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
EVAlbum · 2 May 06
For the past few months (it’s all a blur!) we’ve been spending some free evenings and weekends working on an important EV project. Not making an EV this time, but creating a tool for all of the folks who have made or are thinking of making their own electric car, bike, scooter, boat, lawnmower, tractor, and, hey, maybe even an electric airplane.
It’s the new EVAlbum:
Bob's EV · 1 May 06
A few days ago I posted a link to a story about Bob Hurst and the EV he made during the 70’s oil crisis.
As chance would have it his son ran across another part of this site a few days later and sent an email suggesting I post something about his Dad’s story.
We exchanged emails and James sent a few photos over for our viewing pleasure.
Update 5/1/06: added some more pictures
- Plug-in cars to the rescue? Like EVs the plug-in hybrids could be used to “shore up” the power grid when needed:
The batteries in thousands of plug-in hybrids, connected to the grid through two-way household outlets, could bridge this gap between generation and delivery. Indeed, some studies estimate utilities might pay EV owners $1,000 to $2,000 a year for using their batteries to help balance and stabilize the grid.
I have used the batteries in our first ev for running an inverter to keep our fridge/freezer going during extended power outages. It was a hack, but useful one all the same. - Steven Miracle, living in neighboring Vermont, is wrapping up work on his EV to enter it in the upcoming Tour de Sol (May 10-14).
- Been meaning to post that Peter has updated his website with more information on the conversion from DC to AC: www.solarvan.co.uk
- Modec Electric Van, from England, has a 100 miles range, a top speed of 50 mph, and over two tons of carrying capacity.
- Some wiki entries to fill in your lunch break reading time: theplug-in hybrid wiki has an article on state of charge manipulation and wikipedia has a large entry on battery EVs
- Matt has done a great job so far on documenting the progress of his 1990 Nissan 240SX electric conversion. I particularly like the dualing DC motors, but his work on the back batteries is nice, too. Looks like he’s going to custom make the back-end enclosure (covering the battery sub-floor and sides like Peter did), but he doesn’t mention the material yet.
- Speaking of conversions, Ryan Bohm and Bill Dennis’s electric car projects both got a mention in their local paper.
- An anonymous reader sent in a link to the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival where they will be showing Who Killed the Electric Car? this Friday at 5pm.
- Jerry Hood sent along a link to this story about the electric car with 300 miles of range. It’s from Hybrid technologies and the $35k EV uses lithium (unobtanium maximus) batteries.
- Finally there’s this cool three wheel electric car prototype over in Bath. This is starting to look a little bit like my SUV wedge idea: a car that features a low-to-the-ground profile and wedge shape such that when hit by an SUV it causes the behemoth to go flying/flipping through the air like you see in action movies. (just kidding)
Batten down the hatches... · 26 April 06
...the internet is here!
Oh, boy, looks like the price of gas has been going up a bit? No, that chart isn’t following gas trends it’s traffic to this site in the past year (the site’s only been around since late August). It’s been a period of, more or less, steady growth in traffic. Except for a couple dramatic spikes.
There’s only one possible explanation:
EVConvert traffic is being controlled by the oil industry!
- Build a smart battery charger using a single transistor. (mind you this is a small battery)
- A large collectioon of electronic circuits for hobbyists.
- Medusa power analyzer
- Swing by and visit Teo over at the newly formed Mericars (Minnesota Electric Ride Cars). He’s started converting a 1990 Toyota Celica.
- Toyota says that they are stepping up work on the plug-in Prius or some facsimile thereof.
- A woodworker’s guide to Tool Steel and Heat Treating.
- Omninerd analyzes and tries to optimize commuting
- Bob’s 1957 Citroen homemade EV from the ‘70’s.
He brought the car into his shop, removed its engine and began scrounging parts.
The project did not take long. He was finished and was driving the car in one month, at a cost of $300.
“It’s all made out of junk,” he said. - Scott’s 1972 Electric Mazda along with his electric lawnmower.
- A nice collection of drive shaft pickups, sensors used to pick up the rotation speed of your motor for making a tachometer or driveshaft for roadspeed.
- Quick reminder that this year’s Tour de Sol is coming up in May.
A Brake in the Weather · 19 April 06
Good news! I’ve pretty much wrapped up the brake work on Eve. Yes, that means no more bad puns…at least about brakes.
This photo isn’t actually of Eve’s front disc brakes, but our old VW Golf. The Golf is due for inspection but the front brakes have been pretty noisy so I figured I’d work on them while working on Eve’s brakes. Good thing I checked, the front rotors and pads were in pretty bad shape.
New England really needs to come up with a road de-icer that doesn’t eat cars…