Putting a Nissan leaf motor into a VW cabriolet
it fits so good!
Hardware
Using the leaf gearbox, and our leaf drive shaft stubs, the stock VW axles bolt right up!
Just so happens that the full leaf stack! (gearbox, motor, inverter, PDM (power distribution module)) fits under the hood! The leaf battery tray, and fuse box fit nicely in the original VW 12v battery location as well.
A Honda accelerator position sensor is mounted on the side of the leaf stack, with the original VW throttle cable attached.
Controlling the leaf stack
The leaf Motor and PDM are controlled via CANBUS
There are many controllers out there that run the motor and PDM via can, the controller we are using is the zombieverter VCU
The Zombieverter VCU(vehicle control unit) is an opensoruce EV VCU. The zombie has many different hardware and software features for controlling a growing list of OEM (original manufacture equipment) parts: motors, chargers, heaters, pumps, dashboards, etc.
Its very powerful, and makes it pretty easy to run the full leaf stack. All it need is 12v and canbus!
The zombie vcu has a few outputs, we can use these to control the original gauges in the vw to display rpm, battery state of charge, etc. as well as the HV contactors, heaters and water pump.
There’s also a series of inputs on the zombie vcu, for things like the throttle pedal, break pedal, temperature, shunts (measures electrical current). Aswell as set up buttons and switches for different features like cruise control, hill hold, traction control, etc
Updating and tuning the parameters on the VCU is straightforward too, it has a little wifi board built in, so using our phone or computer we can change settings and update it to the latest firmware updates that might be available via a web browser.
Cost
full part list, prices in CAD (continually updating):
- zombiverter vcu 500$
- enclosure and header 130$
- gen 2 Nissan leaf stack (gearbox, motor, inverter, pdm, charge port, chademo, battery cable) 1200$
- leaf water pump
- leaf stub shaft adapters 500$
- type 1 to type 2 conversion flanges 120$
- honda throttle cable sensor 50-100$
- smart fortwo 17kwh battery 1000$
- steel from off cut bin 0-100$
- hose & fittings 50-100$
- HV wiring (welding cable, crimp terminals, etc) 50-150$
current costs: 4000$ CAD
now, these costs are an average of what these parts go for in BC Canada, you can defiantly get them for a lot less if you know where to look!
the red paint is nice….but nothing like the original city STROMer!
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