Musing over what determines the value of a second-hand A2

Was the only thing I wanted to go on when the fair came to town.
I would avoid being hit to try and keep my speed up!
The sparks and the smell (ozone?) was addictive.The modern battery ones are a bland by comparison. Still, 60 plus year old memories do improve (and evolve) with time.
Mac.
 
I have never driven an electric car.
I know of all the range issues and charging issues and how non-green they really are but I would love to have ago in one and I really hope it saves a lot of our cars. Let’s face it, we all worry about cold starts, head gasket, egr, turbo, plastic pipes, eml, flat spots, the list goes on. It’s such old dirty technology which we have all loved! BUT I would give up all that for a clean (ish) smooth, bang up to date A2.
? but hold on, would the climate control work after an EV conversion? I guess there would be no coolant
The climate control system just mixes hot air with chilled air(either natural or via aircon system) to achieve temperature set on display. I'm assuming electric cars have some sort of electrical heating element to use as a heat source. This would act as the engine heat source, and chilled air would still be needed to mix. This is why i think the climate control will still be needed for those 'unicorn' hot summer uk days.
 
The climate control system just mixes hot air with chilled air(either natural or via aircon system) to achieve temperature set on display. I'm assuming electric cars have some sort of electrical heating element to use as a heat source. This would act as the engine heat source, and chilled air would still be needed to mix. This is why i think the climate control will still be needed for those 'unicorn' hot summer uk days.
EVs need to manage battery pack temperatures to control range, avoid cold start issues and overtemperature in use. I would imagine the current generation of EV's that are most efficient combine both Battery pack and Occupant heating/cooling systems wherever possibly. The simple vehicles probably use electric heater elements and a blower with ambient air temperature input - so aircon not available. There are lots of vehicles to study, incl the home conversion population of A2s - someone will have got something to work with the climate control front end..........
 
EVs need to manage battery pack temperatures to control range, avoid cold start issues and overtemperature in use. I would imagine the current generation of EV's that are most efficient combine both Battery pack and Occupant heating/cooling systems wherever possibly. The simple vehicles probably use electric heater elements and a blower with ambient air temperature input - so aircon not available. There are lots of vehicles to study, incl the home conversion population of A2s - someone will have got something to work with the climate control front end..........
Basic EVs use an electric heating element, but most now use air source heat pumps (think air con circuit running in reverse) plus standard air con for cabin heating/cooling. The air con circuit is the same as ICE cars, but the compressor has an electric motor, rather than driven off the engine. The setup in our Leaf works very well.

Most new EVs use active thermal management for the battery pack, so it can be heated/cooled as appropriate. Leafs just have passive cooling for their batteries and larger capacity ones suffer from getting hot when multiple rapid charging in the summer.
 
I have never driven an electric car.
I know of all the range issues and charging issues and how non-green they really are but I would love to have ago in one and I really hope it saves a lot of our cars. Let’s face it, we all worry about cold starts, head gasket, egr, turbo, plastic pipes, eml, flat spots, the list goes on. It’s such old dirty technology which we have all loved! BUT I would give up all that for a clean (ish) smooth, bang up to date A2.
? but hold on, would the climate control work after an EV conversion? I guess there would be no coolant
I just had a test drive in an ID.3 and last year spent a week with my daughter and they have an i3. An EV drive is lovely and the torque can get addictive! Gradually the costs are coming down, the range is going up and the charging infrastructure is improving. My mouse is hesitating over the buy button ;)

I did look at A2 EV conversion (https://www.a2oc.net/community/index.php?threads/do-you-want-an-electric-a2.34045/post-408186) but the costs with new stuff is £25k+ plus labour and UK converters don't want to do modern cars like the A2 (Canbus needs custom interface electronics). Some in the German forum have addressed this issue. There have been 20+ A2 EV conversions in Europe but most have very limited range but a couple have Tesla batteries but that can be a struggle to get in and avoid being too heavy (200kg is a typical max). Amateur conversions can take years. And I've yet to see one with the modern DIS systems that today's EVs have (e.g. maps based on battery charge state, stats on the battery state).

Probably the way to go is using the bits from a crashed EV (see https://www.a2oc.net/community/index.php?threads/fusion.44079/post-408168 but no posts since Oct 3rd). Yes the climate control does work, as EVs need a system for warming and cooling the batteries and most use water (Leaf EVs use air and can have issues of rapid gate). Heating needs either PTC electric heater or a heat pump (£1k) . It's easy to think an EV conversion needs just a battery and a motor but there is a whole load of ancillary equipment plus metal fabrication and DVLA approval. The A2 engine bay can get very full and the wallet rather light ;)

Nice I idea though, and yes, the A2 seems idea.
 
Back
Top