DIY Electric Car – Save Fuel Cost by Using Home Built Electric Car

Many conventional car owners are fascinated by the idea of driving an electric car and they would like to know how it works. Generally, electric vehicles (EV) are quite simple. Instead of burning fossil fuel to generate force, EV uses the power of magnetic induction to produce torque from the electric motor. The more electricity flowing through the motor, the more force it will generate. Ever since the price of gasoline reached a new height, running a car has become an expensive ordeal. It is understandable that many car owners are expressing their interest on electric car. What would be the process of retrofitting a car into an EV? This article will provide some useful information on the subject.

If you want to modify your car to run on electricity, it would cost you upwards of $4000 to get it done in professional workshop. If you really want to save money, you can actually do the conversion process yourself at home. Generally, the retrofitting process involves removing the internal combustion engine, the fuel tank, fuel pump, fuel lines and radiator. The entire system is to be replaced with an electric motor and lead acid batteries. Imagine replacing all the components that has fluid running through it and changing it with wires connectors.

The existing drive train of the car such as the transmission, drive shafts and clutch system can still used. The electric motor will be coupled to the transmission and drawing power from the batteries. The number of batteries needed will depend on the horse power of the motor and the weight of the car.

If you do not have any knowledge on the electrical and mechanical system of a car, all these information may not make any sense to you. In this case, you can ask someone who has some car maintenance skill to assist you. To start the conversion process, you should first get a good step by step modification guide. Most good quality guides are available online.

What are Electric Cars?

The electric vehicle (EV), or, more colloquially, ZEV electric car, is gaining traction as a viable alternative form of personal transportation, and remains just out of arms’ reach as a mainstream way to get around. The cars run on energy stored in large packs of batteries instead of the more conventional internal combustion engine, making them very attractive to those concerned with using less oil and causing fewer greenhouse gas emissions. When driving, they don’t emit any carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gas, nor any nitrogen oxide or other smog-forming compound. The first electric car to be commercially available in the US, General Motors’ EV1, is pictured above, and much was made about who killed the electric car; keep reading to get the scoop on whodunit. 

Before we dive in to the EV1, a little context: historically, EVs have had issues with high battery costs, limited travel distance between battery recharging, charging time, and battery lifespan, which have limited widespread adoption. Ongoing battery technology advancements have addressed many of these problems; many models have recently been prototyped, and a growing handful of future production models have been announced. Toyota, Honda, Ford and General Motors all produced EVs in the 1990s in order to comply with the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate, which was later defeated by the manufacturers and the federal government.

The EV1 was back in the news in 2006 with the documentary “Who Killed the Electric Car?” , a look at the development, limited commercialization and subsequent death of the car amid rumors of conspiracy and control from oil companies and the government. Though the car never achieved widespread use, the car was an important step forward, representing proof that such cars were technologically possible and viable with few modifications to the current transportation infrastructure.

Thankfully, there’s a new generation of electric cars and vehicles here to pick up where the EV1 left off; keep reading to learn more about the Tesla, better battery technology, and more. New electric vehicles: powered by better batteries. Since the “death” of the EV1 and the development of battery chemistries better suited to power something as large as a car, there have been big claims from a growing number of manufacturers about bringing EVs to the market.

Tesla Roadster: leading the electric car “charge”
Not least of these is the Tesla Roadster, pictured above (read the latest on Tesla here). Offering gaudy numbers like 0-60 in 4 seconds, the equivalent of 135 miles per gallon, more than 200 miles per charge and a price tag hovering around $100,000, Tesla’s hot-rod looks and performance have become the poster child for the next generation of EVs, and several other manufacturers have thrown their hat into the battery-powered ring as well.

Between them all, they offer a wide variety of styles, levels of performance and price; after Tesla’s two-seater sexiness, Miles Automotive Group’s XS 500 (pictured above) represents the sensible family sedan under $30,000 and Phoenix Motorcars offers an electric pick-up truck. All offer the zero-emission (while driving, at least) alternative and the ability to get up to a couple hundred miles per charge while achieving highway-like speeds. Though these examples were developed to be driven like conventional cars, they excel at the shorter, commuter-type trips that dominate much of our driving these days. And, of course, the prototype caveat remains: none of the above cars has come to market, leaving a question mark on their true performance and viability until they show up at a dealership near you.

Electric Car Motor Conversion – DIY Electric Vehicle Conversion

Most people nowadays are considering doing an electric car motor conversion. This is because of the rising fuel prices that inflated their car gasoline expense bill. With most household having more than one car, gasoline expenses have become a major issue. Unfortunately, sending a car to a professional garage to be retrofitted into an Electric Vehicle (EV) will cost more than $4000. The investment is too high for most car owners. An alternative is to do an electric car motor conversion via a Do It Yourself (DIY) project from home.

To initiate a DIY electric car conversion project from home is not a difficult process. As long as you have the necessary tools and workspace, you can do the retrofitting yourself. What you will need is a good EV conversion guide to assist you.

The idea of electric vehicle conversion is to replace the internal combustion engine with an electric motor. Without the engine, all its associated components such as gas tank, fuel line and radiator is also removed. This will create a lot of free space where a batteries rack can be installed. A series of lead acid batteries will supply the power to the electric motor. To control the speed of the EV, a variable resistant is attached between the batteries and the electric motor. It will act as the accelerator paddle of the car.

To retrofit a car to run on electric is definitely cost effective. If is even cheaper if you can spend some time sourcing for second hand electric motor and batteries. With gasoline prices expected to go higher, any solution that can cut fuel cost would be a blessing.

Electric Car Batteries: Benefits and Drawbacks

So you’re thinking of getting an electric car? Well, one of the first things you need to do before getting one is to learn a few basic things about these vehicles — especially with regards to how they run and where they get their power. And like all things electric, an electric car relies on an independent power source — the battery.

A normal car (powered by an internal combustion engine) only needs the battery to start the engine as well as run the air conditioning system and the car stereo. That isn’t the case with electric cars. In fact, the battery used in electric cars runs about everything. When electric cars were first introduced, the primary concern was (and still is) the quality and reliability of the electric car battery, i.e. how long can the battery last before it needs to be recharged. Fortunately, the last few decades has produced significant improvements on how electric car batteries are made. Now we already have nickel metal hydride (NiMH), lead-acid and lithium-ion (Li-ion) types that are rechargeable and readily available in the market.

Compared to normal car batteries, how do electric car batteries fare? Here’s a look at the benefits:

Cost-effectiveness. For five bucks worth of electricity, your electric car can run for more than 300 kilometers. Now if you do the math and compare that with your current gas costs and equivalent mileage, you’ll see that going electric can be quite economic in the long run.

Cleaner & Greener. Although you still need to burn fossil fuels in order to generate the electricity needed to recharge electric car batteries, the pollution produced is very minimal compared to the pollution caused by internal combustion engines. Plus, with better power generation sources like nuclear plants, the level of carbon emissions in the process of recharging becomes even lesser.

Re-usability. Electric car batteries can be reused and recycled. So you don’t need to worry about how you can dispose of your battery pack.

However, like any new technology, electric car batteries are not perfect. Here are the drawbacks:

They’re heavy. Because electric car batteries are designed to provide more power, they need to be connected to battery packs to ensure heavy duty performance. And these battery packs are not light. A battery pack can weigh as much as half a metric ton. But don’t worry, there’s hope — manufacturers are designing electric cars with lighter body frames to offset the battery’s weight.

Recharging time. Unfortunately, there’s no technology available yet for quicker and easier recharging. You still need several hours of downtime before your electric car can run again.

Maintenance. Electric car batteries are still uncommon, which means the number of service stations which can do repairs is still fairly limited, too. And since they’re quite fewer, maintenance costs might be a bit higher, too.

No doubt, electric car batteries are still a work in progress. It has its own set of limitations but there’s still plenty of room for improvement. But in a few years, the new generation of batteries will be lighter, more economical and most importantly, more powerful. That’s certainly a comforting thought.

Best Electric Cars

Welcome to the world of electric cars! Thank you for visiting and supporting BestElectricCars.com.

An electric car is an alternative fuel automobile that uses electric motors instead of the common gasoline-driven internal combustion engine. Electric cars are powered by on-board battery packs. This type of power is expected to become more and more popular in the future.

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Anytime a new technology starts to encroach on the existing order of things – however – growth is difficult. With the greater range of gasoline cars, quicker refueling times, and massive petroleum infrastructure – gasoline powered cars still rule the road. In recent years, increased concerns over the environmental impact of gasoline cars and spikes in the cost of gasoline have brought renewed interest in electric cars. Electric cars are believed to be more environmentally friendly and cheaper to maintain and run, despite high initial costs.

Electric cars currently enjoy relative popularity in countries around the world, though they are notably absent from the roads of the United States, where electric cars briefly re-appeared in the late 90s as a response to changing government regulations. The hybrid electric car has become the most common form of electric car, combining a internal combustion engine with supplementary electric motors to run the car at idle and low speeds.

Hybrid cars are now sold by most major manufacturers, with notable models including the Toyota Prius and the forthcoming Chevrolet Volt, a plug-in hybrid which uses a fully electric drive train supplemented by a gasoline-powered electric generator to extend its range. As of 2009, the world’s most popular battery electric car is the REVAi, produced by an Indian company and sold in a number of countries in Europe and Asia.