There has been a lot of interest on pure electric vehicle (EV) lately. This may be due to the recent gasoline price hike back in 2008. Many car owners were caught off guard by the sudden increased of their energy expense bill. To counter that effect, many people are considering to use an electric car. Unfortunately, a new EV from the dealership is still quite expensive. The next best option is to convert a gasoline driven car to run on electric power.
If you are familiar with car maintenance, you can perform your own electric car conversion. The idea is to remove the internal combustion engine and replaces it with a DC electric motor. To make space in the engine compartment, redundant components such as gas tank, fuel distribution lines, radiator and exhaust pipe are removed as well. The electric motor will be linked directly to the existing transmission unit.
To power the homemade electric car, you will need to use lead acid battery. The batteries are readily available and not too expensive. To save cost, you can use reconditioned car or electric golf cart battery. A normal sedan EV would need 10 to 15 units of batteries to provide approximately 150 driving miles. The actual mileage will depend of the motor power rating, weight of the car, battery charging state and also the driving condition.
If you are not familiar with the technical aspects of a car, it may not be a good idea to convert a car to electric vehicle yourself. In this case, it would be wise to outsource the conversion work to a professional mechanic. What you can do is to learn about the science of an EV. At least you will know when you are being charged for unnecessary parts or work done on your car.
