One way of cutting off your dependency on fossil fuel is to use electricity for your vehicle. Unfortunately, pure electric cars from the manufacturers are still relatively expensive. How can you get your hands on an electric vehicle? Why not build an electric car via DIY from your home garage...
Many electric car enthusiasts are converting their gasoline driven cars to run on electricity. The concept of EV conversion is quite simple.
An electric car uses electricity stored
in batteries to turn an electric motor which
turns the wheels. This is similar in 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 main components are:
1) An electric motor which powers the wheels. The motor can be either Direct Current (DC) or Alternate Current (AC).
2) Deep cycle 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 the brake
system working and some relays to keep items such as the car
heater and the Controller's key-ignition switch operating.
Electric Car Conversion Guide
If you are not good with hand tools or familiar with the internal workings of an automobile, it would be a better idea to outsource the conversion work to a profession mechanic. However, as a car owner, you should be prudent.
The least you can do is get some basic knowledge on the science behind an electric vehicle. With the information at hand, at least you will know when you are being charged for unnecessary parts or work done on your car.
Gavin is a young chap from New Zealand with a passion on electric car. Faced with high local gasoline cost, Gavin decided to sever his dependency on fossil fuel by driving an EV.
He bought an old Mitsubishi Tredia and armed with a manufacturer manual, a few electric vehicle text books, some hand tools and assistance from his buddy, converted the car to run on pure electricity.
The whole conversion process took Gavin about 6 months, nonetheless, he managed to get it done with a lot of trial and error.
New Zealand local news channel picked up on Gavin's electric car conversion story and actually did an interview segment with him. Check out the news clip below.
Recently, Gavin decided to put all his experience in converting his Mitsubishi Tredia into an EV into his Electric Conversion Made Easy manual. To better explain the conversion process, the manual also comes with a series of High Definition (HD) instructional videos.
From the videos, you get to learn EV related topics such as how to choose a donor car, electric motor selection and installation, controller installation, installing the batteries and charging system and many more.
Many electric car enthusiasts says, "Converting your second EV is your best!". However, with Gavin's guide and the attached videos, converting your first EV can be your best.