Short Summary
We are a group of Transition Year students from Wilsons Hospital School located in Westmeath, Ireland. We are passionate about our environment and want to promote eco-friendly initiatives through better understanding of green energy technologies.
As part of our Transition Year program, we are undertaking a Product Design and Development module aimed at providing training to young people in basic engineering principles. The module requires that we adopt a project-led approach to tackling an engineering design challenge over a defined period.
We have decided to start with an electric vehicle project, as we believe that with greater knowledge of how electric propulsion systems work, as the engineers and consumers of tomorrow we can make more informed choices about which technologies we employ in transitioning towards a more sustainable and eco-friendly future.
We have procured a donor project 2-seater Utility-Terrain-Vehicle (UTV), formerly powered by a 260cc petrol engine. It is our intention to carry out a ground up restoration of the UTV and specify and fit a suitable electric motor to convert it to an electric UTV (eUTV).
The primary costs related to the project are expected to be associated with purchase of the electric motor, batteries, and battery charger along with materials required as part of the restoration process. We hope to fund these project costs through donations from interested individuals and local businesses by way of either a crowdfunding and/or sponsorship model.
Your support as project donors will be critical to our success, allowing us to harvest the full scope of learning opportunity available and to perhaps inspire our team to become the young engineers and entrepreneurs of tomorrow.
What We Need
Funding requirements are broken down as follows:
Electric motor €1000
Batteries @1200
Battery charger €100
Materials (Replacement parts, paint, custom fabrication) €300
TOTAL FUNDING REQUIREMENT = €2600
The Impact
We are taking on this project as a learning opportunity to enhance our knowledge of the following:
- Green Energy Technologies (with particular focus on Electrical Propulsion Systems).
- Basic Automotive Engineering.
- Introduction to company structures and the roles allocated to different departments (e.g. Engineering, Operations, Sales and Marketing, Finance) as well as the cross functional role of Project Management.
- Engineering design constraints requiring tradeoffs between project scope, budget and timeline.
- Company financing including choosing the appropriate funding model for a new start-up.
- Learning safe and responsible use of Social Media for the purposes of product promotion through sales and marketing initiatives.
We are also keen to better understand how technology can make a difference in shaping a more eco-friendly world and to use this knowledge to help influence a more sustainable way of life.
Risks & Challenges
This is an ambitious project and as such it carries a number of risks and challenges. We have anticipated the main challenges as follows:
- Sourcing replacement parts for restoration
We have been fortunate to procure an off the shelf donor vehicle for which parts are readily available. Our intention is to rebuild and restore parts where possible both as a learning exercise and to reduce costs where it is practical to do so.
- Specifying and sourcing a suitable electric motor/batteries/charger
The electrical propulsion system will be based on off the shelf parts sourced from a reputable European based supplier. We plan on fitting a 5kW BLDC motor using a 48V system coupled with a 16 x LiFeYPO4 (3.2V/60Ah) Lithium Ion battery pack. Based on our calculations this should give us approximately a 15 mile range at nominal speed and with adequate acceleration for the purposes of this application. Use of a tried and trusted configuration and strict adherence to manufacturers specification and recommended layout should also reduce the risk of unforeseen issues.
- Funding does not reach the required target
We have specified a reasonably sophisticated battery pack and motor, but could scale this back for the initial proof of concept to reduce costs in line with available funding if required. The purpose here however is to learn about the latest trends in EV technology that might have a bearing on future products, so we will make best effort to ensure that our funding targets are realised.
Other Ways You Can Help
We greatly appreciate any contribution, big or small! However, we would also ask those who may not be in a position to contribute at this time to make a concerted effort to help share news of our campaign, either through Social Media channels or even simply by word of mouth. Every little bit helps!