>You can get in on the ground floor now (wish I had the money
>to start a shop related to this). There is significant
>potential here (no pun intended). If I could find an investor
>I'd be putting together a business right now.
Jens, apparently someone has beat you to it - only just tho:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit_Electric
Check out the hub motors.
Anyway, in keeping with your thread, here's some info you may find interesting.
1) The current easily aquired battery of choice for the high rate charge/discharge requirements of an electric car is the Optima Yellow top.
2) These batteries cost about $200 per KWh and each KWh weighs about 50LBS.
3) The elctric motor of choice is made by a company out of New York called ADC. It's about 10" in diameter and about 20" long. They probably weigh a couple of hundred pounts. You can make an adapter plate and bolt on your current flywheel and then attach the assembly to your tranny. These motors can be custom engineered to create 250 lb/ft of torque from about 1000 to 5000 RPM. That's constant flat-ass torque with. BTW [250lb/ft x 5000RPM]/5252 = 238HP
4) Assuming you us an average of 100HP continuouse on a stage you need about 100HPx.1.5effx.746KW/hp =~ 100KW continuous average from your batteries. 100KW @ about 200V = 500A which is reasonable since most on the existing motor controllers can surge to 1800A or so.
So, all the components you need exist and there is little development necessary.
BUT, you need about 50KWh worth of battery storage to run ONE 15 min stage. 50KWh x 50LBS per KWh = 2500 LBs of batteries.
Therein lies the problem. It ain't happening.
Note - you could certainly do a slower car for 1000Lbs of batteries.
Note2 - subies are the easiest cars to convert.