How do I convert a car to electric? No previous knowledge here!

October 4, 2008 5:48 AM

How do I convert a car to electric?

I'm looking for how-tos, information to know beforehand, what vehicles are good to use, everything and anything. It doesn't help that I know next to nothing about about cars OR electronics. But I want to try! I've heard pick-up trucks are good to put batteries in the bed. Not looking for massive distances or super high speeds, just something that shows/tells/explains making an electric car, please.

posted by photomusic86 to Travel & Transportation (5 answers total)

A few links via google.
posted by o0dano0o at 6:32 AM on October 4, 2008

A few links via MIT's electric vehicle team. They did an electric vehicle conversion to a Porsche 914.

(Disclosure: I recently joined this team)
posted by KevCed at 7:04 AM on October 4, 2008

Best answer: AustinEV has a lot of information - build blogs, photos, parts trading, etc.
posted by god hates math at 7:28 AM on October 4, 2008

Best answer: EVConvert.com (linked by o0dano0o above) is a good place to start. The author has had other things going on in his life recently so the site hasn't been updated very much in the past year, but you can get a good idea of what goes into designing your own conversion (and the work and tools required.)

Also, there are a whole host of conversion blogs out there, varying widely in how frequently they are updated. Selections from my RSS feeds:

Civic electric car conversion
Electric Vanagon
Open Source Civic EV
Slacy's 914 EV Conversion

You'll probably get some ideas from those, as well as links to lots of resources and other conversion stories.
posted by harkin banks at 10:07 AM on October 4, 2008

Best answer: Lion EV has some pretty detailed information about the process and sells kits.
posted by GPF at 7:57 PM on October 4, 2008