My name is Ed Clausen and I have been an enthusiast of electric vehicles since 2009. My first electrical vehicle (EV) was a 2010 Nissan Leaf. I got the Leaf because it was one of the first production EVs and because Nissan was offering an incredible lease deal - only $69 month! I would have purchased the Leaf at the end of the lease but because of the low lease rate the residual value was too high. The Leaf was a great car, it had all the electronic luxury and creature comfort items. It drove really well and was very stable due to the mass of the battery pack being low. The one feature of the Leaf that I did not like, however, was its limited range on a full charge. At best the true metro driving range was only 65 miles and that was driving to the limp mode, 60 miles was really the practical range. The Leaf could have had a lot more range, but Nissan was very conservative with its battery management. Out of the 24kW-h battery pack capacity they only charged to 18kW-h and then they limit the discharge to 4kW-h. They probably did this because they had to warrant the battery for 10 years.
I started the BMW conversion in January of 2014, but have been working on the drive electronics for over two years before I started the conversion. The limited range of the Leaf has been one of my primary reasons for doing the conversion. I have four design goals for the conversion. The first is that the driving range has to be a true 100 mile range. The second is that the car has to be able to go to 100 mph. The third, it has to have room and capacity to carry people and or sports equipment like golf clubs, skis or bicycles. And fourth, the car has to look great and be a blast to drive.The BMW 320i seems to be capable of meeting all of these goals!
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