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
Charging an Electric Car · 20 April 07
Most of the time when someone considers converting a car to electric the last thing that probably springs to mind is the charger. The car itself garners the most attention since it’s the biggest and most visible aspect of an EV, followed by the motor. Somewhere down the list, after the batteries or controller, the charger choice lies.
Yet, for the health of the batteries, it’s the most important aspect of an electric car.
- Hey, James, says here that everyone in the UK is eligible to get a free device that shows how much electricity is being used in the home at any one particular moment. Maybe you could mod it for the EV too?
- I wish you all would quit fooling yourselves, this can never work! (he does have some good points)
- The Velozzi electric concept car.
- Nissan and NED are teaming up to produce batteries for electric cars.
- Pietro hasn’t put his new LiPo batteries in his EV yet, but some of them went into his son’s go-kart … and won the race!
Comment [4]
- Mostly a fluff piece, Popular Mechanics takes the Hybrid Technologies L1X-75 composite body electric car for a spin. (the comments nicely illustrate the typical bi-polar responses to EVs)
- A short article on the mechanical design of the Tango electric two-seater. The Tango is an interesting car, whether you like the look of it or not. It’s not underpowered but it’s also not catering to the typical sports car crowd. Here’s the specification page. Note that it doesn’t have a tranny, but instead uses a 9” FB1-4001 on EACH rear wheel (via a custom gear box). 0-60 in 4 seconds, top speed 150mph.
- Here’s a story to warm Darin’s heart (is it still Winter in Canada Darin?): Japan mileage maniacs hack their hybrids to get over 100mpg.
- Meanwhile GM is still serious about electric cars…honest! (Ignore the man behind the curtain)
Comment [4]
Q & A · 8 April 07
As part of our Spring housecleaning I’ve started putting together an FAQ for the site. Many of the questions come straight from my email in-box (the names have been changed to protect the innocent!).
There are ten of them posted so far, more to come. If you have corrections or questions you’d like to see added be sure to drop me an email.
EVConvert FAQs
Pietro's Electric Fiat · 6 April 07
Today’s EV update comes from Italy. Our friend Pietro Cambi has embarked on an electric conversion of a little blue Fiat 500.
Click on through for pics and a couple movies.
- Massey University in New Zealand has announced a Solar power breakthrough. Using a patented range of synthetic dies they are somehow able to produce electricity. “We now have the most efficient porphyrin dye in the world,” said the centre’s director, Ashton Partridge. Hey, maybe our NZ friends can get samples?
- The KillaCycle, electric motorcycle, is now the fastest electric vehicle of all time. It completed a quarter mile in 8.168 seconds, at up to 155.87 miles an hour. The bike is powered by 990 lithium ion cells from A123.
- Last year when I bought our Prius it included a $3,200 tax rebate. As Toyota sells more hybrids the rebate is going down (hmm, wonder if the tax rebate for buying a hummer is going down?) so Toyota is starting to offer their own incentives.
- A couple EV links sent in this week: Mannyman’s EVorBust and the EV Enthusiasts of Maine
Forkenboogie · 4 April 07
Darin and Ivan reached a momentous milestone in their “not an EV” EV conversion: the first test drive of Forkenswift!
Ray's Electric Motorcycle · 3 April 07
Ray sent over some in-progress pics of his electric motorcycle conversion.