My boss decided to send me up to our San Francisco head office to work for a while and I am glad of the opportunity, since a few of the other engineers working here own Nissan Leafs. Having heard about my own electric car conversion, they were eager to show me their Leafs, three of them parked side-by-side on the parking lot above our office, all three in the beautiful ‘sky blue’ color (someone joked that’s the only color they come in. Surely not!).

Under the hood of the Nissan Leaf

Having only been driven about in a Mitsubishi MiEV in Australia, I was keen to compare it with the Leaf and my first instant impression was that this car looks like any mid-sized family car, not some purposeful differentiation in aesthetics just to outwardly state that it is different, i.e., electric, ‘so that’s why it looks quirky’.

Three proud electric vehicle owners (even though mine's a DIY)

Putting aesthetics aside, the Leaf is a typical AC production electric vehicle at a cost of some $25,000 and each owner is proud to say he bought it outright, not on some lease program. Steve, the one who got me on the lunch date to turn the new Leaf was also a proud EV1 ‘owner’ some years ago before they were all recalled and crushed. Like everyone else, he didn’t want to give up his car but would be cited with ‘grand theft auto’ if he refused to obey the corporate giants and their evil ways. Even as a Leaf owner, he still wants to do his own conversion so we were happy to exchange new ideas as even the backyard scene has changed since my conversion was done, and AC is definitely the way to go as parts become cheaper. The only complaint about the Leaf that was mentioned is the fact that the horn is not loud enough, probably because it is buried under so much hardware under the hood. Of course an air-horn replacement can be fitted.

The motor controller here looks like a regular gas engine

Nose-mounted charge port for easy acces to a ChargePoint outlet

Handy charge extension cord/adapter

Solar panel for accessories battery charging

It is time more people got on the EV wagon, so to speak. The Leaf is comfortable, easy to drive, has all the modern features found in other cars and it even has a solar panel on the tail wing for 12v accessories top-up charging, on a good day. Lifting the hood one would be mistaken for believing the motor controller is an east-west internal combustion type, looks (sort of) similar, but then I guess the makers didn’t want to scare potential purchasers with an unusual configuration. “Oh, looks like a regular car engine,” the dealers say, quoting their customers and it’s this familiarity coupled with contemporary design that makes the car so attractive.

The Leaf has a charger port located at the front below the hood, for use with the various Charge Point stations around San Francisco (like those in Sydney, London etc). Steve and others have also gone to lengths to engineer charging adapters for easy home charging or wherever they wind up to stay – kits can even be found on eBay.

Let’s hope this generation of electric vehicle never falls to the unyielding fools who tout ‘human energy’ at the cost of a clean future.

So is there anything wrong with the electric car future?

Maybe this… :)

Electric Roller

Casual presentation at a local R&D company

In 2009 I created a PowerPoint presentation titled, “Revenge of the Electric Car,” where I discussed the technology involved, the politics, the cowboys, promising enterprises that merely leech the money from the fatter end of town to no end, and a bit of history; but mostly it was tech stuff to prove how easily and safely a conversion can be done to any car, or applied to a new design, with my conversion as an example. I have presented this at several businesses, R&D companies, certain community organizations and clubs, with many taking an interest in how they can convert their own cars.

While it’s an old image above, I still do the occasional presentation today. Appropriately, here’s a trailer with the same title, :) enjoy…

http://www.revengeoftheelectriccar.com/

Oh, and spot the Zilla. And yes, the image on the first slide is from Repo Man.

<tech digression to rant>

Having experienced first-hand working with scumbag bosses, I can understand some of the objections people have to the excessive accumulation of wealth by a small handful of self-serving power-players with big egos and big lies to get them to where they are now; and that includes some of the mongrel electric car cowboys I have come across who have scammed millions from governments and wasted resources with little fruition for the betterment of society.

Yes another ramble, but interesting times nonetheless, paralleled by the Death of Jobs, mirroring the drive of human endeavor blemished by the darker side of opportunism at the expense of human liberty and quality of life.

Some sobering links; news spread by the people, not the compromised media.

http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/

http://www.occupytogether.org/

http://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/occupywallstreet

The result of all this? Who knows; people have a tendency to hush into quietness, but history shows that social movements can bring about change not only to the tactile things around us (what we do, buy and drive) but to the hearts of fellow humans who may learn one day that ‘greed is not always good’.

</tech digression to rant>

Been off the air for a while, not only with other work but dealing with the death of another loved one. Blech, life, well it leads to death, at least I’ve got an electric car to boast about even if in these rapidly-changing times my car is rapidly becoming somewhat of a Model-T, but heck, I love driving it and being electric it’s been the most reliable car I have ever owned (putting aside some dodgy components from a certain supplier in Melbourne).

However, since things change fast yet probably more slowly for me these days, better, new, newsy stuff that’s real news; that’s news-worthy stuff, can be found elsewhere (excuse the alliteration).

As other things have my attention these days, not just working hard in another R&D firm (a nice bunch of people; we put the oomph into your cell phone), but other issues, please feel free to drop by this site on occasion just in case I do have something useful to say.

However, if you want more recent news on electric car happenings, you could always visit the AEVA site or go to this link, Green Car Reports which has more tantalizing stuff that’s up-to-date. Sure I may post something quirky like some new developing battery technology or some lateral tech I see that can have an application for four-wheeled momentum that others may not see (yet); so I’ll leave it at that.

I must say that while a lot of new electric vehicles are coming out, in many countries you can only lease them, few can be purchased outright (and I hope this changes soon once standards and other issues are resolved) and also, they’re still goddamn expensive. For this reason (and the fact that tinkering is good) I still encourage you to convert your own beast. You get what you want, not what someone else dictates, and it’s yours.

Again, if you want to convert your vehicle, here’s the best advice one can find out there for the home builder, http://tinyurl.com/4qdcwja. And as I have said many times during the building of my car, it’s not as complicated as the auto makers want you to think.

If you want a decent conversion guide, that link is the one to visit. Others have failed in delivery of some content or other, or blatantly plagiarized other people’s research into EVs (including some well-known commercial establishments we won’t name here) or are just plain selling you sophistry and BS.

Have fun, always tinker and build a better world,
Carmel
VK2CAR

BMW have been quoted as saying they don’t think electric vehicles are right for most people. Despite developing the ActiveE coupe and i3 electric vehicles for production later this year, they still believe battery technology and resistance from drivers of large vehicles will keep most people away from owning a fully-electric vehicle.

Clean diesel and hybrids are too tempting to let go in great volumes hence the careful side-stepping of nouns and premises so they don’t shoot themselves in their clay feet. And for that reason, we see yet again another wonderful EV development being relegated to the leasing arena. When will they learn?

BMW ActiveE AC electric motor 125 kW

With fast-charging and long range batteries imminent, the entire scene will change within the next five years, or my uncle’s a monkey, well he is anyway, but he still drives a gas guzzling BMW. In fact, the many, many BMW conversions out there I know of show that people want electric vehicles NOW, even if as a second car, which I have been saying for a while now as commuter gas vehicles replaced by electric can be a really cool thing.

Sync your battery pack to your iPhone and use the BMW AppE to find your nearest charging station.

More here.

Great for social occasions. Imagine being picked up in one of these to be taken to the latest ‘we made a lot of money in oil this month’ party. Of course the best way to experience the performance of this vehicle would be on a trip from Dubai to Abu Dhabi in under 30 minutes, and they say that will happen in May.

Sheikh a leg and climb aboard the Magic EV Bus. If the ride is expensive, the conductor will leave you feeling flat.

Powered by lithium polymers (the light-weight higher peak power-rated lithiums), this vehicle has a top speed of 155mph (250km) while carrying 23 movers and sheikhers. 300kw motors are used (I could not find out how many -let’s imagine one driving each wheel; wow, that’s heavy). With a turning circle of some 11 yards or so (10m), doing donuts in the desert in this thing would be one heck of a ride, however more realistically, a dedicated lane will be set up for this vehicle. Dutch funded, there is so much space in this bus I could squeeze my dutch jugs in there and there’d still be plenty of room.

Resembling a stretched bat mobile, no doubt Batman could fit his aged corpulence in there too and fit Robin as well, somewhere. Squelch.

Click for more details.

I’ve been a bit slack in adding new photos of my electric vehicle. I know I’ve meant to do a gallery of stuff from start of conversion to finish but there’s always been something else to take priority, including tending to my poor sick kitty, so sorry about this, and after all, I’ve been driving this car around the place for over a year now -and yes, the Thundersky batteries are behaving well (although I’ve had some reset issues with the Atmel chips in my BMS, though not a big deal). After being harassed by someone for some more recent photos, herewith a few. Some of the photos may have had too much HDR work, so if the nice red duco looks a little on the mincing pink side, please calibrate your monitor :)

Electric Conversion Made Easy

Literally…

It’s wireless charging at its best. Simply park your car and watch it charge, fast (with the new batteries soon on the horizon). The Google inductive charging station designed by Evatran will have far reaching consequences.

Move over Better Place!

Click here for more information.

More like a tomb stone, and probably arriving in Tomb Stone one day (if the ghost of Schieffelin has his way).

Meanwhile, HaloIPT, a New Zealand startup, is traveling down the road where vehicles literally get charged, while traveling down the road.

Recently captured, the i3 electric vehicle will be released some time in 2013. Given the testing conditions, it would be interesting to see how the batteries perform in cold climates. Watch here…

I agree with the comments; butt-ugly car – maybe the aesthetic imagination will be interwoven with the final result for a more-appealing vehicle when the time comes for launching.

Meanwhile, some parts for the new Nissan Leaf will be manufactured in Australia. I can only guess that this will be more of the case in the future, for various reasons I am sure you are aware of. At least 600 of them left Japan for the US market prior to the earthquake.

<< Convert Your Car To Electric the Easy Way >>

More and more people are asking me how to convert their car to electric, as I have done. While I do the speaker circuit on conversion, I never got around to finishing my ‘Convert Your Gas Guzzler’ manual; you see, time was not on my side, even though I have the knowledge to do an even better car now (but I’m always busy writing someone else’s e-book for them!).

It seems everywhere I look these days there is some cowboy or little devil promising some fool-proof way to convert your car from gas to electric. I’ve reviewed a few e-books and some of these are truly atrocious; providing scant information at best, relying on old technology and omitting essential safety hazard and compliance information.

Checklist

When looking for an electric vehicle ‘how to’ e-book or manual, ensure it provides:

• advice on the type of vehicle that can be converted,
• advice and information provided on the various components available (chargers, battery management, bus-bars, motor controllers etc),
• advice on the types of electric motors available and which sizes are suitable for different car types/weights,
• advice on battery technology, types of batteries to use and relevant cost (you don’t have to use expensive lithiums!),
• advice on how to set up the 12-14 volt side, advice on other energy-saving methods such as re-gen, power steer shut-off etc,
• advice on budgeting; how much for a 96v, 120v or 144v system, and
• advice on regulations, engineering compliance and where to get help (forums etc)

I’ve talked about all this stuff and more in my blog, but rather than sifting through a blog, an e-book is a more compact and accessible way to get the information you want -even more so if you have a device reader, such as an iPad.

I recently came across the ‘Electric Conversion Made Easy‘ manual and I have to say it’s quite detailed, covering electric car conversion from start to finish. Like me, this guy has been on television too. His name is Gavin Shoebridge and you can download his e-book from here. I don’t normally do the sales pitch but if you look beyond the colorful advertising hype, there’s a pretty good book available there for you to start building your own electric vehicle right now.

Speaking of cowboys and aliens, ahem, devils…

A little anecdote for you; my dear departed husband once joked about ‘Lucas Prince of Darkness’ because of their dodgy auto electrical products. Back then in my naivety I thought it was just his observation about Lucas. Not really; here’s some funny stuff about Lucas Prince of Darkness.

Enjoy!

It’s nice to know Better Place (BP) are reading posts from other electric car builders; it shows that they are actively aware of what’s happening around them. Following my recent post about their parked domain, it seems that some url forwarding has now been done for http://www.betterplace.com.au.

Good stuff. Now about that electric GM Commodore conversion you guys wanted us to build for you (after the launch of your show here), after you saw our setup and then took off without so much as a ‘thank you’. Hmmm…

And yes, a heavy car like a GM Commodore can travel up to 400km on a single charge with the right batteries, such as Li polymers (which are available for EVs).

I would like to think we are all aiming for a better place but with so many cowboys on the scene, noble aspirations can be somewhat muddied by blatant short term hype and opportunism, in which the end future result could be quite ugly…

Logan5 Solar Car MKII

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Electric Car Conversions Made Easy!

I recently ran into veteran racing driver, Basil van Rooyen, who has an interesting proposal to perpetuate internal combustion dominance – at least for another twenty years or so. His premise is that electric vehicles still have multiple issues to contend with, along with the obvious expense. Given that internal combustion engines will be around for a while anyway (as simply huge masses of populations will take time to get on the ev wagon for numerous reasons), Basil’s engine design proposes a major departure from four-stroke to two-stroke high efficient motors.

Have a look at http://citsengine.webs.com and let me know what you think, and download the .pdf too (link below).

While I don’t agree with everything he says about the current state of electric vehicle technology, some valid points were raised over his proposal to streamline the future of gas-powered technology and make the design more efficient. The design seems elegant in some regards, yet over-complicated in the combustion chamber areas; I would imagine that machining/refinement could be a difficult task. The addition of the throttle bypass valve will save on down-throttle fuel consumption due to otherwise partial vacuum.

The main point here is that if such a design were to be taken up by the major manufacturers en masse, would it actually set back the evolving pure EV market? A consequence could be that future hybrids are more refined but as I have said in the past, over-complicated cars can be a pain when it comes to servicing. There is a move for EV batteries to be more efficiently re-cycled, along with fast-charging and more lightweight lithiums looming on the horizon. Composite fibers tailored for lightweight yet uni-directionally bonding for strength where it matters also helps to support a robust future in EV motoring and may serve an efficient gas engine too, provided the weight comes down on the engine as well.

If there is a place for yet another internal combustion engine, then it must not be to the detriment of EV delivery. People have been waiting many many years for decent plug-in all electric vehicles and the dawn has already arrived. To sully it with yet another internal combustion engine may be a waste of time, yet there will always be a requirement for some type of internal combustion engine where electric may fail, for example, in heavy vehicles and remote areas.

Download PDF (courtesy of Basil van Rooyen)

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Electric Car Conversions Made Easy!