Benefits Of A DIY Electric Car
There are a lot of benefits in driving a DIY pure electric car compared a gasoline driven vehicle. When there are benefits, there are barriers also. One of the main barrier to an electric vehicle is the batteries.
Benefits of Electric Cars
Firstly, EV produce zero tailpipe emission. This is great for the environment. Some people may be asking…If you are using pure electric cars, aren’t we transferring the carbon emission from the gas producers to the power stations?
The electricity used to charge EVs typically comes from coal-fired power plants. But even if that is the case, the emission from the power plants are lower compared to the carbon emitted from internal combustion engines (ICE).
Secondly, EV are much simpler compared to a gas driven car. There are thousand of moving parts in a ICE. When multiple parts are moving, rubbing against each other and producing heat, there are bound to be breakdowns. Electric car having less moving parts, chances are, it will break down less.
Thirdly, even with gas price at $1.50, it still cost less to fully charge an EV. With an equal drive mileage, the cost per mile for an electric car is definitely much cheaper compared to fossil fuel.
Why don’t we see many pure electric cars on the road?
The main drawbacks of EV is the cost of batteries. The best battery technology for electric vehicle is lithium-based. However, it is still being developed and the costs are high. As today’s prices, a lithium-based battery large enough to power a pure electric car will cost more than $10,000.
Electric car also has a limited driving range. The top end EV from the manufacturer would have a mileage of about 250 miles. That is half of the traditional gasoline powered car.
A more affordable EV model would offer about 40 miles. One option to extend the mileage is to install a small gasoline engine on the EV. However, doing that will increase the weight and cost.
Finally, an EV would need time to fully recharge its battery. Most DIY electric car will use deep cycle battery to save cost. This kind of battery will need a minimum of 8 hours to recharge.
A lithium-based battery may need only half an hour to recharge. But the cost to use them is too expensive.
Related blog posts:
1) GreenSmart Notebook – Tom Larsen: An All Electric Car Ahead of Everyone’s Time
2) Discovery News: Material World: Wide Angle: Electric Car Grid
3) Green Car Congress: Better Place Enters Electric Car Network Partnership with Ontario
How Fast Can A DIY Electric Vehicle Go?
How Fast Can A Do It Yourself Electric Vehicle (EV) Go?
Have you ever wander how fast can an electric vehicle that you build from your home garage go? I found the video below from Youtube that show how long it will take for a DIY electric Geo Metro reach 30 mph from a standing start. The EV will not break any land speed record but it will get you to places cheaply and without producing any emission. Check out the video below.
The Benefits of an Electric Car Conversion Kit
This blog post is the the Part 2 of the article “The Benefits of an Electric Car – DIY Home Conversion Project” posted on Ezinearticles.com
The benefits of using an Electric Vehicle (EV) are multifold. Unfortunately, if you were to send you car to be converted to run purely on electricity by a professional mechanic, it will cost you upward of $4000.
The investment is too high for most car owners. The alternative to enjoy the benefits of using an EV is by doing the retrofitting process yourself via a Do It Yourself Electric Car project at home.
The idea of the EV conversion is to remove the internal combustion engine and its associated components such as the gas tank, fuel distribution lines and radiators and replace it with an electric motor. The additional free space created will be used to store the batteries.
The mileage that an electric car can cover per charge will depend on the number of batteries on board, the type of batteries, the age of the batteries, the motor horsepower and the net weight of the car.
To run the electric car, you can start plugging your it into your homes electrical outlet and let it charge over night. During the day as you start up the vehicle, the alternator will kick on and charge the batteries as you drive, everything else that is not run off of gasoline will work as it always has, right down to the brake system.
If you do not feel completely comfortable about going total electric, you may decide to just purchase a hybrid car conversion kit that will run on electricity when you are stopped at a traffic light, and when the light turns green, the gasoline motor will engage again.
This electric car conversion kit will double your gas mileage, and save you hundreds of dollars in a year’s time.
There are many fantastic electric car conversion guide Ebooks on the internet that will give you easy to follow instructions and the price of the parts.
The knowledge you need to do the work is available and inexpensive. Most of these sites offer a 60 days guarantee, and certain sites may offer some sort of promotion, depending on which site you view.
Some people are more interested in how far an electric car will go before it has to be recharged, more than with what the average speed will be. Most secondary highways will let a normal car cruise at 65 mph; however, the electric car will cruise at 60 mph, so there is not much difference.
In communities, the driving speed is 25 to 30 miles an hour anyway and the electric car can handle that speed as well as a conventional car.
