Welcome to the Electric Car Weblog. In addition to links, news, and tips about electric cars and other forms of alternative transportation we are publishing an on-line diary of our current EV project. Started in August 2005 the chronicle follows the conversion of a gas powered Ford Probe into an Electric Car.
You will find articles organized by categories, along with recent comments, along the right hand column of the website. If you are just getting started with the idea of converting a gas car to electric be sure to check out Your First Electric Car .
Welcome and enjoy!
-Jerry
You will find articles organized by categories, along with recent comments, along the right hand column of the website. If you are just getting started with the idea of converting a gas car to electric be sure to check out Your First Electric Car .
Welcome and enjoy!
-Jerry
- Darin passed along this link to one of the winners of last week’s Tour de Sol. This was in the Plug-in Hybrid competition and is a completely unique approach. I think Darin liked it because it’s close to the EV Pusher (or is that Pusher EV?) that he’s talked about before. It’s a Honda Insight with an EV Wheel. Lot’s of information, pics, and totally technical all of the way. Also information on their MIMA (Modified Integrated Motor Assist).
- I’m still trying to find someone that wants to sell batteries to me for Eve. In the process I’ve been using the EV Calculator quite a bit. One thing that I’ve been kind of winging was the percent incline, putting in 2% thinking that’s a good average. Well, yesterday I ran across this Grade Percent Incline and Downgrade Calculator and put in the elevation gain (~600 feet) for the last mile to our house: 11% incline! I can tell you from experience that it’s not the kind of hill you want to climb when your pack is feeling blue…
- Toyota and Aisin Seiki are making dye-sensitized photocells for homes and cars.
- Maybe some good news for more widespread wind power. Knight & Carver’s Wind Blade Division has developed adaptive low speed wind turbine blades.
Comment [5]
Eve, the video · 15 May 06
It was a weekend of non-stop rain here in New Hampshire, with over three inches falling Saturday and Sunday (southern parts of the state had up to 15”!). Thought about trying to make it to the Tour de Sol but the rainy weather and desire to get some more work done on Eve won over.
I borrowed a camera from work and shot a little (well, 4.8MB) movie of this weekend’s action.
Enjoy!
EV Pusher · 12 May 06
Psst…
Hey…
Hey, buddy!
Hey, yeah, you! You wanna buy an EV? Check out my suitcase here, I got all of the popular ones. Blue, red, black, white, and even some of them, whatcha call “off colors”.
And for you? Well, beings that I like ya I’ll let her go real cheap!
And then there’s the other kind of EV Pusher…
- Don’t forget the big Midwest AFV event in Joliet, IL. I’ve been following the EVList progress as some of the notable EV racers make their way across the country for EV Drag Races at the High Voltage Nationals to be be held May 13 at the Route 66 Dragway in Joliet. UPDATE: unfortunately the weather turned cold and damp, with temps in the low 30’s expected tonight and no chance for the track surface to recover. They have canceled the event, no new date yet.
- For those of us on the soggy East coast there’s the Tour de Sol. More picture from the Tour de Sol: one, two, three, and four.
- Newly developed high strength, heat resistant bio plastic for automobiles made from “natural” products.
- This year’s Tour de Sol kicked off yesterday in Saratoga Spa State Park, NY with the technical testing for championship vehicles. The folks over at AutoAuditorium have posted some photographs from the event. The entrants come from all across the US and Canada, with one entry making the trip from Delhi College of Engineering in India. Today is the press and fleet-only events, tomorrow is “Student Day,” and Saturday is the big auto show at Saratoga Automobile Museum’s Spring Auto Show. Here’s a map of Saratoga for directions.
- Living in the Albemarle, NC area? Stanly Community College will be offering classes starting next week on building an electric car.
- AFT Trinity has filed for a patent on a plug-in hybrid system claiming an effective fuel economy of 250mpg, using ultra-capacitors and grid-charged batteries. It looks like what they’ve really done is string together a bunch of buzzwords and concocted an attention getting mpg, while failing to mention how much electricity it takes to achieve this and the non-gas costs.
- Shifting Gears, a 20 point plan from the Natural Resources Council of Maine and Environment Maine.
- The DOE has announced the H-Prize, “Scientists, inventors and entrepreneurs will be able to vie for a grand prize of $10 million, and smaller prizes reaching millions of dollars, under House-passed legislation to encourage research into hydrogen as an alternative fuel.”
- Shawn’s Zero, electric zero-turn mower. Shawn was the big guy (on the electric team) in the Monster Garage EV episode. Shawn also created an EV dragster, Orange Juice. More news on the mower.
- File this under better late than never (I forgot to post about it): the Midwest AFV Expo (alt fueled vehicles) is this Saturday the 13th in Joliet, IL. More info over at FVEAA.org. Sounds like a number of fellow EV’ers will be there.
- I stumbled across Chris’s ‘94 Geo Electricar in the EVAlbum. What caught my eye is the removable battery pack.
- ProEV has a nice photo series on how to build your own braided battery interconnects. They also make up some longer straps.
- Not ready for EVs yet (if ever) but it might be cool to have one or two of these flywheels buried in the back yard storing wind/sun/hydro energy during the day to be dumped into your EV at night and augment the household power.
- An interesting article on the history of maps.
Comment [2]
Stuck at B · 8 May 06
I’ve been supporting the local economy lately: buying up lots of their old car parts and then paying a local shop to press them into place.
Last week marked the end (well, almost) of the brake and bearing work. As for the rest of the items in the “B” alphabet we are still stuck on the Battery part, but making some progress.
- Daimler & BMW developing a advanced integrated electric motor and fixed-gear tranny for hybrids.
- Best tires for fuel economy
- Debunking the myth of EVs and Smokestacks (27Kb PDF). [via ElectricMotorcycles.net]
- Want some of that free learnin’? Berkeley is podcasting courses with Engineering, Physical Sciences, Science & Tech Events and many others.
- Cadsoft free electronics layout editor, Eagle
- Thinking of making an electric lawnmower? Here’s a couple candidate motors: 24vdc 1.54hp and a 115vac motor w/switch
- Ladies and Gentlemen, start your electric car conversions! Administration says gas prices will remain high.
Comment [8]