Electric cars are out there they just seem very expensive. There has to be a way of making one at reasonable cost.
2007-06-01 09:22:54 · 7 answers · asked by Russ 1 in Environment ➔ Alternative Fuel Vehicles
Hi,
There are two good resources for converting a conventional car into an electric car here:
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Vehicles/vhehicles.htm#Conversions
"Jerry's Electric Car Conversion" is a good detailed description of a conversion by Jerry (surprise).
And the book, "Build Your Own Electric Car" is quite good with lots of how-to. You can pick up a used copy at amazon.com used books for cheap.
The conversions are pretty straight forward, and there are a number of places that sell all the parts you need. The fact that electric cars are much simpler than gasoline cars makes the conversion easier. But, still definitely not a one weekend job.
A list of some EV clubs and part suppliers:
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Vehicles/EVresources.htm
There is also a market in used conversions.
Good luck!
Gary
2007-06-01 11:41:54 · answer #1 · answered by Gary Gary 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It depends on how far and fast you need to go and if you are willing to take an hour or more to recharge. EV's have several drawbacks, low speeds, short ranges or high cost to overcome those and the amount of recharge time. Pure plug-in EV's are great for riding around in a city, not over 45 mph and not over 20 miles from home. Heavy-duty truck batteries of the lead acid type work just fine. Two big DC motors, one for each drive wheel, a heavy-duty rheostat for a throttle and make sure the motors are reversible. Most any small car can be converted.
If you want greater range, and don't mind using gasoline, put a little 4-cycle scooter engine in it to generate electricity as needed to keep the batteries charged. Another alternative would be to use a small steam engine to generate electricity, then you could use any fuel you wanted. This would also allow driving at higher speeds as well as for longer distances.
See AustinEV.org for EV info. Contact - beesidemeusa@yahoo.co.uk - for a discussion of the EV plus a generator.
2007-06-01 19:03:21 · answer #2 · answered by Taganan 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Weight and range will really drag you down. Consider compressed air instead. You can get an aircompressor with a large tank fairly inexpensively, now just exhaust the compressed air through a small piston engine to get the rotating shaft and you are good to go for not a lot of dough. If you can spend a little more money, you can reduce the size and increase the efficiency quite a bit. Recharging the tank doesn't take as long as charging a battery and will be a lot cheaper!
2007-06-02 12:33:45 · answer #3 · answered by Daniel T 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
its not so much the price of the car its the batteries. They are very very very expensive. Hopefully they will come down in price as they come up with most cost effective componants
2007-06-03 18:51:46 · answer #4 · answered by asccaracer 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You don't have to.
You can buy a 2002 Honda Insight right now on Ebay (See Ebay Item 200115197788) for just a few thousands of dollars.
2007-06-02 01:50:26 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
Strap an electric weed wacker motor onto a bike and you are good to go!
2007-06-01 16:28:21 · answer #6 · answered by samikay2683 3 · 0⤊ 2⤋
batterys wheels metal
2007-06-03 18:33:16 · answer #7 · answered by jk 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋