An EV needs some batteries

The motor I'm using is the NetGain HyPer9HV IS AC motor, which requires me to have batteries that output around 144volt. After looking at a bunch of options, I decided to go with first-gen Nissan Leaf battery modules, since (a) they are inexpensive, (b) they don't require active cooling, and their form factor allows for some fun options on the Classic Mini (more on that later). 

To get 144V total, I got 20 first-gen Nissan Leaf battery modules. I sourced them from ThunderStruck EV, since they are local and I could go pick up everything by car. Shipping those batteries was a non-starter.

Above is an image that shows the batteries in their current, temporary home, in our family room next to the Nintendo GameCube. They are sitting between the legs of an old Epson P7000 printer stand on wheels that I modified a bit with some plywood, thereby creating a serviceable vehicle buck.

The batteries are in a single stack that should fit into the trunk of the Mini, after I do some cutting with the angle grinder and weld in some new supports. The above image is taken before I squeezed all of the batteries together by tightening nuts on the threaded through rods to the appropriate torque spec, which I took as 85 in-lbs as per this great webpage.

NOTE: Other than 144V, there is a bunch of other considerations in choosing batteries, including ampere hours, max sustained amperage draw, etc.  I read a bunch at the time, and these 20 guys will do just fine connected in a series. If I want double the range (which I probably will), I believe I should not add another series of 20 modules; instead, I should create a single series of 20 doubled-up modules.  However, I wasn't doing this build thread at the time, so I didn't record all the websites and info that I read. If people have links they want to add here, please do so in the comments.