Chavez EV Conversions
One day I came across a childhood favorite, a 1969 Triumph GT6. While in the process of restoring the car, I was approached and asked if I would be interested in converting the car to an EV and selling it. That day I started Chavez Conversions.
1969 Triumph GT6
The first car on the EV conversion list was a 1969 Triumph GT 6. This was a great car to convert as the heavy inline 6-cylinder gas engine did not produce much horsepower for this lightweight car. After removing the engine and associated gas components, I was left with the decision of how to go about the conversion. I settled on a D&D motor and a Prius battery pack. The main issue was how to get everything to work together. Selecting the parts was easy. I decided to create a simple architecture that would allow me to use the inverter, charger, and BMS as standalone units. This just left the need for main supervisory controller and the issue that the BMS CAN messages were unknown. I was able to find an aftermarket EV conversion kit that allowed the supervisory controller to talk to the BMS and was programmable. The result was a fast, nimble car that could go 100 miles on a single charge.
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In my lessons learned review, I noted that while the Prius battery seemed to work for this project, it was not ideal. I wound up replacing the battery pack with a standalone lithium battery pack.
