A Honda Civic With no Gas Tank (Video)

It took Dr. Adam Blankespoor two years and $14,000 to convert his 1996 Honda Civic into an all-electric plug-in vehicle. He's an automotive engineer and researcher, but if he can do it, you can probably follow in his footsteps and create your own electric vehicle if you are so inclined. He talks about a 45 mile range, with 30 miles as a practical limit. That's not competitive with the Tesla S, but there's also a massive price difference to consider. This is another person Slashdot met at the Ann Arbor Maker Faire. If you want to see what kinds of electric vehicles other have made, possibly for inspiration, the Electric Vehicle Photo Album is a good place to start. And if you want information on how to build your own electric car, using "electric car conversion" as your Google search term will put you on the track of more electric car information than you can shake a Tesla Coil at.

Comments

Practical?

[mhajicek]

$14000 buys an awful lot of gas.

Re:Practical?

[lobiusmoop]

Lighten up AC. It's the guy's _hobby_, it's not meant to be especially practical, you know? (great fun though)

Re:Practical?

[Joce640k]

Sure, but paying somebody else to do it for you is like using Windows instead of Linux.

Re:Practical?

[jenningsthecat]

You should consider the $14000 + the cost of the original honda civic as the total cost of the finished vehicle. Then compare that cost to a similar quality gas guzzler. The real savings will be found in the difference between those two prices, not in the original cost of the conversion.

When doing a cost analysis, don't forget to deduct the cost of oil changes, filter replacements, and exhaust system repairs/replacements for the life of the electric car. Discount the cost of brake jobs as well, if the car uses regenerative braking. In Ontario, Canada, (and possibly other jurisdictions as well), you can also deduct the cost of emissions testing every two years. And then there's the cost difference between fixing the things that typically go wrong with an I/C engine in the course of a decade or so, and fixing the problems that crop up with an electric motor and controller.

As usual, this is a more complex question than it first appears to be.

Wow, I guess.

[jtownatpunk.net]

But, for another grand or two, he could have bought a brand new 40+ MPG IC vehicle with a warranty, all kinds of new safety features, and a range of hundreds of miles with a "recharge" time of about 5 minutes.

I don't understand why this is a story at all. People have been building short range electric vehicles since the 70s. Unless the summary was supposed to read 450 mile range with a 300 mile practical limit, I don't see what's exciting about this.

Re:Wow, I guess.

[Capt.DrumkenBum]

It is geeky and cool. If you don't get that you might be on the wrong website.
Geeky and cool does not mean useful. In fact most of the best geeky and cool things are not useful at all.

Re:Wow, I guess.

[fahrbot-bot]

It is geeky and cool. If you don't get that you might be on the wrong website. Geeky and cool does not mean useful. In fact most of the best geeky and cool things are not useful at all.

I now know how to describe my penis - thanks.

Re:car conversion: "don't start from here"

[YrWrstNtmr]

The Smart Four Two is safer in a crash than any SUV ever made, but a lot of people dont have the IQ to realize that.

I suggest you go to youtube and watch some of the Smart crash test videos. Against larger cars, the Smart usually gets punted quite far.
If everyone drove something that size, sure. But mass does matter.

Re:Huge waste of money

[gmhowell]

So you're complaining about wasting time...on slashdot?!

There's a difference between wasting my time and wasting my employer's time.