Lightning Bug

Dale Kling of Otsego Michigan has built an electric powered car from a restored 1969 VW Beetle he calls the Lightning Bug. Using lead acid batteries, and a NetGain WarP Impulse 9 electric motor, his electric beetle a getting 100 miles per 8-hour charge. Good enough for Kling to get around town.
Video by Mark Bugnaski / Kalamazoo Gazette / Mlive

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Michigan
• Electric
• Car
• VW
• Beetle
• WarP
• batteries
• Kalamazoo
• Mlive
• Bugnaski

[markstang1965]

Nice job Dale !! Nice seeing you again too.

[whiteribbonman1]

I'm gonna keep searching for more videos from you electric Beetle owners, but, for now, you're just not showing enough to convince me it's worth the money and time. You don't explain your Beetle's top possible speed, unless you don't know what that is, how long you can maintain that top speed, whether the car is auto now or still manually shifted and how much it's gonna cost approximate to have it done. I'm currently looking for a way to increase my Beetle's top speed to 80 or 90 mph.

[jasonmotley]

This is one of those rare videos that shows an electric car can go even in the snow... thanks for showing that.

[bloodstone1445]

100 miles for 9 lead acid batteries? Awesome.

[mathghamain]

@creamyfilling102

Didn't you see the Two batteries under the bonnet? They arent standard size batteries. They looked like gargantuan, and there are another four in the back. Mr Kling does not seem like a braggart.

[stiantiger]

I would love to have one like this! Mine would be applegreen candy,and I would call it SneakyBugg cuz it's so silent. LOL!!

[creamyfilling102]

only 9 batteries? 100 mile range. you sir are a liar.

[lexam55]

how many hours make full charge?

[jaysonlemon]

hey dale. I saw you a while back driving down the road. I was going to chase you down to look at it. I would love to see it sometime Jason

[unixtm]

Very nice conversion! How many miles on it now? Hope you're happy with the ImPulse 9, it is a nice match for the VW, the WarP 9 is about the max power a stock VW tranny can handle, but people are also using the WarP 11 (not recommended as the pressure plates (even racing ones) will have a difficult time with the 11" torque...) Looking forward to more videos!