Why Electric Car Conversions?
Some of you might ask the question “why would anyone want to do Electric Car Conversions?” and that is a very good question. To start off I have to ask you a question. How many miles do you drive during a normal given day? According to the BTS (Bureau of Transportation Statistics) that number for the average American is going to be less than 40. That being said, if you do in-fact travel less than 40 miles per day, an electric car may be the perfect commuter tool for you. First off, electric cars are very very simple in their mechanics, encompassing an electric drive motor, batteries and a drive controller (there is a little more involved than that, however that is outside the scope of this post). First off, wouldn’t it be nice if we didn’t have to change our oil every 3K miles? Well, electric cars require virtually no maintenance. There can be a little involved depending upon the type of batteries you use, however that can be as simple as adding water once a month. Isn’t that great?! No more maintenance! There’s more, electric cars have no localized emissions. What do I mean by localized emissions? That can be summed up by saying some forms of generating electricity generate emissions, such as coal fired and nuclear base load power plants. However they are much easier to control / regulate than all the current mobile power plants we have in our ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) automobiles. Lastly, wouldn’t it be nice to sit in traffic with the windows down and not hear all that engine noise? Electric cars are virtually silent. When you are not moving, the motor is not turning. Unlike IC engines that are always generating power, even when you are not moving. Think about it, you are sitting in traffic as mentioned above, looking around at all the cars and you don’t hear engines or smell exhaust… How great would that be! So despite limited drawbacks, electric cars are a great way to get around locally, which for most of us will cover about 95% of our driving.
So ask yourself this: Why NOT do Electric Car Conversions? Driving around in an electric car sounds pretty cool to me!
August 13th, 2008 at 11:41 am
There is really no good economic nor environmental reason for building an electric car. The amount of carbon
you will not cause to be emitted, over that that would have been emitted by gasoline is small. There is also the fact that emissions from electrical generation are far more harmful to humans than anything coming out of a tailpipe.
Economically, you would have to find a donor car that costs practically nothing and a cheap electric motor (AC motors are OUT - they can easily cost $5,000). Batteries for a cheap job will have to be obsolete lead acids, which are not particularly Earth friendly - they are considered hazardous material and cannot be shipped by anything other than truck. Lithium ions you couldn’t afford, or at least wouldn’t want to waste $20,000 worth of batteries in a junker. They might last about 5 years. GM Volt will have a 10 year battery warranty, but that’s only because it uses only half of its battery pack’s capacity. As for no
maintenance, gas powered cars have practically none - my Buick requires new spark plugs at 100,000 and a new fan belt. Trans oil change every 50,000 miles and oil change at 7500 miles. All other maintenance requirements (you know, those things electric car shills never mention, like brake pads, chasis lubrication, rear end oil, trans oils, if your EV uses a trans like most do,
wiper blades, etc. Most parts that fail in a car have nothing to do with the engine or drivetrain- power windows, steering , etc. 95% of the parts in an gasoline car are also found in an electric car. And those parts break and need to be replaced - that’s called maintenance.
Your electric car will have no heating or AC - lucky you.
It will likely not have power steering or power brakes. Lucky you. Homemade EVs are primitive pains in the butt.
If you think you will never have to work on your electric,
you obviously don’t know very much about automobiles.
August 15th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
Your blog is interesting!
Keep up the good work!
September 2nd, 2008 at 3:44 pm
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