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hartwell hartwell
 
December 17, 2008 09:41 AM

Why isn't there a homebrew electric car?

Seems like it would be a fun project to buy an old pick up truck, put 10 or 20 regular sized lead-acid 12 volt car batteries in the truck bed, pull out the engine, transmission, fuel tank. Put in electric motors directly connected to either all 4 or just 2 wheels. Design some control circuitry to emulate the feel of a normal gas pedal, and bob's your uncle.

Most of this is beyond the skill set of your average mechanic, but it seems that someone ought to be able to set up a shop to build these.
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mike mike
 
 December 17, 2008 09:43 AM
I've seen a few, my college's mechanical and electrical engineering schools did a joint project every year to convert a stock consumer car into an all electric one.

Here are a few more:

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/electric-car7.htm
http://jerryrig.com/convert/
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both interesting links


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disleksic disleksic
 
December 17, 2008 10:20 AM
The cost may be a factor. Also you would likely have to submit your car for testing before it could go on the road.

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kukari kukari
 
December 17, 2008 10:47 AM
There is!
http://www.sahkoautot.fi/eng
Source(s):
http://www.sahkoautot.fi/eng


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hartwell hartwell
 
December 17, 2008 08:03 PM
thanks, good reading there also.

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shareme shareme
 
December 17, 2008 10:52 AM
Back before GM bought Oldsmobile and etc there in fact was one..but that was the early 1900s

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carriep carriep
 
December 17, 2008 03:14 PM
There are DIY electric cars out there. Most focus on biodesiel because it's easier to modify existing cars. I'm also guessing that there's safety issues still with electric cars due to the batteries. Most use Lithium Ion batteries, same as laptop batteries. These have a tendency to overheat (see Mahalo's HP Battery Recall page for info on that).

I've actually seen a few wood-powered cars online, which was totally trippy (tree-py?):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4n_OaCIQ-s

Source(s):
http://www.wheels.ca/reviews/article/305106


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