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Homemade Electric Cars
As an example, Ken Albright upgraded his 1986 VW Scirocco GTX into an electric car with $8,000 and 100 hours of labor. He estimates that the electric car conversion costs about 3 cents per mile to drive. With that level of operating costs, he hopes that the conversion wil pay for itself in four years. Albright's design is made of five batteries that are under the hood and 10 more in back, making up a total of 120 volts. The car has a range of 40-miles, which is enough for his daily commute of 12 miles.
The full article in which he details the work is in the website for the Columbia Missourian . There is a whole community dedicated to building EV cars in the state of California. The leading non-profit for the movement is the California Cars Initiative (www.calcars.org), which is a small private nonprofit that was founded four years ago, and is intended as a public, do-it-yourself project. They promote plug-in hybrids (PHEVs). PHEVs are like regular hybrids but with larger batteries and the ability to re-charge from a standard outlet. From their resources, you can find a lot of information about self-made electric conversions, including the Prius Plus car, which turned a regular Toyota Prius into a plug in hybrid car with 100+ mpg plus electricity, 30-mile range, and lithium-ion batteries (www.calcars.org/priusplus.html).
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