On 27 Feb 2013 at 10:10, Electric Blue auto convertions wrote: > But yet some poor sap that can hardly buy food can do it in his garage for > about 1/250th of the price and make it work the first time out
Now there's an interesting question. Who here has built a really low-cost EV and would like to tell us how he/she did it? I seem to recall the Lee Hart has built some bargain-basement conversions. EVDL old-timers will also recall Bob Rice talking about his "duct tape and baling wire" style EV creations. Another one that stands out in my mind is the Forkenswift, originally built some years back for around $1000, IIRC. That's roughly 1/21 of the $21,300 base cost of a stripped-down Nissan Leaf (after the federal tax credits). It wasn't 1/250 of the cost (I wish!), and you couldn't drive it on the innerbelt (too slow), but it was definitely a lot cheaper than the shiny new factory EVs. > All these car companies are building a "new EV", but I never see them, > just a prototype that never hits the streets. I too was skeptical for many years, having read too many promises back in the 1970s. I'm now cautiously optimistic. We're at the point where I could walk into a Nissan dealer, hand them a check, and drive out in an EV, something that 10 years ago I honestly thought would never happen in the USA. Now, let's see if it continues and grows. I keep wondering how long it'll be before Nissan (and Tesla and GM and ____) say "Sorry, sales just aren't good enough, we have to discontinue our EVs." Factory EVs have opened up the field to more people. Fifteen years ago, your EV choices were pretty limited. If you had good mechanical skills and time, and were in reasonable physical condition, you could convert your own. If you had lots of money, you could buy a nice factory conversion (a Solectria Force cost 2.5 to 3 times what the base Geo Metro cost). Or you could hire someone to do a conversion for you - if you could find such a shop. Unless you were on the west coast, most likely you'd have to go out of state and have your EV shipped in. If there were problems, good luck. No matter what the source, if you wanted or needed a car that you could just take to the corner mechanic when it needed service, forget it. EV owners had to either be mechanically adept or know someone who was. Today, if you WANT to do your own maintenance and repair, conversion is still your best approach. But - at least for now - the field of EV ownership is much more open than it used to be. That's a good thing. David Roden - Akron, Ohio, USA EVDL Administrator = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = EVDL Information: http://www.evdl.org/help/ = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Note: mail sent to "evpost" and "etpost" addresses will not reach me. To send a private message, please obtain my email address from the webpage http://www.evdl.org/help/ . = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
