ME 495P - Ford Ranger EV

Project Description

The 1999 Ford Ranger EV contains a battery pack that provides 312 V to power the vehicle.  Replacement batteries are no longer available for owners of this vehicle.  A conversion kit is needed to allow replacement of the existing batteries with off-the-shelf deep cycle batteries capable of powering the vehicle.  The batteries must fit in the existing case and be compatible with the existing controller.

Our goal of making a conversion kit to replace the off-the shelf batteries proved to be much more difficult than we anticipated, and from our work, we found that the best way to make a kit is to have a controller made and use 12V batteries to replace the existing batteries.  Adapting a new controller to the car as well as installing 12V batteries will also require manufacturing a new case for the batteries and controller.  The rest of this webpage documents our findings throughout our project, as well as our final conclusions.

University of Washington

Mechanical Engineering

ME 495P - Electric Truck Design Project

Battery Pack