How to build your own electric car

Check your driving radius before building your own electric car

Just as article Why shall we convert and drive electric cars says, there are lots of benefits to drive electric car! But there are very few finished electric cars available currently. So, building your own electric car is an alternative choice. Are you long for building your own one now? Wait a minute, maybe driving an electric car is not a good choice for you! Before building your own electric car, you must take two things into account.

1. Is electric car appropriate for your needs?

The average conversion electric car has a realistic range of 30 to 70 miles in everyday driving conditions depending on the type of batteries you have and the weight of the vehicle. If your commute is more then 35 miles one way in very hilly terrain, an electric car may not be a good idea. However, if your commute is on average terrain and is about 20 miles each way, an electric car is perfect. If you are a two car family and one car is usually used for short trips, you may want to consider an electric car.

2. Do you have easy access to charge your electric car?

It is necessary that you can charge your electric car conveniently. You must have an everyday charging way for your electric car.  EV Charger Station in North American and Public EV Recharging Station Map give you some public recharging stations lists for you.

Prepare for building your own electric car

Now, your driving radius is appropriate for you to build own electric car! OK, get started.

1. Choosing a gasoline car for conversion. To build your own electric car, you can’t build everything by yourself. We generally convert a gasoline car as  the main body of electric car. It’s good if you already have one. You can buy a second-hand car if you don’t have one. For electric car, lighter means farther and better! So, choose a car as light as possible.

2. Components, tools and supplies. Components include batteries, advanced DC motor, adaptor plate, DC motor controller, potentiometer, charger interlock and other things. Most do-it yourselfers already have the tools required to convert an elective car. Choosing electric car DIY is the easiest way to build your own electric car. If you have most of thees parts already, you only need to buy other parts. Some good build your own electric car manuals have very good suggestions on usage of waste to save money.

3. Learn safety knowledge. Be aware of possible hazards will prevent damage to the car and serious injury to yourself.

Build your own electric car

Now it is the work to build your own electric car step by step. Building electric car is not a difficult thing like makeing a rocket, most of us can do it. It is not as easy as repairing a electric fan, either! You’d better get electric car conversion manual to build your own electric car unless you are an auto engineer.

Here we recommend two good building your own electric car E-books for you. One is Electricity4gas, an other one is Convert2EV.

Electricity4gas is an E-book of 40-Page PDF which including:       

1. The parts and tools you need before you start.
2. Tips on how to obtain free batteries and other free parts for the electric car.
3. Setup and step-by-step instructions (ex. how to put new parts and the original transmission together) with clear detailed diagrams.
4. Much more and some good books as bonuses.

For detail of Electricity4gas, click here!

Convert2EV has 90-page PDF and including:

1. How to get used batteries for free.
2. How to recondition the used batteries to nearly new condition.
3. How to mount the heavy batteries in your car or truck to accommodate the weight.
4. Sources to find almost free DC motors.
5. Will learn what kinds of electric car motors are needed for your electric car conversion. You will find out what options are available, what size you will need and also where to find electric motors in your own neighborhood. The real heart of your electric car conversions is the motor.
6. List of certain specialized parts: an electric motor, deep cycle batteries, controller, battery charger, an adaptor kit and various other small parts.
7. How to wire the batteries and motor to the controller with gauge welding cable.
8. Much more and some good books as bonuses.

For detail of Convert2EV , click here!

 

May you build your own electric car successfully and Enjoy your DIY electric car!

December 7, 2008 · Filed Under Electric Car Conversion Instruction

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Electric car conversions are booming

Car conversions to electric power are on upswing, www.boston.com reported on November 30, 2008.

The article says Wayne Alexander, who’s been converting cars to electric for more than 30 years in his south-central Kansas garage, has his hands full keeping up with demand for his cars while big automakers trying to stay afloat in a cantankerous economy.

The article says Alexander converts about four cars a month, up from about one or two cars a month last year. Alexander charges about $12,500 to convert any car or pickup truck to electric. His cars can normally reach speeds up to 70 miles per hour and can go about 35 miles at that speed on a single charge. They plug into a 110-volt outlet and are recharged in about five hours.

The article also reports a company that sells electric vehicle components has its business grown by about a third since summer.

Of the 240 million vehicles on US roads, about 70,000 are electric, up from about 56,000 in 2005, according to the Electric Drive Transportation Association. The article says.

Big automakers like General Motors will manufacture electric cars in 2010 and the price is about $40,000.

Note: Electric car conversions is not abstruseness, with Electric car conversions manual, you can do it at your own garage. Electricityc4gas is such a manual, go and have a look!

 

Read original article, click here.

December 5, 2008 · Filed Under Electric Car Conversion Blog

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Buying EV Parts

Where do I buy all of the parts for making a conversion? With the interest in EVs on the rise the number of “fly-by-night” operations springing up on the web is increasing, as are the bogus perpetual motion/amazing battery juice/free-energy scams. With EVs, as with many other things, if something sounds too good to be true it mostly likely is … not true, that is.

The following companies have been around for a long time. They may be at the same price or slightly higher than others you find, but they’ve been around and have been supporting customers for years and will probably be around for years and years to come. That in itself is worth a few extra bucks with this kind of investment.

I should warn you that some of the EV parts are expensive. DC motors are in the $1,000-$2,000 range as are controllers. A dozen deep cycle lead-acid batteries will be close to a thousand dollars as well. And these are just for generic DC systems, when you start looking at high performance DC or AC systems or advanced batteries the prices head up above ten thousand dollars. The good news is that for all but the batteries this will be a one time investment. Unlike most of your gas automobile with tons of moving parts and corrodible exhaust system, the parts in an EV have hardly any moving parts: a couple bearings and a few brushes should be all that you need to replace down the road.

Still, not everyone buys new. Bob Hurst and Greg Coleman constructed their EVs from second hand parts or what they had on hand. Some folks turn to EBay, others to the junkyards and electronics surplus houses.

Article from www.evconvert.com

December 3, 2008 · Filed Under Electric Car Conversion Info

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