If you are planning to start a Do It Yourself (DIY) electric car conversion project, have you thought of whether the homemade electric car would work in cold climate areas? Do you know how the cold weather would affect the range of the EV and its performance?

The fact is electric cars, especially the battery pack do not like cold weather. I read an article preciously saying low temperature will affect the performance of lead acid batteries by as much as 25 – 30%. Meaning, if you were to drive your DIY electric car in the summer, it might give you around 50 driving miles before it has to be recharged. However, during winter time, the same EV would only give you around 35 miles before you have to recharge the batteries.

So how do you solve this problem?

The solution is actually quite simple. You can overcome this problem by using insulation to keep the battery units warm. The challenge is to find a way to insulate the batteries and at the same time allowing good airflow to remove the hydrogen gas (H2) that forms when charging the batteries.

Another challenge is to make sure you have sufficient insulation to ensure the batteries are still warm, even after an hour or so after the charging has finished. You don’t want the batteries to start to cool because that will affect the power output hence reducing your driving mileage.

What is the best option to insulation the batteries of your homemade electric car?

You can actually use foil-coated foam-rubber sheeting for your battery pack. These insulation sheets are around ¼ of an inch thick and can be applied to both the inside and outside of your battery boxes.

The good news is, these insulation sheets are quite cheap. You can get them from any building supply or hardware store. It is a simple, cheap and effective solution to overcome the cold weather for an electric car.

DIY Electric Car Conversion Guide

Do you want to know how to start your own DIY electric car conversion project? If you do, check out the Convert2EV e-book by Les Oke.

Les Oke and his family are from Canada and they have been living a green lifestyle for more than 15 years. In order to keep their carbon footprint low, the Okes have been using homemade electric cars for transportation.

The Convert2EV manual was written based on Les’ years of experience doing EV conversion projects from his home garage. For more information on Les’ DIY electric car conversion guide, click on the link below.

==> Click here to visit Convert2EV now!

If you were to read the news on the current automobile industry, almost all major car manufacturers are planning to manufacture and sell pure electric vehicles (EV). There is going to be a major shift in global transport industry from fossil fuel to electric power.

Unfortunately, the introduction of EVs to the mass market is still very slow. There are only a handful of electric car models available in the market right now.

Due to the slow responsiveness of the automakers, many electric car enthusiasts are taking matters into their own hands. They are literally ripping out the internal combustion engine of their conventional automobile and replacing it with an electric motor.

To power the electric motor, a bunch of deep cycle batteries are stringed together to provide sufficient electricity for the DIY electric car to travel a range of approximately 50 miles.

How big is the homemade electric car market? In the United States alone, there are over 1,500 cars registered as a pure electric vehicle and the number is keep on rising.

There are a couple of reasons why DIY electric car conversion project is so popular in the US. One of the key factors is local made parts. Most of the EV conversion components such as the electric motor, controller, deep cycle batteries, charge controller etc are made in America.

There are many advantages when you have lots of local made parts. One of it is cost. When everything can be ordered locally, you will save a lot of money on transportation and shipping costs.

If you are staying outside of the United States, have you tried ordering an item weighing over 50 kg? The shipping charges will cost you a bomb!

If you are staying in America and you are a DIY electric car enthusiasts, thank your lucky star you have many local EV parts and components supplier. You can make your own homemade electric car with a relatively smaller budget compared to those staying outside the United States.

For those that are not staying in USA, you either have to pay a higher cost for the parts or be contented with cheap parts from China. My advice is, spend the money and get good quality components for your home build electric car.

Homemade Electric Car Guide

Do you want to know how to convert your gas guzzler into a pure electric car at a minimal cost? If you do, check out the Convert2EV e-book by Les Oke.

Les and his family are from Canada and they been living a green lifestyle for more than 15 years. To maintain a low carbon footprint, they use DIY electric cars to travel from one place to another.

The Convert2EV e-book was written based on Les’ years of experience doing his own DIY electric car conversion projects. For more information, read the Convert2EV review on this blog.

==> Click here to visit Convert2EV now!

In terms of running cost, a pure plug-in electric car is definitely better compared to a conventional automobile. Just imagine the amount of money you’ll saved by not having to fill up at the gas station. There is a drawback on electric vehicle (EV) though, it is the high cost.

For the time being, an EV is still relatively expensive. If you were to visit an EV dealership, be prepared to spend upwards of $40,000 for a sedan electric car. Is there a cheaper alternative?

To save cost, my electric car enthusiasts are turning to homemade electric car to fulfill their dreams of owning an EV. Because of the rising demand from DIY electric car conversion, there have been a lot of EV conversion kits available in the market.

Generally, a DIY electric car is much cheaper compared to a brand new EV from the car makers. If you are starting your own EV retrofitting project, you should set aside roughly $7500 as the budget. The amount of money you spent on your EV can be reduced if you were to take steps to improve its efficiency.

To improve the efficiency on an EV, you have to find ways to extend its driving mileage before it has to be recharged. There are many simple and cheap ways you can do so and in this blog post, I thought of writing about improving the “air drag” of the EV.

Reducing Electric Car Air Drag

Just like a conventional car, when a homemade electric vehicle is moving, it too has to push through air. To extend its mileage, we have to find ways to push or redirect the air trapped in the front of the car to the side. One of the most popular ways of doing so is by installing a nose cone or grille blocker.

Depending on which model donor car you use, the grille blocker will improve the aerodynamic of your EV therefore extending its mileage per charge as much as 20 percent. It’s a simple solution and yet yields a big result!

Another way to improve the aerodynamic of EVs is by installing a flat belly pan underneath the car. This can be done by using a piece of plywood or thick plastic sheet. The idea is to allow air to rush through the undercarriage rather than being trapped in between the car parts thus creating drag.

There are many things you can do to improve the efficiency of your electric vehicle and they don’t have to be expensive. What you’ll need is some time and dedication to implement the solution onto your DIY electric car. It may seem insignificant, but the improvement on your EV mileage can be quite substantial.

Homemade Electric Car Conversion Guide

Do you want to know how to convert a gas guzzler to a pure electric car in your home garage? If you do, check out the Convert2EV e-book written by Les Oke.

Les Oke is from Canada. He and his family have been living a green lifestyle for more than a decade. Staying true to their green lifestyle, Les and his wife use homemade electric cars.

The Convert2EV guide was written based on Les’ years of experience with EV conversion projects. For more information, read the Convert2EV review on this blog.

==> Click here to visit Convert2EV now!