"A 42 mile round trip for me costs about $2.45"
http://www.abc27.com/story/26112522/perry-county-man-gets-charge-out-of-commute Perry County Man Gets Charge Out of Commute Jul 25, 2014 [video flash image http://whtm.images.worldnow.com/images/4307518_G.jpg ] On the outside, it looks like any other pickup truck, until you look under the cargo cover. "We have twelve 200 amp hour sealed lead acid batteries," explained Gary Nye, pointing to a truck bed full of batteries, wired in series. It's the power source for an electric motor in what was once a gasoline engine vehicle. Nye said he was inspired to make the power conversion every time he filled the gas tank of his SUV. He saw it as a way to save on his daily commute between Landisburg and Carlisle "I really started to see the gas prices starting to climb," he said. "I wanted something to hedge against that and the only thing I could think of was electric." In a project that took fifteen months to complete, Nye's 24-year-old Isuzu truck now runs on electricity, powered by a 25-year-old electric forklift motor. Between trips, Nye energizes the batteries with golf cart chargers plugged into his house. Before winter get here, he hopes to have a more streamlined and permanent charging station installed. Under the hood, the layout is surprisingly simple. "You open it up, it's a fairly wide open space," said Nye. "You pretty much see two components: the motor and the controller." In the three weeks he's been driving it, [Nye's] truck has been turning heads. "On that first day I drove into the parking lot at work, I had a lot of inquiries." Nye said. "A lot of folks wanted to see the truck." While underway, dashboard gauges track the electricity used and how much is left, reflecting huge savings from the fourteen dollars a day that his SUV required . "A 42 mile round trip for me costs about $2.45." said Nye shifting gears during a demonstration ride. He computes his cost using kilowatts hours used per mile. "This vehicle performs very similar to, if not a little better than the gasoline engine that was in it before," he said. "I can easily go 65 mph without an issue." The self-described tinkerer says with his new ride, old worries about miles are now reasons for smiles. [© abc27.com] http://cumberlink.com/news/local/midstate_profiles/midstate-profile-perry-county-man-revamps-truck-to-run-solely/article_6a550a40-1069-11e4-9a62-001a4bcf887a.html Midstate Profile: Perry County man revamps truck to run solely on electricity July 20, 2014 • By Samantha Madison [image http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/cumberlink.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/3/f6/3f62973c-0eaf-11e4-8ece-001a4bcf887a/53c9714239aae.preview-620.jpg Gary Nye converted his truck to electric on his own. ] LANDISBURG — When gasoline first hit $4 per gallon, Gary Nye began thinking about switching his truck to electric to save some money on gas and other repairs. So when he found a 1990 Isuzu truck for $1,800 that matched all of his criteria, Nye decided to buy it and take on the project himself. “(It) had to be stout enough to carry the weight of the batteries, it needed two-wheel drive. (Then) I removed all the internal combustion components, the gas tank, the radiator.” Nye said his truck will never need another oil change or any of the other standard services that a gasoline-powered vehicle needs. The 1,000 pounds of lead batteries he has in the bed of the truck will need to be replaced after about three to five years, he said. The only other thing that will need to be replaced is the carbon brushes, but everything else should be sufficient for the life of the truck, Nye said. The idea came to him when he was driving a Ford Explorer, which gets about 11 miles to the gallon and used to cost him [$44] each day for his 42-mile roundtrip to work from Perry County to Carlisle. He said he was tired of spending so much money on gas and being tied down to whatever cost the industry decides that month or week. “I wanted to get completely away from gasoline,” Nye said. “Those oil companies and those car companies are (intertwined). The only way to make out is to go this route — you’re just paying the cost of the components and now it becomes pure economics. The amount of savings is tremendous.” From start to finish, it took him about 15 months to complete the full conversion to electricity, but only because he was doing the work in his spare time and didn’t do anything when it snowed. In order to be street legal, the truck had to pass an enhanced state inspection and be given a modified title to make sure everything is in working order. But once that was cleared, he put the truck on the road and uses it to drive to and from work, as long as it’s not raining. Nye said he takes extra precautions by not driving in the rain to ensure the electric material in his vehicle doesn’t get wet. He said he’s getting the equivalent of 65 miles per gallon and uses about $2.45 worth of energy each day during his commute. A gallon of gasoline is more than $3.50, so he uses less than the cost of one gallon of gas each day to run the truck. Nye said an electric motor is 90 percent effective where a gasoline motor is about 30 percent effective, so that was enough to make the decisions for him. The original cost of the parts and truck itself were nearly $11,000, but he said it was a small price to pay to save $3,000 or more each year on gas. He said one of the biggest questions is why not buy a brand new fully electric car already made. He said those cars start in the high $20,000 range and go up through $35,000 and more. Even though it’s a complicated job, he said he thinks if people can do it, they should definitely convert to electric. “It’s not necessarily a job for the average person. You need to have the equipment, you need to have the know-how and you gotta have the funds,” Nye said. “You can make electricity out of anything, but you’re only going to find gasoline out of one thing. So we know the gas prices are going (up), now electricity does not have those influences. ... So I am hedging against one, increasing gasoline prices, and two, the fact that some day there isn’t going to be any gasoline. As gas prices go up, I think this will become more and more efficient.” [© cumberlink.com] For all EVLN posts use: http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/template/NamlServlet.jtp?macro=search_page&node=413529&query=evln&sort=date http://www.livemint.com/Companies/v68Zb2HGrG2XXnSJBB0qZL/Nissan-passes-selfdriving-wheel-to-Google.html Google stands ready to push automakers toward a driverless paradigm http://evfleetworld.co.uk/news/2014/Jul/Used-electric-car-sales-rise-47-1-percent-in-Q1/0438015566 Sales of used EVs has ~doubled in a 1yr period http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/article_xinhua.aspx?id=231322 Vietnam sees growing popularity of electric bikes http://kxl.com/2014/07/23/the-20-minute-charge/ Dual L3 CHAdeMO&Combo Quick EVSE @Portland-StateU’s Electric Ave ... http://api.plugshare.com/view/location/3731 Multiple L3&2 EVSE @PSU> charging is free, parking is not + EVLN: Leaf vs i3 vs e-Golf> EV Comparisons.de {brucedp.150m.com} -- View this message in context: http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/EVLN-11k-Nye-s-144V-Isuzu-truck-EV-ave-in-Perry-County-PA-video-tp4670691.html Sent from the Electric Vehicle Discussion List mailing list archive at Nabble.com. _______________________________________________ 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)
