Rather than roll my own (And I did think about it - but do you know how hard it is to deal with the back EMF produced by a 40 HP motor?) I decided to buy a conventional EV controllor and motor set. Well, mostly conventional anyway - I ended up going with the AC drive system made by Siemens and sold (occasionally and perhaps in small quanities) at Metric Mind by a fine and helpful individual named Victor. I only wish my experiences with Solectra corperation had been as plesant - rumor has it they have the batteries I'd like to use, but it doesn't seem very likely that I will ever get them to admit it.

Anyway, back to the drive. The drive is AC with regeneration - the inverter is rated 250A continuous (I think), so at my 288V expected pack voltage, that will be 72,000W continuous, or about 90 HP. The inverter and motor are water cooled - I will likely use this water as cabin heat along with a large (1500W) resistive element or perhaps some peltiers if I'm feeling exotic.

The motor I selected is, frankly, overbuilt for my application. It is rated for 45kW continuous power (61 HP). By using CarTest, I was able to determine that 61 HP would maintain 92 MPH (if the power loss curves are accurate in that fine peice of software - and I tend to beleive that they are). Obviously, this is a little faster than one normally likes to cruise - and since aerodynamic losses are logrythmic, that means this is a LOT more current than I will normally be drawing.

One of the nice things about the controller is that it uses a fairly high voltage.. high enough that the draw on the battery pack at cruising will be pretty mild - nice Puekert curve coming out of that puppy..

The motor and inverter have arrived. Photos of the motor are available here and here and the inverter here

Blueprints of the drive are available here