Henry's 1997 Mazda 323 Astina

Owner	Henry Taylor
Location	Marburg, Queensland Australia ^map
Email
Vehicle	1997 Mazda 323 Astina I have just purchased a 1997 Mazda 323 Astina, 2litre v6 with 5speed manual trans, to develop it into an EV. I aim to achieve spritely performance with 120km endurance at speeds ranging between 50kmph and 90kmph for town and secondary road driving.
Motor	At this time I am considering using a 203- 06-4001A motor, dual shaft to enable running accessories and develop a regenerative charging system. Are there motors available with built in Regen?
Drivetrain	5 speed manual, front wheel drive. I am yet to decide whether to develop this car with a clutch or without a clutch. I would like to hear advice from builders with experience and considered opinion on whether the benefits of having a clutch justify the power required to rotate that mass on the output shaft of the motor.
Batteries	0.00 Volt, I know they are very expensive but my wish list is for LiPo batteries for high power to weight ratio, faster charging and longer life. Glad to receive advice on battery choice. I think that Lithium batts will become more significant for EVs as they become cheaper through improved production techniques and increased competition between producers. Safety and ease of management will improve too. No doubt Li batts will be superseded with other electro-chemistry in future. I'd like to see any battery system offered with temperature and charge monitoring for every cell, with that information available on an indicator with significant anomalies alerted to the operator.
Conversion Cost	Itemised list in Australian Dollars: Donor Car $900.00
Additional Features	The base car is a very well featured vehicle, top of it's range that year with lots of electricity hungry accessories - powered windows, driving lights, aircon, central locking, lots of internal lights, power steering(likely to need a motor), central locking etc.. . From the commencement of this project I aim to pull the fuses on the un-essential systems and bring them on line as I find ways to minimise each systems load. An early priority for the car will be to replace the incandescent lights of the external lighting system with low load LED lights.
I apologise for not having a anything of substance to contribute to the EV Album at this time but I will regularly update the info on my project car and hopefully that will be agreeably entertaining for other folks. My object in this project is to develop an EV that I will use every day or every journey that is less than 120km round trip originating from my home. I will be grateful for any information and experience that EV builders might like to share. Thanks for reading, Henry Taylor

code by jerry