Monday, March 19, 2007

I Want to Convert a Car to Electric

Hello. I am toying with the idea of getting an old car, pulling out the internal combustion engine and replacing it with an electric engine. From what I understand, you can get them over highway speeds and they can go 50 - 100 miles on a charge. This would be plenty to get me to work and back each day. Currently, my wife and I have one car (a gas-guzzling Prius) and my Harley Davidson Sportster 1,200 cc bike that gets similar mileage to the Prius. There are problems when it rains and we both need cars and I don't like riding the Harley in the rain. It's time to suck it up and get a second car. I like the idea of an electric car to get away from the fossil fuels. I toyed with the idea of a biodiesel setup, but I think that electric cars are the real future. At some point, I hope to get solar panels on the house, so I could actually power the car by my own sun-created electrical supply.
I know almost nothing about cars, so this whole idea might be a bit of a pipedream (not my first!). I see on the internet a California manufacturer that does kits for certain cars, one of them being a Porsche 914, so I'm considering buying one of those for 3 - 4000 dollars, then getting the kit. I believe the kit would cost $10,000, which is a bit pricey, but I feel I would have much better success with a kit than I would if I tried to put it all together myself for 6 or 7 thousand. I believe that batteries will run me another $1,000 or so. I will keep you updated as things transpire. I plan to purchase the car next month when I get my next paycheck (if I can find a Porsche 914 that isn't too pricey).