Voltvo a 100% electric Volvo Amazon wagon
The story – live your dreams
Back in 2015 my wife and I talked about future dreams and decided ‘later is now’. I always wanted to convert an old Volvo to full electric. She wanted to travel. We went to Iceland with our young kids and I started my project.
It took me six years to restore the car and convert it to full electric with features one also finds in a modern production EV. In June 2021 we travelled again. “EVeryday nature”, with the electric Volvo Amazon wagon to Sweden for two months as a family. Unfortunately on June 30th the dream shattered as the car spontaneously caught fire when parked.
Build specifications and components
Motor and controller
100 kW liquid cooled Siemens AC motor with 300 Nm torque coupled with a rebuild M400 gearbox from a Volvo 164 while keeping the long shifter. Using a DMOC 645 liquid cooled inverter.
Batteries
The battery from a Tesla Model S are known for their high energy density and due to their liquid cooling have excellent opportunities for long a lifespan.
Thermal management
Keeping batteries in their ideal temperature range during operation is key in optimizing their lifespan. Lithium batteries neither should be too hot nor too cold. More information in my EVcreate blogpost: Ideal battery temperature?
The motor, inverter and DC/DC converter need liquid cooling. However, they al differ in ideal and more important acceptable temperature. In the end I decided to implement three separate cooling systems.
You do not want to overheat for example batteries or electronics with waste heat of the motor. There was not enough room to implement a 4-way valve to use motor waste heat to warm up the batteries like Tesla does. More details about what Tesla does can be found in the EVcreate blogpost: Using Tesla thermal management system parts. The radiator sizes were designed based on waste heat to be dissipated while balancing and distributing available space.
Charging
AC charging
Two Thunderstruck TSM2500 chargers of 3,3 kW each hidden on the left and right hand side in the trunk.
CHAdeMO fastcharge
Using the EVcreate CHAdeMO controller. Up to 100A but I used 80A max. Allowed DC charge current dynamically controlled by the BMS depending on factors such as battery temperature and state of charge.
During the charging process all details are visualized on the screen.
Displays
The electric Volvo Amazon wagon has two small screens integrated in the speedo and one larger screen embedded in the dashboard.
Small screens in the speedo cluster
Two small screens were integrated in the original speedometer where the tank and temp. meter used to be. Starting procedure remained identical, when you turn the ignition on the warning lights light up and after starting these go off (if there was no warning). Furthermore the iso icon for ‘Ready’ would show up on the screen.
The content of these screens was different for drive and charge mode.
Central display
In the middle of the dash where the heater controls used to be (moved those to the right a bit) a 5-inch screen was integrated. Previous and next page were controlled by an Amazon-style knob. For AC and DC charging two pages showing process specific data were implemented.
EV Peripherals
The custom home build EV-peripherals controller drives all secondary features. From remote control to cooling pumps and fans to the small displays and the interior heating and cooling. It uses heating and cooling requests coming from the BMS as well as various inputs such as buttons, switches, speed and temperatures and parameters from the CAN-BUS.
Classic appearance with modern technology
Stainless steel boxes with vent valves.
In house developed CHAdeMO controller.
Small screens where the temp. and tank meter were.
Knobs for range mode, display and heated rear window with custom bezel.
Remote monitoring and enabling the stationary heater.
For active cooling of interior and batteries.
Silent electric brake booster from a Tesla.
Speed dependent electric power assisted steering.
Remote controlled stationary heater and airconditioning to pre heat or cool the car.
Alarm and central locking with remote.
Realtime info showing battery thermal management.
Heated front and rear seats.
AC charge port hidden behind original tank cap with store magnet.
Custom electronics to control all secondary components.
Amazon wagon sport E-badges.
Hundreds of new wires and tripple CAN-BUS.
Integrated duo-sensitive seat belt with ELR.
Aluminum swirl pots to get rid of air automatically.
Three separate systems for motor, batteries and inverter + dc/dc.
Electrical operated steel panel sunroof.
Computer Aided Design (CAD) for perfect fit and weight distribution.
EV Conversion
Before
Only 70 HP, low torque, noisy and gasoline thirsty.
Increasing challenge for availability of fuels.
Not allowed in low emission zones.
After
Smooth, silent, clean, 130 HP and 300 Nm of torque from 0 RPM.
Drive on solar energy.
No local emissions.
Ready for another 50 years on the road.
Blogposts using Voltvo
Engiro motor for electric Volvo Amazon wagon
Lexus L110 or Tesla SDU in my Volvo Amazon?
What caused my electric car fire?
Testing a new iDrive gear selector
Using the Shining 3D Einstar scanner
Emptied front battery box to recycling
Blogposts using Voltvo
Checkout all blogpost when actually using our electric Volvo Amazon wagon!
So starting after the conversion and before the fire, teardown and rebuild.
