Skeptics love to challenge the idea that a regular person can build theirown electric car at a reasonable price using parts that are regularly availableand easy to find Truthfully, I don’t know why there aren’t more DIY electriccars on the road. So why aren’t more people doing it you may ask? Wouldn’t everyone ratherdrive for 4 cents per mile instead of four dollars per mile if given thechoice? If people could say goodbye to the gas pump, oil changes and tune upsforever, they’d do it. Therefore, many conclude that converting a car toelectric power must be difficult, highly complicated and beyond the ability ofmost people. What I do know is that it is a lot of fun to build and drive andthe project is easy and cheap to complete.
Heres how to do it.For the vehicle, use something with enough space to mount your electricmotor and batteries inside but that is still relatively small and light. Use amanual transmission vehicle too. Automatics make the project a lot harder tocomplete. That’s really important, but don’t worry if you can’t or don’t wantto drive a stick. You won’t have to shift at all once the conversion iscompleted. Used cars with engine damage, but that are in otherwise excellent conditioncan be found at amazingly low prices. You just have to good quality groove type commutator look around a bit, butits worth the effort. Check for issues in the breaks transmission,undercarriage etc before you buy it. Often you can find one of these with themotor already gone and the rest of the car intact. This is an ideal situation whenyou can find it.
Another option is to pay a mechanic a small amount to pull themotor for you. Sometimes, you can even get a mechanic to pull the motor forfree if you let him keep it. Low priced batteries and motors can be found locally. Again, this takes alittle bit of looking around but well worth the effort. For best results, get aDC motor in the 9 to 13 inch range to get top speeds between 50 and 55 MPH. Usedeep cycle batteries. Youll need between 15 and 20 of these to achieve a rangeof 200 miles between recharging and you can get away with fewer, but it willrequire recharging more often. Once you do complete your project take some time to get used to theresponsiveness. You must get a feel for the controller (the electric car versionof the gas pedal) because these things are surprisingly quick off the line. Inno time at all, youll have the feel of this car and be driving it everywhere.
Project plans are critically important. The right plans and diagrams will guideyou step-by-step through the entire project. A high quality instruction manualalso provides priceless information on places to get all your parts very inexpensively-andin some cases even free. As an example you can easily spend more than $6000 ona conversion kit before you even buy a single battery for the vehicle. As acomparison, you can complete the entire car for $500 including batteries byinvesting $50 up front for a good set of plans, so a few bucks spent up frontwill save you a ton of money in the long run.
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