Many people have heard about electric cars but most people do not know how it works. Firstly, pure electric car are pretty rare. The current buzz from car manufacturers are hybrid cars. Hybrid cars run on both electric and gasoline.
Example of hybrid cars available in the market are the Toyota Prius,
Honda Civic Hybrid, Nissan Altima Hybrid etc.
Compared to a conventional vehicle that uses an internal combustion engine as its power plant, a pure electric vehicle (EV) uses only electricity as its main power source.
Example of EVs are the Tesla Roadster, BMW Mini-E, Fisher Karma, Nissan Electric Cube, Jeep EV Wrangler etc.
An electric car uses electricity stored in batteries to turn an electric motor (either DC or AC) which turns the wheels. This is similar concept to using gas stored in a tank to turn an engine.
What are the main parts in an electric car?
Not a lot to be honest. The following are the key components of an electric car.
1) An electric motor which powers the wheels.
2) Batteries which store the electricity.
3) A controller which acts as a floodgate between the batteries and
the motor and is attached to the accelerator.
There are a few other bits such as fuses, a circuit-breaker in case of emergency, a contactor to “start” the car’s main circuit, a vacuum pump to keep your brake system working, and some relays to keep items such as your heater and the key-ignition switch operating.
There is one main drawback of pure electric cars. They are freaking expensive!
A new EV from the dealership will set you back $30,000 – $40,000. A cheaper alternative is to convert a conventional automobile into an electric car.
This can be done by sending your car to a professional EV converter. If you are good with hand tools and have some knowledge on cars, you can also do the conversion via a Do It Yourself (DIY) approach.
If you are a novice and would like to know more about EVs, check out the book by Les Oke call Convert2EV.
Les Oke and his family are Canadian and they have been living off the grid all their lives. Part of their green lifestyle is to use a vehicle with zero emission. An electric car fit their needs perfectly.
Les has converted numerous cars to run on electricity. His manual basically teaches you the science of an EV and the works involved in a conversion project.
Convert2EV is one of the first e-book that I bought from the internet and it was very informative. Click on the link below for more information.