Electric Car Conversion Methods For Under $500

[jnhearne]

I went to the Alternative Car Expo in Santa Monica this past weekend. All the examples are businesses that really have their act together. Electric Cars include: Chevy Volt, Nissan Leaf, Honda Fit, Toyota Prius, BMWi, Coda, Fleet, Wheego, Fisker Karma, a big shuttle van, solar powered car and so many more.

It's just disappointing that Tesla decided to forgo the event.

[ROTTIWORLD]

i guess the 14 dislikes are workers/owners in the oil industry.

[32777doug]

Not to be "redneck" but couldn't you strap a small generator to the back of the car on a Reese hitch? I've seen those generators run all day on 2 gal. And to think you'd only have to run it once the batteries were low. I would think that could make it practical for cross country trips.. Hey one more thing, what about A/C? I'm in fla and that's a must

[djkenny]

not everyone drives excessive miles each day, or could primarily use one of these for those 50 miles or less days while having a back up gas car for longer drives... or just rent one when the need arises. Win, regardless.

[advthinker]

electric cars are kewl but until you can charge the batts with static electricy like ben franklin did its wishful thinking! and one more note there is only so much copper on the planet, so not every one will be able to own one.

[themeaningoflife38]

use solar panels to charge them and the utility company gets NOTHING ha ha

[StMeade]

cool. I can't wait to convert mine. If you have solar electric, you can charge at home.

And new battery design, like lithium ion, are very promising. More compact and even more powerful.

I wonder what oil companies PAID to corrupt the EV-1 by quickly crushing each one of the beloved vehicles. I wonder if it is the same oil xillionaires that are, right now, trying to corrupt Wisconsin and Ohio's Unions.

[str8out]

Detroit's ass is sorry now for killing it EV1. Have a look at how it has become a ghost town.

[Jthetinman]

Hey big oil, check this out!! Now I'm going to do it too! So ffuuuccccckkk you!!

[therotaryrocket]

@cvmiata $8000 if you don't learn to make your own motor controller, charger, and mounts and all that. It can be done with an old fork lift electric motor as well, and if you find someone to help you fund your project or through a school or something than $500 dollars is possible.

[rank2bank]

Thanks for the vid, ive since downloaded 2 of the ebooks found on the site written on this clip & have now started building a elec car with my son using a VW - Ill be proud to say my sons first car was electric ! Thanks again for the video.....

[MrMecrob1]

Apparently that old guy can convert a car to run on electricity, but he can't put window tints on properly lol.

[jerrysjunk]

what she talking about storage dumb ass probley drives a 2009 escalade

[melbournesalsa]

This video is good, the website electricity4cars is full of pop-ups and has no merit!!!!!!

[smaqdaddy]

on the site, it's brakes not breaks...

[spo123328]

@MARTE221 What you are saying here is true, an electric car is in no way convenient and practical, but, I think it is the cool idea that people go with, not the cost, or the convenience

[MARTE221]

@MARTE221 and thats years of helping keep a clean eviroment! keeping it clean for us and our future generations! so its not just the savings!

PS that 40$ per week thats just now, gas prices will sky rocket sooner or later BP alone has less sources to get crude oil from and all what they have spent trying to seal the gulf of mexico problem. they are going to rise their prices to get their money back . and all the other gas companies are not going to stay behind!

[aznxwanabe]

Add some solar panels.

[toronto1234]

what if those battery dies and needs to be replaced? i bet the saving would already be there.

[Cdogpyjamas]

Actually I saw that documentary about the ev1. I think GM should be absolutely ashamed. Battery technology has improved heaps since those days. I like the styling of the EV1 too. I would have bought one back in the day if I had the money, although probably not because of that dodgy leasing thing GM. GM are right bastards.

[NAGGERNUTZ]

If they can figure out how to extend the range between charges, have heat and air conditioning, I'd probably own one.

[Liv2xplore]

@NAGGERNUTZ Heat and AC are actually really easy things to add and at a minimum, most of them have some sort of heat. Standard range of a production EV, such as the Nissan Leaf, or the late GM EV1 (they crushed nearly all of them after the leases were up), is generally around 100 miles. That's over 3 times my daily driving, personally. Use a separate 12 volt electric motor to drive the AC compressor, and there are several ways to get heat using the old ducting. Small water heater is just one.

[NAGGERNUTZ]

@Liv2xplore - Cost is another factor. So far, there really isn't an electric that the average family can afford. Remember, the small electric motor that you propose to drive the AC compressor and heating water still uses up valuable battery power, further cutting the range that one can travel between charges. But you're right about local around town driving. My wife and I each travel around 80 miles per day (round trip). We'd have to hit our employers up for an outlet to charge with.

[Liv2xplore]

@NAGGERNUTZ That little 12 volt electric motor would use about 10 amps or less, the car would use anywhere from 200 to 500 amps during lead foot acceleration and cruise at 100 amps or so. Those who have put them in have reported a small reduction in range, similar to percentage of using AC in a gas car. So it's a choice. As for overall range, at this time that will continue to be a sticking point for some people. But the vast majority drive 40 miles or less a day.

[Liv2xplore]

@NAGGERNUTZ Cost should come down as production continues. One EV, the Brammo Enertia (a motorcycle) dropped from almost $12,000 (admittedly very high) to about $8,000 (much better, but yes, still high). Remember the cost of a DVD player in 1995? How much now? New technology usually starts high, then drops over time as demand goes up, supplies become more available, and competition comes in. Range should also improve. But for the near future, only the vast majority could use them, not everyone.

[Cdogpyjamas]

Well of course you need to factor in the cost of the batteries, which are not that environmentally friendly. I would say that it would be a great idea to turn cars like v8's and really fuel inneficient cars to electric, however converting the del sol to electric, unless the engine is stuffed is not a good idea, part of the charm of the car is its engine, and its not fuel inneficient either. Converting it to electric is a waste of a good engine and a great car.

[jdawnnow123]

@Cdogpyjamas Your logic is obvious (you're LACKING it)! Do you really think that gasoline is enviromentally friendly? Do an experiment for me. Load up a small room such as a closet or about the size of a car with batteries and tell me what kind of side affects you have from it. Then run a hose from your tail pipe into your car and let me know which is worse for you. You're a fucking idiot and people like you are the true problem with society. People like you make me sick!

[Cdogpyjamas]

@jdawnnow123 Hey actually what I was saying is that one of these guys chose the wrong car to mess with. The del sol is a petrol driven car, but it is one of the most fuel efficient ones about, its a unique car that deserves not to be messed with. There are heaps of more fuel inefficient cars he could have chosen to convert.

[Liv2xplore]

@Cdogpyjamas Unfortunately an inefficient petrol would be an inefficient electric. Your standard lead acid batteries are over 99% recyclable. The Del Sol makes a good conversion for some of the same reasons it has good milage. Low curb weight and low drag coefficient. And the point of doing the conversion is not to have the car pay for itself, it's to break away from the stranglehold that big oil holds on the world. It doesn't matter how little petrol it uses, it still uses it.

[Cdogpyjamas]

@Liv2xplore I have driven a del sol for the past 3 years, and I definately will not be converting it to electric until the engine is completely worn out. The engine won't make the same sound, it won't be the same. All the other cars I don't care about, but I won't be having an electric engine especially with all the SUV's range rovers and other bad choice of car as far as fuel efficiency goes that other people have on the road.

[Liv2xplore]

@Cdogpyjamas LOL! That's another one of those personal choices. Odds are the engine was toast or close to it to reduce the cost of the glider. I'm considering a Volkswagon bug or a Geo Metro for my next conversion. Now all I need is a garage. I agree with your problem with the SUV's. I drove past a Hummer today and just thought about how much all that chrome cost to move down the road. Save the SUV for going off road, get something more efficient for commuting.

[dieselcowboy777]

new nano-technology has reduced the recharge time to about 15 minutes

[starmanskye]

Google 'Who killed the electric car', a great documentary that digs the dirt on why GM decided to cancel and deep-6 its EV-1 project despite how overwhelmingly popular & desireable it was. They blew it big-time. Fuck-em.

[starmanskye]

One BIG reason GM failed is because of their attitude, like the bullshit idiocy of pulling ALL their EV-1's off the road at end of lease and shredding them, even when their former drivers BEGGED to buy them. GM decided they were not a public-transportation-product company providing reliable, cost-efficient cars people wanted but a corporate entity looking to preserve its lmarket share. They should have mass-marketted a basic EV-1 vehicle while developing support services & better batteries.

[redgoldbluephantom]

7 hours to charge, with only a 70 mile range, with little to no storage space, surrounded with enough voltage to kill four cows,... and he's laughing at people who drive regular cars?!

[TakayaFreeman]

Better range and less time to charge in today's cars now-a-days.

[starmanskye]

@redgoldbluephantom -- While it costs you what, $60 a month just to commute to work, most of the time hauling just yourself & while YOU drive around with enough explosive liquid to incinerate a city block. Dontcha know yet, it ain't whatcha GOT, but whether it FITS YOUR NEEDS. He's laughing because he's not under the oil companies' thumb, the $1000's he saves can be better spent on what he likes, and it just FEELS GOOD when you do something yourself that is so damn smart & coool.

[shadowgames824]

@starmanskye i second that :)

[redgoldbluephantom]

If production vehicles are required to meet specific safety and environmental factors and still have problems (e.g. Toyota) how much more risky is a homemade car that runs entirely batteries connected in series. There are no standards for the electrical set-ups of homemade cars and there are virtually no homemade electric car makers who will put their car through a crash safety test. The time and money that goes into making a death-trap might not be worth the risk.

[Liv2xplore]

@redgoldbluephantom Every one of them made has to go through their local state inspections and changed on their title from gas to electric (so you don't have to go through emissions). As a private, blue collar, middle class individual, I'm not going to spend my time and money destroying what I just built, either. I know this won't satisfy your issues, but the big 3 have been avoiding these for too long and they need to get off their lazy butts, drop the ICE's, and pick up the batteries.

[redgoldbluephantom]

@Liv2xplore State inspections to not adequately assure that a car is completely safe in crash situations. They neither have the time nor the equipment to assure this. A state inspection does not assure that a car with a $500 - $1000 homemade electric modification is as safe in a collision as one built by engineers who have put their vehicles through tests costing millions of dollars.

[Liv2xplore]

@redgoldbluephantom So, what you want, is for the government to step in and make these things illegal? Why stop there, motorcycles are many times less safe than a car, do you think a helmet is sufficient? How about experimental aircraft? Razor type scooters are incredibly dangerous and ridden by small children who could hurt themselves. Ever heard of someone changing an engine in a car to a bigger one? How safe is that? Has it been tested? These things should be regulated!

[Liv2xplore]

@redgoldbluephantom If you can't tell, I'm against anybody saying I shouldn't do anything I want that does not interfere with the rights of others. If I build an EV, it passes inspection, I crash it, and get injured due to my own negligence in design, IT'S MY OWN FAULT! If I jump out of a plane and I mispacked my parachute, IT'S MY OWN FAULT! People really need to start taking blame for their own actions and then we won't have people like you trying to stop everything "unsafe" for our own good!

[Liv2xplore]

@redgoldbluephantom What if the Wright brothers had listened to someone like you? I'm sure Henry Ford had people talking about how unsafe his contraption was. As did Thomas Edison, Ben Franklin, and any other innovator that has come up with something different. So I'll take my chances with my design, because I'm tired of being one of the millions of people to blame for BP because I use gasoline, tired polluting with toxic chemicals from my car, tired of being told to do what everyone else does.

[redgoldbluephantom]

@Liv2xplore The car has already been invented. Electric and hybrid cars exist, they have been tested and (thanks to the American government) there are a number of discounts and incentives for buying one. Henry Ford's Model T was production vehicle, so it had to meet the government safety standards of the time.

[Liv2xplore]

@redgoldbluephantom So, with over 5000 home conversions out there, I'm sure you can site example of where these dangerous vehicles have caused such catastrophic injuries. Such as the car fire this morning on the news, wait, that was a gas powered car. The big 3 makers have only dipped their toes in the electric market, Ranger EV, destroyed after lease (with few exceptions), GM EV1, destroyed after lease, BMW MiniE, $800/mth lease, return after lease is up.

[redgoldbluephantom]

@Liv2xplore Does that "over 5000" number encompass the entire world, the U.S.? Is it just about cars or other homemade electric means of transportation (cars, scooters, skateboards, wheelchairs, Big Wheels, etc.). Or is it one of those unverifiable numbers that people who are trying to sell books or online tutorials make up?

Even if the number was real, such a low volume would naturally have fewer accidents than production vehicles.

[Liv2xplore]

@redgoldbluephantom What this really seems to boil down to, is that we disagree about the role that government safety regulations should play in our live. I believe that, as a citizen of the USA, I can pretty much do whatever I want that doesn't impede the Constitutional rights of others. I believe, and this is really just a guess, that you don't think we should be able to anything for ourselves without some gov agency looking over our shoulders making sure we don't get hurt.

[Liv2xplore]

@redgoldbluephantom Just so you know, many of those incentives and tax credits are fully available to someone who does a home conversion. So, I guess we have the blessing of the almight Federal Government to build these things on our own. I believe, and I could be wrong, that you are a very Liberal minded person, politically. I however am a conservative that wants as small a gov as possible. One that doesn't want to have an agency looking over my shoulder at everything I do.

[redgoldbluephantom]

@Liv2xplore With no standardized set-up (types of circuits used, placement of batteries, amount of voltage, etc.) and standardized testing (including a crash test) the potential for serious injury or death is always present. The government has the duty to ensure public safety. What a person makes in his or her home is not an issue as long as it is a private matter. But automobile safety is not a private matter because a car is driven on public roads.

[Liv2xplore]

@redgoldbluephantom Those of us with an interest in electric cars would LOVE a standarization of all of these things. We would LOVE for car companies to pick up the gauntlet that has been thrown down and build affordable, tested vehicles. For some reason, they put out a small test group with little or no advertising, say that no one wants them, then shelve the concept. Battery placement and voltage will always vary just as size of gas engine and placement of gas tank does now

[redgoldbluephantom]

The forgotten factor in discussing homemade electric cars is the safety of the driver, the person in the other car he may run into and the paramedic who tries to save a person from a crashed electric car. The life-saving tools and machines used to free people from a smashed vehicle are metallic. With batteries in unknown places (as opposed to production cars) put in non-standard configurations the end result could be fatal for more than just the driver and the people in the accident.

[Liv2xplore]

@redgoldbluephantom Do you really think a firefighter knows the location of all the Hybrid batteries out there? Or even where the starter battery is in all cars? Inertia switches are standard to cut power from the batteries in case of accident. This is certainly not a forgotten factor. I honestly am beginning to think you work for big oil. So, tell me about how safe oil rigs are in the Gulf of Mexico?

[redgoldbluephantom]

@Liv2xplore Firefighters and EMT's are trained on how to deal with hybrids and electric cars in a crash situation. Also they have specialized equipment to save a person trapped in an electric/hybrid car. For example, states had to buy a different set of the "Jaws of Life" that were designed to prevent an electric current from passing from the car to the rescue worker who is prying open an electric/hybrid car. Cut-offs and inertia switches obviously were not enough.

[kuvceebxab1]

If the government wouldn't do it, the auto makers would'nt do it since the gas company is on top of them, we the people will take the lead, we have the the will and the courage to afffect changes and lead the leaders.

[shadowgames824]

@kuvceebxab1 not really... cause if that were the case we would all be driving electric cars, powering our home with free energy (the sun) our leaders would be investing our tax dollars into free energy research instead of blowing it on useless crap that 9 times out of 10 dosent work.. if they did invest in thing that would free up from these companys life would be alot better.... the people no longer have a say in where we go and what the goverment does...:( its the sad truth buddy...

[trade350]

website just wants you to buy book for $47 but they are going to raise price to $69 hurry hurry

[trade350]

$8000 it says in the video

[yesiamanalien]

I will say that electric cars can totally kick the butts of any internal combustion car when it comes to acceleration and top speed... presuming the electric motor is sized properly. Getting a lot of range is the hard part. 100 mile range is about the top range using current lead/acid batteries. However, there are other battery technologies out there.. at a price of course.

[recovercast]

Yeah, gasoline is best at sustained high output. Try flying across the Atlantic Ocean at 600 MPH with electric power.

However, I agree: I like the idea of building all electric muscle car that can kill these big gas gulping muscle cars at the stop lights. :D