project. It would be extremely cool if we could get it to work, however its very expensive and we could not afford to do it until after the YT channel takes off a bit more.

## Inspiration

- [Can I Power This Go Kart with a Used Car Alternator?](https://youtu.be/HpmVXWBJjrc) - Aging Wheels
- [I Spent Weeks Converting This Go Kart To Electric. Did It Work?](https://youtu.be/3Cq4mGpZnV8) - Aging Wheels
- [Building an Electric ATV With This 10kW Motor](https://youtu.be/XUdg4Yvqacw) - RCLifeOn

## Idea for the project

[Electric ATVs](https://www.drrusa.com/adult-electric-atvs-utvs) exist, but they suck because they are using Lead Acid batteries and cost well over $10,000. This means that they are not financially worth it until gasoline becomes either prohibetively expensive or the prices of the electric ATVs come down to match their ICE counterparts. I was thinking about pricing out how much it would cost for us to build an adult sized version of Robert Dunn's (Aging Wheels) Go Kart built. Then I saw Simon's (RCLifeOn) build of an EV ATV using off-the-shelf motors, ESCs and batteries. Both Robert and Simon failed at building a viable vehicle, though Simon was significantly closer as he was actually able to drive his vehicle a fair distance before the ESC burst into flames. Given that we are literally a team of engineers, I think we can figure out how to make our own EV.

Simon and Robert took slightly different approaches. Both started with cheap ESCs and later moved to better, more expensive ones. I do not think we should make the same mistake as either of them and should instead start with a good qualty ESC that actually has documentation. I think Robert's idea of using a car alternator as a base for building our own motor is cool, and maybe we could try that as well, but I think buying an off-the-shelf motor is going to get us the best results, though they may be expensive. I think we should also follow in Robert's footsteps and use a 10650-based custom battery pack with a built-in BMS to maximize range. However, I like the idea of using a massive array of off-the-shelf LiPo or another type of battery without a BMS as we could then just swap batteries when the battery is low, however it may have significantly (like orders of magnitude) less range than if we were to use a single massive 18650 pack.

We should use an existing vehicle as the starting point for the project, and I am open to using either an ATV or, if we really wanna go big, a Side-By-Side with a blown engine. I've found ATVs with no motor on FB Marketplace for around $750, and have seen Side-by-Sides on there with blown or no engines for about $2k. I would *like* to make the ATV AWD/4WD but I understand that doing that is a whole other beast and if we can even get it working then we can talk upgrades or version 2's later.

## Project Goal

- Create an electric offroad vehicle that an adult human (or two) can comfortably ride.
- If ATV, has at least 10KW (~13HP) output (20KW (~27HP) preferred).
- If SxS, at least 20KW output.
- Can be driven in an environment that a normal ATV/SxS can perform (trails, mud).

## Cost

This will be an expensive project. 10KW electric motors cost around $1,000, as do motor controllers. Throttles are around $30. The cost of a used broken ATV will be somewhere just under $1,000. To build a battery that would have enough power to run the quad for a decent amount of time, we will need a significant amount of 18650 cells, also costing around $1,000. Along with misc parts that we'll have to acquire, I set the estimated minimum budget for this project around $6,000.