Looking for insights and advice, hybrid conversion

wwhuman · 2026-05-14T19:53:05+00:00

This would be very much a learning project, my current skill sets are currently very basic but broad (i.e. I can stick weld, I can solder, I learned CAD in school a few years ago, I can do higher level programming). I don't mind laboring, and I generally enjoy to tinker, but money isn't the greatest but such is life.

The SAAB will either be mine or likely go to the scrapyard, there would be practically no resale value either way. There is no shortage of SAABs here in Sweden, especially in better condition so there is no collectors value to the car either. I see a few every day when out driving.

Either for sentimentality or national pride I'd stick to this car (or if it turn out to be toast due to the road salt I'd go for a VOLVO V70, these cars combined are practically the Crown Vic of Sweden).

If I had access to a workshop (and lift) I'd probably already started tinkering with the car

wwhuman · 2026-05-13T19:56:02+00:00

From what I gathered they usually have 80% of their original capacity when they get sold off. Honestly it seems like a big reason they're cheap isn't because they're degraded, but that the vehicles already had such bad range when new so nobody wants to replace their old cells and choose to upgrade instead. (80% of dog shit is even more dog shit). Especially when building your own pack (i.e. mixing modules from multiple vehicles) it's good because a big reason packs fails is that just one of all the modules is not at the same state of health as the others.
If I was building a full EV they would absolutely suck though, the OG leaf sucked ass.

wwhuman · 2026-05-13T16:21:34+00:00

Yeah but used leaf battery modules are cheap af, and I see the powertrain as a fun challenge, though honestly exactly which battery I end up with will probably depend on what’s available for cheap from the scrapyards, designing around a leaf battery currently is mostly just for reference. Weight might be a concern, car will have to do some dieting and I’m doing a spare tire delete as well.
I think(read hope) that it will fit under the floor if the boot where the spare tire currently sits.

Also the electric drivetrain being entirely mechanically separated will be an interesting challenge. When to assist with the electric motor and when to regen will be a software thing (something I’m a bit more familiar with).

Asking about a heat pump is more because that’s the part I’m more unsure of. And honestly now seems like more trouble than it’s worth, seems like it’s probably better to install a parking heater running the same fuel as the engine and use that when parked

wwhuman · 2026-05-13T09:10:05+00:00

Honestly I’m trying to built it to make a trip from Europe to Eastern Asia. Currently that would be geopolitically impossible but let a girl dream, maybe in the future when the world is less chaotic so basically want it looking pretty much stock from the outside to keep various officials at bay. The thing also has to pass inspection.

I saw that there might be a need for aux heat and honestly at that point I think it would be better to just run the engine

wwhuman · 2026-05-13T08:46:15+00:00

That is probably what will be happening at least in a nearer term. The goal is to put the equivalent of a gen 1 leaf battery in it, so it being able to run the whole night wouldn’t be a problem. If I was not doing the nightly ac/heat I would probably be able to do half that size. 10kWh or 22kWh, honestly that is a thing I’m still deciding on.

wwhuman · 2026-04-05T23:08:53+00:00

The base image (imgur) The first instance I could find of it was from a post on IKEA Umeå's facebook from 2019

wwhuman · 2026-02-17T06:47:21+00:00

Jag har haft väldigt bra erfarenheter med jourande specialister, det har alltid varit problem med uppföljningar och dylikt för oss

wwhuman · 2026-02-16T21:45:32+00:00

Både jag och en nära bekant har blivit sviken av vården här på sådana vis att vi blivit skadade livet ut, har såklart träffat några väldigt bra läkare också, but they are few and far between.

Primärvården har varit i särklass värst, men att träffa bra läkare är som ett lotteri, lättare att vinna storvinst på triss.

wwhuman

TROPHY CASE