Green Cars: Videos and More!

Build Your Own Electric Car - Training DVD

2011-01-08T20:28:00.000-06:00

This summer, I found a bit too much time on my hands, due to unemployment from the "Economic Downturn".

Rather than sit on my butt, I made a list of assets:
An Electric Car.
My DIY experience in building it.
A video camera.
Time.

And a list of my liabilities:
Money (the lack of.)

So, I got crackin'. I wrote up an outline and script, and went through, on camera, every step it took me to build an electric car.

After editing, converting to DVD, AND adding a companion disc of additional info, I now had BUILD YOUR OWN ELECTRIC CAR: CHEAP!

I did start selling copies of the DVD set this summer, and sales of it allowed me to present on my car at both the Midwest Renewable Energy Fair and the first ever Mother Earth Fair!

I finally got around to making a YouTube Video to promote the instructional video. (Which is at the top!)

I hope you have enjoyed all my YouTube videos and blogging on electric vehicles!!!

Thank you to everyone who has supported my efforts in DIY clean transportation: my wife, the guys at Ecomodder.com, the Milwaukee Makerspace and Electric Car Club, my sister for cover design, and super cool guys like Paul, Adam, Darin, and everyone else. You know who you are!

REVOLT HYBRID First Real Drive.

2010-12-19T23:30:00.000-06:00

REVOLT DIY Hybrid Overview

2010-12-19T22:53:00.000-06:00

REVOLT DIY Hybrid Remote Start

2010-12-19T21:26:00.000-06:00

DIY Hybrid Propane Generator running

2010-12-06T18:21:00.000-06:00

Solar Panel Road Trip

2010-11-14T14:23:00.000-06:00

Bringing Home the Chevy Volt

2010-11-10T09:27:00.000-06:00

One of the first consumer Chevy Volts gets brought home!
When I originally heard the official release date of the Volt would be Fall of 2010 - specifically November, it always seemed so far away, and though it just wouldn't happen.

But here we are. And the first few Volts are rolling out.

First Ride in an Electric Car

2010-10-20T20:09:00.000-05:00

First look at Chevy Volt

2010-10-17T16:01:00.000-05:00

Finally got to see a Chevy Volt in person!

Check it out!

-Ben

RADIO FLYER CAR: Valley couple's Radio Flyer car turns heads - ktuu.com

2010-10-14T19:47:00.000-05:00

RADIO FLYER CAR: Valley couple's Radio Flyer car turns heads - ktuu.com

Build Your Own Electric Car: Cheap, Part 7 of 7

2010-09-29T19:54:00.000-05:00

Build Your Own Electric Car: Cheap, part 6

2010-09-29T14:35:00.000-05:00

Build Your Own Electric Car: Cheap, Part 5

2010-09-29T11:21:00.000-05:00

Build Your Own Electric Car, Part 3

2010-09-28T22:02:00.000-05:00

Build Your Own Electric Car, Part 2

2010-09-28T16:28:00.000-05:00

Build Your Own Electric Car, Part 4

2010-09-28T14:13:00.000-05:00

Build Your Own Electric Car, Part 1

2010-09-27T18:05:00.000-05:00

AC Controller Project #1.wmv

2010-09-17T11:35:00.000-05:00

Here's the latest video of Paul's AC controller.

Originally, Paul started a project of a homebuilt DC controller. With input from many other people, it turned into the fantastic Open ReVolt DC Controller Project. Take a look at Ecomodder.com for more info on that.

Since that project, many people have been asking about AC motor controllers (variable frequency drives.)
This video is the open source AC Electric Car Controller project that he has been working on since then.

If you are interested in kits for the Open Revolt, you can buy them through Pauls web page: http://www.paulandsabrinasevstuff.com/index.html

White Zombie Electric Datsun in 10.258-sec 1/4-mile run at PIR 11sep2010

2010-09-14T22:35:00.000-05:00

You just gotta like the White Zombie. Nothing like taking a street-legal electric car to the local race track and beating all the gasoline cars.

It's what my Electro-Metro wants to be when it grows up....

ElecTrak Solar Charging

2010-08-28T23:01:00.000-05:00

VW Rollgolf testdrive

2010-08-07T09:00:00.000-05:00

This is not eco-friendly transportation at all, but I laughed so hard, I had to post it anyways....

Liquid-cooled car seats

2010-07-19T23:08:00.000-05:00

Modified Power Wheels Vehicle July 10, 2010

2010-07-11T20:44:00.000-05:00

Radios more valuable than an Electric Car!?

2010-07-09T15:25:00.000-05:00

Last night, my wife and I drove over to a city park, where they show a movie outdoors on a large, inflatable screen.

It’s always a good time, with a big crowd of families in their folding chairs, enjoying the outdoors, and whatever the film happens to be for the evening.

After the showing of THE FROG PRINCE, we walked back to the car, put our chairs and coolers in the trunk, and hopped inside.

“That’s odd, I don’t remember removing my radio lately..” I thought to myself. Sure enough, the radio was gone.

In my homebuilt electric car, almost everything is used or salvaged. One of the few items in the car that isn’t is (WAS!) the car stereo – the cheapest one I could find at Wal-Mart with a digital tuner.

Fortunately, the window wasn’t broken, and nothing else was taken. The thief even disconnected the stereo at the wire harness, rather than cutting it. How considerate. If I can still find the same radio for sale, installation will be a snap – just plug it back in!

I called the police, and then stopped by the station today and had a report filled out.

So, there you have it, apparently the RADIO is the most valuable part of the car.

I would have liked to have seen someone try to steal that car – the clutch pedal is the main power disconnect!

ElecTrak update July 6 2010.mp4

2010-07-07T13:31:00.000-05:00

Adventures at the 2010 MREA Energy Fair!

2010-06-21T12:30:00.003-05:00

I knew the 2010 MREA Energy Fair would be a big success from the moment I finally pulled out of the big traffic jam outside of Madison, Wisconsin, and was passed by a group of guys in a VW TDI, all smiling, pointing at my electric car and motorcycle, and smiling and waving.

I wasn't off to the best start.
The night before, I was up to at least Midnight working on burning, printing, and packaging my BUILD YOUR OWN ELECTRIC CAR instructional DVDs. The next day, general work obligations kept me from leaving when I wanted to, and when I finally was on the road traffic came to a dead stop.

Now keep in mind that I am driving a Chevy S-10 Pickup truck.
With the 2.2L, 4-cylinder engine.
Towing a ton of Electric Geo Metro.
With an electric motorcycle in the bed.
Oh, and I don't have a radiator fan on the truck...
And still have the grill-block from the winter.

I thought it was a bit odd that my coolant temperature gauge started going up. I always figured that with how oversized most radiators are, the only time I would ever need a radiator fan is on a hot summer day, stuck in a traffic jam, towing a heavy load...

Oh, right. That's exactly what I was doing.
Since the traffic was completely stopped anyways, I hopped out, and with one quick snip of a zip-tie, my grill-block was gone.
Back inside the truck, I plugged in the power connection for the ELECTRIC radiator fan that I removed from the Geo Metro and installed in the truck in place of the mechanical "propeller" fan. I use it about once a year. Today was that day.

A couple hours later, I was finally at the Energy Fair. Once I had unloaded and set up all my display, I headed back to the campground. On the way, I saw a Solectria Force getting dropped off for the show. It belongs to one of the tech schools, and had been beautifully restored.

At camp, it rained cats, dogs, and thunderbolts that night. Hard to sleep in a monsoon, but the weather was great the entire rest of the weekend.

Camping at events like that seems to somehow encourage do-it-yourselfers to go full-tilt, such as homebrew setups, or minimalist camping.

The best thing about the energy fair is the people. We had quite a few EcoModders show up. Besides me, Hondo, Ryland, OvalOverload, and Dave Koller were there, as well as a few people who should at least be honorary ecomodders, including Chuck with his modded rear-steer I-5 Elec-Trak, a guy who runs his Geo Tracker on homebrew ethanol, and an electric S-10 builder.

Saturday is always the busiest day of the fair. It was also the first time I gave a REAL presentation on building an electric car.
There I was, in the front of a tent designed to seat 100 people. It was standing room only. Someone told me they thought it was nearly 200 people there. Some folks couldn't get close enough to see or hear me, so they came back to the fair on Sunday for the other presentation!

I am not a professional speaker. Nope. Not at all. That many people staring at me, expecting me to be a professional EXPERT did give me a bit of stage-fright. So that's the first thing I told them - that it was just a bit nerve-racking to be up there, and that I was NOT AN EXPERT. What I was is just a regular guy who decided to do something a little different.

Luckily, that's exactly who they wanted there that day. I launched into my stories of Left-Turn-Only Test Drives, Electric Motor Scrounging, and my notorious appearance before Judge Stern for the speeding ticket, all while getting through the steps of a practical EV conversion.

I also wore my Open ReVolt t-shirt, (Well, one of several I have had made.) to help sell people on the idea of open sour projects, home-brew can-do, and making the project affordable. To help spread the word, I gave my buddy Ryland a silver-on-black shirt.

Later, an amazing amount of people told me how much they enjoyed my presentation. Several folks said that it was the most-well attended workshop of the fair!

I was also selling the very first copies of the BUILD YOUR OWN ELECTRIC CAR instructional videos. They sold out VERY fast, and I quickly had a waiting list for more.

Another highlight of the day was going to a test drive in a Wheego Whip
(Thanks Jimbo!) This Electric Smart Car look-alike was zippy and fun. I drove a few miles around Custer at 35 miles per hour without using a drop of gas. The headroom in the car is great! (I'm 6'0) and the bucket seats were very comfortable. At the end of the day, the Wheego was literally plugged into a windmill to recharge. How's THAT for point of use clean energy!?

Another idea that came up during the day was for a vehicle workshop next year. Several people said how much they liked my car because of the "hands-on" and "DIY" approach. I had also joked about how knowing what I know now, I could maybe convert a motorcycle to electric in a three-day weekend. So here's the idea: For next year - build an EV in a weekend. A motorcycle would be very do-able, and a car could be done with proper preparation. We would need some donations, and some labor help, but I think it could be done.

Just imagine the signs - Friday Noon: Pulling the Engine, Saturday 2PM: Installing Batteries, Sunday 5 PM: Driving Away.
We could even auction the finished vehicle off as a fund-raiser!

Sunday is usually the quietest day of the fair - meaning I only talked to 5000 people... I did a second BUILD YOUR OWN ELECTRIC CAR presentation, this time with a bit fewer people there.

I also did interviews with several camera crews, including two from broadcast TV, Channel 7 and Channel 9, both from Wausau, Wisconsin. Although both were full-length interviews with me and lots of video of my car, the only news story I could find had just a brief shot of me leaning over the car (I'm wearing a purple t-shirt) and an extreme close-up of my bad wiring!

The return trip from a long weekend event like this is always a tiring one. Once again, I hit traffic jams (at 11 at night!) due to road construction, but I finally made it back home, and slept soundly knowing that I was doing my part to try to make the world a little better.

Thanks to everyone who showed up, volunteered, presented, exhibited, and in any other way participated to make the 2010 MREA Energy Fair such a success!

Can I Autocross Race an Electric Car?

2010-06-03T20:27:00.000-05:00

Electric Car Conversion DVD - COMING SOON!

2010-06-03T20:24:00.000-05:00

Adventures in Filmmaking

2010-06-03T20:22:00.000-05:00

Adventures in Filmmaking!
by BEN N on JUNE 3, 2010

Just recently, I announced that I am making an instructional video on how to BUILD YOUR OWN ELECTRIC CAR.

No sooner had I started than Murphy’s Law reared its ugly head.

To start with, I already had the Open ReVolt controller out of the car, so I thought I would film that as the very first bit of the video. Once done with that, I wash the car, and reinstall the controller. I went outside and started washing the car, only to realize there was A GIANT CRACK THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD! RIGHT BEFORE FILMING ALL THE BEAUTY SHOTS OF THE CAR! All I can figure is that the windshield must have had a chip in it I hadn’t seen. Hot sun, and cold wash water just made the tiny crack bigger.

I started shooting all the various sections of the video, explaining how the motor works, how to build an adapter plate and coupler, and rig up batteries and chargers.

Then, I had an idea for a cool shot for the beginning of the video – I would film the car in an empty parking lot, where I could rotate the camera around the car on a small wheeled cart. I threw the cart and camera in the back of the car, and zipped down the street to the local mega-church (they have a GREAT parking lot!)

I made a couple of takes of my rotational cart shot, until I got one I was happy with. Also, the sky was threatening rain, so I was quick to pack up.

Back to my house is up a big hill, on a fast section of road. Now keep in mind that in an electric car, you actually want to be in a HIGHER gear for greater power. The higher gear creates more resistance, which allows for you to draw more energy from the batteries. “What the heck, I’ll use 4th gear….”

So, just as I turn from the church parking lot to the main road, I see a car coming up quick behind me, just over the other smaller hill right there. So, I accelerate… In 4th gear – drawing 500 amps sustained for about 5 seconds…..

Pop! I instantly realized what happened, and cursed myself for it.

Now keep in mind that about a half-hour earlier, I was recording instructional video on the various EV components under my hood. When I pointed out the main fuse, it was pretty obvious that it was only 175 amps. ( Hard to miss the way I marked it with a Sharpie.) In the video, I mentioned that the smaller fuse is fine, as long as I am not sustaining a big heavy draw on the batteries.

So there I am on the side of the road, with a blown main fuse. Now I’m no fool. Of COURSE I have a spare fuse with me. What I don’t have is the right wrench to remove the old fuse and install the new one. Fortunately, I’m only a ten minute walk from home. I walked back to my house, got my wrench, socket wrench, a packing blanket, and threw it all on my cargo bike, so I could quickly bike back to the car.

That’s when it starts raining.

I think it’s safe to say that “You might be an Ecomodder if….” you have ever changed a 200 amp fuse in a rainstorm on the side of the road. When I was done, the car ran fine again. I padded the back of the car with the packing blanket and threw my Murray Santa Cruz in the back.

Everything was right as rain again. (And as wet!)

I’m hoping the rest of filming the instructional video is a little less adventurous.

How to Time Traffic Lights

2010-05-14T14:44:00.000-05:00

Electrak Mini-wheelie and test drive

2010-04-29T21:30:00.000-05:00

Tonight, I got my Elec-Trak up and running again!

It's only three batteries in there, and I don't even have the blades hooked up yet.

Funny thing is that without the other three batteries in the front, the front tires actually get airborne on take-off!

I still have plenty more work to do restoring this old, electric riding lawn mower!

PowerWheels Racing: Gravedigger motor setup

2010-04-28T10:46:00.001-05:00

The Milwaukee Makerspace is at it again!

This time, participating in "Power Wheels Racing" - modifying stock kids electric vehicles for more power to compete against other teams in tug-of-war, races, and maybe even PowerWheels Polo.

Gravedigger is so big, that if it weren't stock, it would exceed the rules about vehicle size! We actually had to call in and check on that!

These motors are from RV power jacks. They are 12v DC motors with a little gear box built it. If they can lift an RV, they can push a toy car!

We'll keep you updated with more videos in the future.

Powerwheels Pink Trike plan

2010-04-19T10:19:00.000-05:00

100,000 miles on Electric!

2010-04-16T11:48:00.002-05:00

The other day, I was pretty excited to have rolled over 2000 miles on my electric Geo Metro since conversion. Well, that would be nothing for Doug Korthof and Lisa Rosen, who recently passed 100,000 miles on their RAV-4 Electric.

The following is thanks to Plug In America.

“Doug and Lisa’s trusty 2003 RAV reached the notable milestone in March. Back in 2003, their RAV was the last EV sold from Toyota of Hollywood’s lot and possibly the very last retail RAV4 EV delivered. The car has been driven at least 14,000 miles annually since that sunny September day, often hitting the road bright and early for the 80-mile round-trip commute from the couple’s home in Seal Beach to Energy Efficiency Solar / Acro in Pomona. This electric workhorse of an SUV, charged with electricity generated by their own solar array, also earns its keep hauling ladders, miscellaneous equipment and solar panels.

Doug proudly proclaims that the RAV’s record-mileage on a single charge was an impressive 138 miles. “I really like driving on energy I make myself,” he says.

Adds Lisa, who also fancies driving on sunshine: “I was initially surprised by how completely the car fit into our lives. It is environmental, it’s economical, and it’s family friendly. Our RAV4 EV is like the energizer bunny. It just keeps going and going and going . . . “

Electric Car High School Class?

2010-04-07T11:46:00.004-05:00

For some time, I have been thinking that it would be great to have a high-school class in electric car construction.

When I was in high school, algebra and other requirements were not my favorite thing. It seemed like most of my classes weren’t things that would be useful in life. Certainly they were not anything to get excited about in the morning.

What I did enjoy were art classes and the few shop classes that I got to take. Here was some real actually DOING something instead of memorizing dates or conjugating verbs.

Now imagine high school students today. They may not have any classes they get excited about either. Drop-outs are far too frequent. Manufacturing jobs are all now overseas, but we are told that the “Green Economy” is going to provide the jobs of the future.

What if there was a class in electric car construction? Students would learn by doing. Those who excel with the mechanical would enjoy the “hands-on” aspect. Those who love theory and electronics would be needed as well. The artistic could do the paint job. Of course schools don’t have budgets for projects like this, so maybe the more social students could do fund-raising bake sales and car washes.

When done, every student in that class would have a project that would make them proud. That would keep them in school. That would be amazing on any job application or resume.

Imagine a high school sophomore who helps build an electric car, and the first car he ever gets to drive IN HIS LIFE is electric!

How do we set up a class like this? I have no idea. I am not a teacher, not an administrator, and no part of the school system. I am clueless as to how to start something like this. But maybe you know how. Perhaps you at least have some advice or ideas. If you do, please comment below.

One path, similar to my idea is the ELECTRATHON. Electrathon is a high school extra-curricular competition where students design, build, and compete electric go-carts. The competition includes an endurance race and competitive, creative presentations of the vehicles to a panel of judges.

Last summer, I was able to help out an Electrathon team, by loaning them an ammeter from my Electro-Metro. Theirs broke shortly before the big race and needed one for last-minute testing. The students were bright and had a variety of skills for working on the vehicles. While having a well-equiped machine shop at the school helped, it’s really the students attitude and creativity that can make projects like this happen.

Electrathon Team members move their car to a workbench

So how about it? A few of us tinkers work in our garages on eco-friendly vehicles, but how can we get students excited about school and train them in skills that could be useful in the future?

Let me know, your input is very important.

Thanks,

Ben

Cougar Controller works - now meows...

2010-03-07T21:42:00.001-06:00

Finally got the Cougar controller back up and running!!!

Mer-Chevy Flywheel coming?

2010-02-24T15:33:00.002-06:00

Well, it looks like I finally got a lead on a manual transmission flywheel for the Mer-Chevy project. Unfotunately, it's out of town, and I need a friend to stop out for me to get it from the seller.

That's not going to happen for at least a week.

So here I wait, HOPING to get that flywheel. Once I have it, I can start working on mating the Mercedes diesel engine with the 5-speed manual transmission.

Spring is just around the corner, and with warmer temperatures comes being able to work outside on trucks.

I'm looking forward to it.

Open ReVolt T-shirt!

2010-02-15T19:25:00.001-06:00

Today is my birthday.

Look what my sister made for me!!!!

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x680.

That's right, a genuine Open Source T-Shirt!!!

Actual screen-printing - not iron-on!

__________________

Solar Panels picked up!

2010-02-11T16:06:00.002-06:00

I got the call from my friend, Swee, yesterday that the solar panels were in.

We did a bulk order of three pallets between 4 or 5 people. His store doesn't have much of a loading zone - only the street parking directly in front of the store.

I wanted to get there as soon as I could, knowing the the panels were most likely just leaned up somewhere, taking up space.

Being used to "consumer packaging", I almost expected every panel to be completely covered in inches of styrofoam and cardboard boxes. Nope! These were pallet-shipped - nothing but solar panels stacked on top of each other with some heavy-duty plastic wrap to pin them all in place.

We loaded up my share of the panels into the back of my truck. They fit well between the wheel humps in the back of my Chevy S-10 compact pickup truck.

Today, I tested one of the panels, and then stacked them all in my garage.

In cool, sunny weather, this panel was sending out about 95 volts DC open-circuit! I'm not used to working with HIGH-VOLTAGE panels. Most of my experience with PV has been on 15 watt or smaller 12V units.

Next up? Figure out how to make all that high-voltage into something useful to charge an electric car, cordless tool batteries, and run a few lights.

Harley Sparkster for Sale!

2010-02-05T11:42:00.002-06:00

Last Summer, my friend Mike converted a Harley-Davidson Sportster into an all-electric motorcycle. Thus, the SPARKSTER was born.

I helped Mike just a little bit on the project, with a few recommendations on parts, and the initial controller programming.

Alas, as hard economic times befell many of us recently, Mike does now need to sell this slick bike.

The cycle is in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area.

Here's a classified I made on the cycle. If you are interested, please give Mike a call.

For Sale:
The Sparkster - 1979 Harley Davidson Sportster Custom Conversion

This Sportster has been custom converted to a totally battery-electric vehicle, using an energy rate of 100 watt-hours per mile. That's roughly the energy equivalent of 300 miles per gallon! Clean, quiet, and powerful! About a penny a mile to operate. Electric motors feature an amazing torque curve!

The cycle features:

• Briggs and Stratton Permanent Magnet DC Motor Etec 24-72V -
• Alltrax 7234 programmable motor controller
• 5 Sealed, (spill-proof) lead acid, 12.00 Volt, 55 AH batteries
• 60 volt system
• Transmission-less chain drive
• Charger included - plugs into standard outlet
• 35 MPH top speed - great for in-town use
• 25 mile range per charge
• Acceleration similar to original gasoline design

Custom conversion was completed in May 2009, and about 350 miles were put on the bike since then. Motor and controller both support a 72 volt system, so cycle speed and range could be increased by adding one additional 12V battery.

Total invested in conversion project was $3500. Only asking $2500, obo.
Specs on this cycle can also be seen at the EV Album:
Mike Mangan's 1979 Harley Davidson Sportster

Please contact Mike Mangan at ebikemike@yahoo.com
with any questions. Please let him know where you heard about the cycle from.

See a few more photos at Flickr.

____________

2010-01-29T15:44:00.000-06:00

Once again, we have learned that I am good at breaking things. In fact, I usually learn best when something ends up broken. That way, I know not to do it again. This time, I managed to fry the logic board in the Open ReVolt "Cougar" Controller. It all stems from hooking up a tablet computer to the controller to use for reprogramming and data-logging. I got the tablet computer for free, but it doesn't have a battery. Instead, it needs to run from 12V DC to a 12 to 20VDC converter, and into the computer. I didn't realize that the RS232 port has so much grounding in it, and I somehow managed to push over 20 volts to the ReVolt 12V in. The other night, I got to stop over at Tom's house (for Robot Night) and I pulled out the multimeter and soldering iron to figure out exactly what parts I broke. We tracked down that R1 and D2 were both smoked. R1 was easy to replace, and the controller can work fine without D2, as long as you have a known good voltage going to the controller. Further bench testing showed that the ATMEGA chip was either fried or had a bad case of amnesia. Fortunately, I had a spare one of those from when I did a software update a while back. UNfortunately, replacing the ATMEGA chip did NOT make the controller work properly again, although it does seem to prove that everything on the POWER board works fine, it's just the LOGIC board that's all messed up. The 12V DC/DC converter tested out OK, as did the doo-hickey that converts 12v to 5v. However one or two other 5v components may be bad, and I have no really good way to test them. Paul Holmes offered to help me out by mailing me some spare parts, and possibly even soldering up a fresh logic board. So, my car isn't running right now, but I sure am learning a lot by poking at electronics with multimeters! Another thing I learned about the Open ReVolt controller that I thought is kinda cool is that it's much easier to bench-test than, say, a Curtis controller. For example, a Curtis controller usually has come sort of voltage range, like 48-72V. That means you need at least 4 batteries just to power the thing up (if you, like me, do NOT have an adjustable bench power supply.) You then need 4 12V light bulbs, or a spare motor, or something similar to use as a test load. It starts to be quite a setup. On the other hand, the ReVolt only requires a 12V battery for logic power, and almost any voltage you want for the power section. The test load can be a single 12V light. All I needed for bench testing was a 12V battery and lightbulb, a few jumpers, and a pot. That's it! Even I can handle that. More next time, once I get this thing on the road again. -Ben

Milwaukee MakerSpace: Universal Robot Parade Float Platform

2010-01-20T18:28:00.001-06:00

Tablet PC for EV Controller

2010-01-18T12:21:00.001-06:00

Yesterday was another EV build day.

The big fun surprise was that my friend Tom had dug up a tablet PC that runs Windows XP.

That means I can run the RTD Explorer software on it to view information, in real-time, from my controller. I will also be able to tweak the settings on the controller. For example, if I want to accelerate faster, all I have to do it type in a command. I could also turn it down if someone else is driving the car for the first time (possibly good for Valet Parking!)

Since it is a full-blown computer (just only a 8.4" screen though) I can also run music or videos on it. I think the computer will be mounted right by the car stereo, so I can output sound from the PC into the car stereo.

This could be nice to be able to show off some of my YouTube videos in the car while displaying it at a carshow. The tablet PC even has an expansion port. If I can find a dock that goes with it, I could use it to run a second monitor to display in the engine compartment!

For specs on the tablet PC, please visit:
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/11909_na/11909_na.HTML
Mine does not have Bluetooth, and the antennae on the wireless LAN doesn't seem to be working right. Also, I have no battery for the computer, but was able to find a power adapter that will take 11-16V in (range of 12 battery voltage) and output the required 20 volts DC for the computer.

-Ben

My Grandmother: The EV Queen

2010-01-15T12:40:00.001-06:00

My grandmother was in town visiting this last week. While I missed the family dinner with her (as my mother picked a date out of the blue WITHOUT asking people IF they were available first) I was able to visit her by myself a few days ago. I brought some slides and photographs that I had converted for her, and that got her talking about old times. What I hadn't realized, is that my grandmother is the undisputed Queen of EV's. My grandparents lived in Wisconsin, but after retirement, started spending winters in Arizona. Where they lived, many people used golf carts to zip around the retirement community, and travel to the local grocery store and other places for other near-by needs. Since my grandfather passed away, my grandmother started living full-time in Arizona. She told me that the first time they went to Arizona - in 1986 - they bought a 36V, 1956 model electric golf cart. She didn't disclose the price, and I forgot to ask what brand it is, but both Marketeer and Cushman had both just started producing electric golf carts only a few years before that. Now here's where it gets good. In the conversation, she mentioned "It's not like golf-carts are free to run. I finally just had to replace the batteries." I asked how many times before she had done that. "Never, this is the first time I've done that since buying it." That's right. My grandmother bought a 30-year old golf cart, over 20 years ago, and has only replaced the batteries once.......at a cost of $300. They must have a senior discount down there. Last I checked, golf-cart batteries typically run over $100 each!!!! 82 years old - double hip and knee replacement - sharp as a tack - and still drives herself to the grocery store - in her 50 year old electric car. Hope I am doing as well in 50 years. -Ben

Enginer Prius PHEV Conversion: Part 5

2010-01-06T12:27:00.001-06:00

After I left Tim's house on New Years Eve, he continued working on finishing off the Enginer PHEV kit in his Prius. This footage was shot by Tim as he connected the wiring from the PHEV kit to the cars computer. He has since driven the car a few times and noticed higher traction pack voltage because of the PHEV kit.
He will still need to do some more driving to find some the actual fuel economy improvement from installing the additional battery pack.

Chris' Electric Motorcycle First Test Drive

2010-01-05T20:16:00.002-06:00

Sunday was another EV Build Day.

While I was busy updating the firmware on my Open Source Controller, Chris and the other guys were adding brake fluid and tach-testing the cycle.

The big excitement was to actually take the bike outside and road test it in the snow.

While the cycle did beat 1200 RPM with the back tire up in the air, an actual road test showed it to be considerably slower. The controller on the cycle is just a low-amp golf-cart controller donated by one member. It was thought to be a faulty controller, but hey, it was free!

Once we were done playing with the bike in the road, we brought it back inside for more troubleshooting. Looks like the controller is bad after all. We might just have to borrow a known good controller (like the one from my Citicar) just to see what the cycle can do at full speed.

I was amazed at how quiet the motorcycle was. The driveshaft is CONSIDERABLY quieter than a chain drive.

The cycle already had the shunt for an ammeter installed, so we will have to add the ammeter itself for further testing. Also, the cycle is running with 3 batteries in it (36V) but is designed to fit 4 batteries total.

We'll post another video of motorcycle testing after the next EV Build Day.

If you are anywhere near the Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA area, check out:
http://www.milwaukee-electric-carclub.com

Cougar Controller Firmware update

2010-01-04T08:48:00.001-06:00

I just finished updating the Open Source Controller firmware and the real-time display software.

I now have a lot more ability to tweak the settings of the controller, including limiting amperage, and using the controller to close the main contactor after an adjustable pre-charge time.

It's fantastic that since this is all open source, anyone can add new features to the controller through simple software-only updates.

Essentially, almost anyone can build a 500 amp, 144V controller that would rival a $1500 one, for about $300 in parts.

To buy a kit, or find out more about this controller, please visit:
WWW.PaulandSabrinasEVStuff.com

Prius PHEV Conversion Video part 4

2010-01-02T12:18:00.001-06:00

Enginer Prius PHEV Conversion part 3

2010-01-02T12:17:00.001-06:00

Enginer 4K Prius PHEV Conversion part 2

2010-01-01T22:11:00.001-06:00

Second section of the installation video.

Enginer Prius Plug-in Conversion part 1

2010-01-01T22:10:00.001-06:00

Yesterday, I got to help out my friend Tim, by lending a hand helping install the Enginer Plug-in kit in his 2004 Prius.

It took a couple hours. There were a few odd little things that were just a bit frustrating in the installation, but overall, it was pretty straight forward.

While I wasn't able to stick around to the very end, we did get the install almost all the way done.

I broke the video into the following 4 on YouTube

Doctor David Delman's Electric DeLorean

2009-12-29T11:43:00.001-06:00

If you haven't seen this video before, it wouldn't surprise me. As I write this, the video only has 173 views on YouTube.

I stumbled upon it in the "RELATED VIDEOS" and had to watch.
Not only does the car have a flux capacitor, it also has a touch-screen interface for a built-in computer, and an LED array battery monitoring system.

This is a great video that answers almost all the questions people always ask me about electric cars.
For more on the project, visit the web page at: http://www.electricdelorean.com/

Chris' Electric Motorcycle first power-up with speed control

2009-12-22T15:56:00.001-06:00

While I was only able to stop by for a while at the last Milwaukee Electric Car Club meeting, I did bring with the Magura twist-grip from my cycle to loan to Chris.

He only had to do a few more things to get the cycle up and running - install the fuse and shunt, wire in a pre-charge button for the resistor, and add a keyswitch.

I wasn't able to do to much on his bike, but see how nice and shiny the fuse is? Yep, that was all me and a Scotch-Brite pad!

We'll keep the videos coming as work on the cycle progresses.

EV Battery Monitoring System

2009-12-21T09:04:00.001-06:00

Yesterday, I was able to briefly stop by the Milwaukee Electric Car Club.

Lot's of things were going on - EV motorcycle and Trike construction, conversion of a snow-blower to electric, and some work on the custom battery monitoring system for Tom's AC Dodge Neon.

I just grabbed a quick shot of the LCD Display for the system, next to the computer being used to program it. The "computer" itself is just a tiny circuit board with connections for a monitor, mouse, keyboard, usb, and data in and out. If I remember correctly, it is a Parallax micro-processor.

If you pause the video near the begining, you can see that the display shows information on the voltage of the High and Low voltage systems of the car, monitors temperature in 3 key areas, tracks amperage, and total KWhs used, including keeping track of energy reclaimed from the regenerative braking!

The system was still being tweaked while I was there, but looked like it was almost ready to go.

I will make sure to get a video tour of this monitoring system once it is totally up and running, so you can know all the details on it.

Electric Car Dealership X-mas TV Commercial

2009-12-11T10:26:00.001-06:00

While stumbling through some posts over on the Ecomodder.com forums, I ran across this video of a television commercial for Electric Cars you can buy right now.

Was it a Volt? A Leaf? A Tesla?

Nope, no, and hell no.

It was for a small dealer who carries Neighborhood Electric Vehicles (NEVs).
If you aren't familiar with NEVs, they are electric vehicles regulated by law to low speeds (typically 25 mph max).

Styles vary from golf-carts to European microcars converted to electric.

NEVs are the mopeds of the EV world. They work for many people. They make fantastic grocery-getters and errand mobiles.

I do howerever, have a bit of a beef with NEVs:
1) Stupid Laws:
There is no standardization of laws about NEVs nationally, state-wide, and sometimes even locally! For example, in the state of Wisconsin, the state DMN allows and licenses NEVs in a time and pricing similar to motorcycles, but each individual TOWN, VILLAGE, or CITY that you want to drive in needs to pass a law ALLOWING NEVs, including stating which roads you CAN and CAN'T drive it on! Where I live, I would have the battery capacity to drive through no less than a dozen different municipalities.
In addition, you may not CROSS most state roads! You can walk across the road, ride your bicycle across, but may not cross in your NEV.

2) Cost:
Many NEVs cost more than you might think. Basic golf-cart style NEVs start around $8000 and nicer machines can go for as much as a typical entry-level new car. On the other hand, I can buy a used electric golf-cart on Craigslist for $800. Can I just add headlights and turn-signals to it to become street legal? Nope!

3) Confusing the Public:
For many members of the public, the only electric vehicle they have ever seen is an NEV. It's pretty easy to assume that since the only electric cars they see can only go 25 mph, that ALL electric cars can only go 25 mph. Why bother having electric cars at all if they can't even go faster than a bicycle!?!?

That rant aside, NEVs can be great vehicles. Last time I was in California, I saw quite a few zipping about. Heck, I even almost got run over by both a GEM and an electric bicycle in the same afternoon!

I guess the main thing that saddens me is that NEVs are really the only current alternative to typical gasoline vehicles. For many of us, public transportation is not available, and winter weather and long nights don't work well for bicycles either.

I look forward to seeing television commercials for the Volt, the Leaf, and other clean and efficient motor vehicles.

For now, we can all just laugh about how Santa doesn't like taxes.....

011 Electric Car Conversion: Freeway Test Drive

2009-12-08T09:13:00.001-06:00

We take Tom's electric car out on the interstate.
It drives great!

Jay Leno - A2B Electric Bike

2009-12-04T21:42:00.002-06:00

I finally got around to watching the latest episode of Jay Leno's garage. On it, he features a very slick electric bike, the A2B.

Watch the video here, or go straight to http://www.ultramotor.com to check out specs, images, and more on this cool electric bike.

Fund-raising Eco-Challenge: Rickshaw!

2009-12-04T20:08:00.001-06:00

Green transportation for those who need it.
Enough said.

Mer-Chevy Transmission and Flywheel removal

2009-12-04T13:09:00.001-06:00

Here's a video of what I have been up to lately on the Mer-Chevy Benz project.

Battery Warmer - part 2

2009-12-02T11:34:00.001-06:00

While I built a battery warmer for the Electro-Metro a while back, I never got it installed.

There was some sort of a problem that was setting off the GFI on my charging power outlet AND the GFI in the car.

I took the cover off the warmer, fixed the problem, and installed the warmer in the car.

Running the warmer for an hour or so seemed to bring the batteries up to "Not Cold" temperatures, which is all I am trying to do - just get the batteries somewhere between 50 and 70 degrees F.

I will still need to experiment to find out what the ideal run-times for the battery warmer are at various temperatures.

Since the battery box is INSIDE the car, any heat escaping from the battery box should help to heat the cabin (at least a tiny bit!)

Electro-Metro gets new hub caps

2009-12-01T16:26:00.001-06:00

Today, I picked up some cheap hub caps at the auto parts store. They are just plastic, nothing special, but I think the car looks a little nicer with them.

Car with just painted rims (which are rusting....)

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Car with new hub caps.

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Not sure I ever directly mentioned it before, but I added an ELECTRIC sign to the back of the car.

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I have noticed that I do drive a little more aggressively now, just so that the car seems to have speed and power, rather than people thinking that all EVs are slow and have poor acceleration. That's not the EV's, that's just the way I usually drive!

__________________

Mer-Chevy engine and tranny take-apart

2009-11-29T14:21:00.000-06:00

I got some more work done on the Mer-Chevy Project this weekend.

Last weekend, we ran out of daylight before we could get the transmission off the S10 gasoline engine.

So, yesterday, I did the work of removing the tranny from the engine.

The transmission had some long bars that bolt the transmission to the engine.
After getting the two apart, I also removed the pressure plate, clutch plate, and flywheel from the gas engine.

The Mercedes diesel engine has lots of things still connected to it.

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The goofy round thing on the left/upper left is the air conditioning compressor. It also has a big metal bracket that wraps around the engine to hold it. I removed both the compressor and that bracket. The bracket bolts also held the water pump in. That started dripping coolant out on me when it loosened. I will have to get some shorter bolts to re-install the water pump.

The pulley in the lower right is the power steering pump. I removed that as well and both the belts still on the engine.

On the other side, I started working to remove the flywheel.

The flywheel is held on by a dozen 8mm hex socket bolts. I had to go out to the parts store to buy a male hex socket to fit those bolts.
I slid a long bolt through a whole in the flywheel, and through the starter motor hole to hold the flywheel in place while I turned out the bolts.

9 of the bolts came out fine (but boy were they torqued!) while three of them just stripped out. No way were those coming out now. I called Rich and asked for any advice on getting the bolts out. He suggested using a chisel and hammer to bite into the bolt heads and whack them counterclockwise.

I dug around and found a pointy chisel. I was amazed that the chisel really would bite into the metal of the bolt head. After some careful whacks, I actually was able to unscrew them!

With all the bolts out, I pulled the flywheel off.

Behind the flywheel, I was able to take out 4 bolts holding on the "transmission adapter ring" and smack it off with a rubber mallet.

Here's the drive end of the engine with the flywheel and tranny ring removed.

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Here is the ring that was removed.

It's all cast aluminum and fits directly to the engine block. I should be able to use this as a template to create a custom adapter plate between the Mercedes diesel and the Chevy manual transmission.

Here's a photo of the Chevy Tranny with the Mercedes adapter ring in front of it and the 2.2L gas engine in the background.

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I should be able to start work soon on designing the custom adapter plate between the diesel and the manual transmission.

Also, I need to figure out if I can find a flywheel off a Mercedes with a manual transmission, or if it is possible to modify the flywheel from the S10 to fit the diesel. I think that might be the tough part.

Does anyone know of a good forum for Mercedes diesels to ask questions and buy/sell/trade parts?

EV1 in a movie.

2009-11-28T21:31:00.001-06:00

Tonight, I watched the film SCORCHED, a 2003 bank-heist comedy.

One of the lead characters was played by Woody Harrelson. The character is a nature-loving-crackpot who lives in a dome with power from solar panels, with his room-mate, a duck.

What car does he drive? A beat up EV1!
In the movie the car is dusty and missing the rear wheel covers.

I looked up some info on the movie (thanks IMDB.com!) and found that it finished filming just before August 2001.

The court ruling against CARB was in June 2001, and the statement by GM about taking the cars off the road was in February 2002.

That means the car could have been a regular, official leased vehicle at the time.

I know that Woody Harrelson was a supporter of the car, I don't know if he EVer leased one or not. (I don't remember seeing him in WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR.)

The other weird part is that a motorcycle is featured in the film - the exact same make/model/and color that I converted to electric!

What are the odds of an electric car and my EV Motorcycle in the same movie?

Throw in a black Geo Metro, and I would be freakin' out!

Happy Thanksgiving, You Turkeys!

2009-11-26T11:00:00.001-06:00

While driving to a job the other day, I went through a neighborhood that had about 20 turkeys just wandering through the yards, and across the roads.
Fortunately, I had a camera handy.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Project: Mer-Chevy - Engine Pull Day

2009-11-23T12:05:00.001-06:00

Yesterday was a big day on continuing my "No More Gas" project.
I have had both a Chevy S-10 and an old Mercedes 240D sitting in my driveway all summer.

I finally had a free Sunday when my buddies could come over to help pull both engines from the vehicles.

The 240D's diesel engine will go in the pickup. I am shooting for 40 mpg, while running on bio-fuel.

The next big trick will be figuring out how to mate the diesel engine to the truck's manual transmission.

2009-11-22T19:03:00.001-06:00

Project Mer-Chevy back on track!

Today was a big day on the Diesel S10 project!

I FINALLY had a Sunday to myself! (Way too busy at work lately, and other projects..)

So, last night I called up my buddy Rich, and e-mailed a few other folks to see if anyone else could come out for the engine pull.

This morning Rich, and Tim (who you may remember welded the Electro-Metro from INSIDE the engine compartment..) came over so we could pull the 4-cylinder diesel engine from the Mercedes 240D.

These guys are animals of car destruction. The showed up at 9am and we had the engine out before noon. I had done hardly any prep work on the car before they got there!

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Rich brought his fine selection of tools, including the engine hoist and car ramps.

Here, Tim stands next to the freshly pulled 2.4L diesel engine (with attached automatic transmission)

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Since we made quick work of the first engine, we then took a lunch break. Tim let me drive his Prius to drive into town for lunch. It was a little weird. It's a nice car, but I typically don't have an engine, just an electric motor, when I make that trip! (Please see the Electro-Metro build thread...)

Back from lunch, we went to work on removing the 2.2L 4-cylinder gas engine from the S10. It was a little more work in that we couldn't just cut cables at random, and I wanted to keep useful things like steering, coolant and washer resevoirs, etc.

We ended up having to remove the driveshaft, pull the engine part way out, remove the engine mounts, then pull the engine the rest of the way out.

We did remove the transmission from the diesel engine, but it was getting dark by the time the gas engine was out, so that one still has the tranny on it.

One good thing I did find out about the diesel transmission is that it already has an "adapter plate" of sorts between the engine and transmission. Apparently, this is something they did to make their various engines and transmissions a little more interchangable. For me, it means I have a head-start on a way to connect the Mercedes diesel engine with the Chevy manual transmission.

What's next?
It's time to remove the manual tranny from the S10 gas engine, and then start figuring out and adapter plate design.

After pulling both engines, the diesel DOES look pretty monsterous compared to the gas engine. I measured, and it should fit fine, but it will be a bit of work making everything line up!

Also, the diesel has a really low oil pan on the far FRONT of the engine, and the steering went BEHIND that. On the truck, the oil pan is in the BACK of the engine and the steering goes in FRONT of it. Figuring how all that is going to work will be fun!

Again, the goal of this project is to have a utility vehicle capable of going long distances with one or two people, getting very good fuel economy, while sometimes carrying a heavy/bulky load or towing, and be able to run on biofuels.

A small-engine bio-diesel pickup truck meets that bill nicely!

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(Chevy 2.2L gasoline engine, with Tim for scale.)

Dodge Neon Update Nov. 15, 2009

2009-11-15T19:48:00.001-06:00

More on Tom's Car!
He has been able to get about 50 miles on a charge.
Also, the bugs have been worked out for shifting. Overall, the project is quite a success. It only needs a few small things still worked out.

Watch the video for the details straight from Tom!

-Ben

Eco-Challenge!! Plastic Mirrors

2009-11-12T11:00:00.001-06:00

What's the best use for over 50 pieces of 2'x2' plastic mirror?
YOU TELL ME!
I am collecting suggestions through YouTube and various blogs. The best suggestion will be what I actually do with the mirrors for some sort of Eco-Project.

Extra points for: creativity, eco-friendliness, DIY, and cheap!

Leave your comments and suggestions below!

Electric car ride

2009-11-03T22:57:00.001-06:00

Just a little video of rolling shots of the Electro-Metro with the ELECTRIC CAR song by THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS.

EV Controller now communicating

2009-11-02T23:26:00.001-06:00

Yesterday, I installed a serial port on my homebuilt controller.

Not only is it much more affordable than a commercial controller, but it has some great features when hooked up to a computer for data logging. I'm just really excited to go for a ride with a laptop hooked up!

Battery warmer part 1

2009-10-27T12:04:00.001-05:00

Poor performance from your EV in the cold weather?

You need a BATTERY WARMING TRAY to keep your batteries at a nice temperature in the winter.

Here's how to build one.

Homebuilt Controller testing

2009-10-24T10:56:00.003-05:00

User JACKBAUER on ECOMODDER.COM has been busy over in Ireland working on a home-built open source controller that will run a 13" forklift motor for his BMW conversion.

This is the latest video of his.

Also, notice that he is using the car's original throttle sensor as the input source to the controller, just like Tom G did on his AC Dodge Neon. In EV conversions, it's always nice to reuse as much of the existing car parts as possible, especially if it means saving you having to purchase a new potentiometer!

For more on his project, visit his other YouTube videos or go to his comments in the Open Source Controller thread on Ecomodder.

Tesla Roadster in EV/Hybrid/Gasser Pile-up!

2009-10-23T11:01:00.000-05:00

I found some photos of a car crash in Denmark.

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A brand-new Tesla Roadster got REAR-ENDED HARD!
Also involved in the incident was a Toyota Prius, and a VW SUV.

Apparently what happened is that the Prius rear-ended the Tesla at a high-speed, forcing it right under the SUV. (The Tesla and SUV would have been stopped at the red light. You can see the traffic light to the left of the emergency worker in the one photo.)

That would explain how the SUV got on top of the Tesla, with apparently little damage to the SUV, yet you can see little bits of Tesla red under the SUV's rear bumper.

The Roadster driver walked away with minor bruises.
Notice how the cockpit space of the car is almost completely undamaged. (Except for the windshield!)

In the only other well-documented collision of an electric car that I know of, an SUV ran a red light, T-boning the EV hard. The EV simply slid sideways, the weight of the batteries keeping it flat and level on the ground, and the EV driver never lost control of the steering.

EV's are perfectly safe vehicles, but I think these photos do show how it might be a good idea for all vehicle bumpers to be the same height. I sat in a Tesla last summer. It is so low to the ground, it is rather difficult to get in and out of.

Thanks for the photos to user SKAGMAN in Flickr.

WINTER EV TIPS

2009-10-23T09:54:00.002-05:00

Most hypermiles, ecomodders, and fuel-economy fans are familiar with using a block heater to improve fuel economy in a gasoline vehicle. However, drivers of electric vehicles should also know that warming your batteries in the winter can give greatly improved EV performance.

In general, my cheap-o electric car (running on used batteries) has had a range of about 20 miles in the summer, but could be as low at TEN miles in the winter!

While there is snow, increased rolling resistance, thicker transmission fluid, etc in the winter, the MAIN difference is battery temperature.

Many battery types just can't give out as much power when they are cold. A simple example of that is trying to start a gas car on a cold winter day. The starter (powered by the battery) just doesn't crank as fast and hard.

So, to keep our cold-climate EVs in top notch performance for the winter, here's a few things to try:

USE YOUR GARAGE:
If you have a garage, use it! Even though my garage is not attached to the house, isn't heated or insulated, it still keeps the wind, rain, and snow off the car. What little heat is in the car gets retained a bit better. If you have a heated garage, that's probably the ultimate way to get better winter EV performance.

OTHER SHELTER:
If you don't have a garage, at least try to park out of wind, perhaps next to a tree, which in real-world testing have been shown to act as heat storage and help prevent frost formation on the car's windows. (But watch out for pine sap!)

INSULATE YOUR BATTERIES:
Batteries will be much happier if they are wrapped in a cozy blanket. If batteries are exposed to the outside world (such as under the hood) heat can also be lost to wind. Any insulation should be water-resistant and non-conductive - using foil-faced foam is a bad idea - but using pink builder's foam works great.

WARM YOUR BATTERIES:
Find some way to get a little heat into your batteries. The best way is with something in direct contact with the batteries, either under them, or on the sides. It will need to have some sort of automatic temperature control, to prevent overheating.

Waterbed mattress heaters, electric blankets, and water-pipe freeze prevention tape all have automatic temperature controls, and can easily be repurposed to warm batteries. Make sure to not set batteries directly on heating elements. Many heaters can be easily wrecked that way.

IF YOU ARE HAPPY, YOUR BATTERIES ARE HAPPY:
While I don't mind wearing a heavy coat, hat, and gloves in the winter, it is nice to be just a bit cozier than that in my car. Last winter, I experimented with an oil-filled electric radiator space heater. I simply put it in the car (behind the passenger seat) and ran an extension cord out the window. That was plugged into a timer going to the wall. The heater came on automatically in the morning, and heated the inside of the car for about 45 minutes before I left for work. I would unplug the heater, and drive off. The heater would stay warm for about 10 minutes after that. (In my gas car, it takes 10 minutes for the engine to warm up in the winter!)
The unexpected side effect of warming the inside of the car, was that it also warmed the batteries! By trying to make myself more comfortable, I also improved the range of my battery pack!

CHARGING = HEAT:
Another trick is based on the fact that running electricity through the batteries (either discharging OR charging) warms the batteries.
Set the car's charger up on a timer so that the charge is just finishing up when you will next use the car. The batteries will be a little warmer than they would be if they simply sat charged all night. Also, opportunity charge any chance you get. Even short charges can increase your range more from the heat than from the electricity to the batteries.

I hope these tips help keep your car happy and healthy this winter! If you have any other winter electric car tips, please post them below!

EV Motorcycle Slideshow

2009-10-20T12:04:00.001-05:00

While digging through some old files, I ran across a slideshow I made from stills of converting a Kawasaki KZ440 clunker to an electric motorcycle.

Enjoy

The Metro at 108 Volts!

2009-10-20T11:35:00.001-05:00

The one thing limiting my upgrade to a higher than 72V system has been the charger. Specifically a little tiny resistor to change the output voltage of the charger.

At the last EV Build Day, I picked up a couple resistors, which rigged in series to each other, should get me the right resistance for the charger.
(Since then a friend of mine has also put in an order to a large electronics dealer, and I got in on his order for a set of resistors for the charger.)

This morning, I was able to upgrade the resistor, and I added three more batteries to the back of the car.

Of course, this takes up my trunk space, and I did love how "Normal" the car looked with just the rear battery box.

Now at 108V, my 0-100V analog voltmeter is pretty much useless.

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I took the car out to run an errand, and test its performance.
I went up the BIG hill in my area, and the car seemed to zip right up it. Overall speed performance didn't seem like it was that much greater.

Coming back home, I was surprised that I couldn't get the car over 55 mph. It took me a while to figure out that it was because I was only in third gear! I needed to upshift to increase amps and speed. After that, I got the car just past 60, but by that time my pack was really getting run down and I had to get off the freeway.

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A while back, I upgraded the rear springs of the car to some off the front of a Ford Ranger. These springs were really designed for holding 144V of batteries, which I HAVEN'T been running since then, so the back of the car has been riding high.

With three more batteries in back, the height of the back of the car seems to level out.

I am also trying to figure out the best way to keep my batteries warm this winter. Since I only have one traction battery under the hood right now, I might move it to the back of the car, just so all the batteries stay the same temperature. This would also drop the back of the car just enough to level it out.

The car is now charging in my driveway, but I am sure I will have to top off a few of the batteries with an individual charger to get them all even.

Cycles and Winterizing

2009-10-18T20:43:00.002-05:00

Sunday was another EV Build Day of the Milwaukee Electric Car Club.

It turned out that we had great weather. Sunny, and about as warm as can be expected for October in Wisconsin.

Of course, it also means that some of us are thinking about what we need to do for our EVs for the winter.

I have already noticed my battery voltage dropping extra quick in my homebuilt Electric Geo Metro. Lead-Acid batteries just don't like being cold, as most drivers have noticed trying to crank their starters in the winter.

So, I spent a little time with a few parts I had kicking around from the home improvement store. I measured my battery box, and cut a one-inch-thick chunk of pink foam insulation to that size. Then I used a router to carve a serpentine path in the foam, so that I could push heat tape down into it. This is a product used to wrap pipes that could otherwise freeze, or put on the edge of your roof to keep ice from forming. It has a thermostat built right in to it.

One of our other members was also working on trying to add some insulation to the batteries in his electric S-10 pickup truck. Unfortunately, there wasn't much room between the batteries and supports to squeeze insulation in there, so he went on to work on his Pak-Trakker instead.

The real fun of the day was working on Chris' motorcycle.

Already, the motor is mounted in with a custom Mr. Speed adapter to the driveshaft of the cycle. That's right! It's a shaft cycle! You don't see too many of those in the EV flavor!

Todays work was figuring where to put the batteries. Because the frame itself is fairly large, it sure makes the job of battery location easier. Still, it's never easy to fit big square batteries into curved spaces. Chris and Rich welded in the first battery tray directly next to motor. Another battery could fit in FRONT of the motor, but only if it were turned and stuck out a bit funny.

Instead, we used a bottle jack to spread the front down tubes just a tad, so the battery would fit cross-wise. Then the second battery tray was trimmed to fit (Chris with the grinder again!) so it could be welded in place.

The cycle has been a really fun project to work on, with pretty much all the parts donated, and all of us doing what we can, when we can. I can't wait until we work on the body for the cycle. I'm sure it will get pretty crazy with LED back-lighting and interesting shapes.

4x4 Gasoline-Hydraulic-Electric-Hybrid Torque Beast!

2009-10-14T22:53:00.001-05:00

This is no joke!

But I am not talking about a car - rather, a riding lawn mower.

It all started because of my upcoming Annual Bonfire.
I hold a bonfire every year, as an excuse to meet up with old friends, and clear out brush and wood not useful for my wood stove.

The event is at my parent's property, which is large and wooded, with a big back area for the bonfire.

Also, my Dad runs a remodeling business, which is housed just down the street, so I usually grab extra wood out of the dumpster from down there. This year, one of the construction cargo trailers was filled with an entire torn-out cedar picket fence.

The idea was to pull the trailer already loaded up with all that cedar, from the shop over to the house, and then use the lawn tractor there to pull the trailer into the wayback, and unload it all for the bonfire.

It SEEMED like a good plan.

The problem is that it has been cloudy and rainy for the last two weeks solid, the ground has really softened up. The trailer is a BIG and HEAVY trailer and the jack is welded in place, it doesn't swing up.

I tried pulling the trailer across the lawn, but any time I got going even SLIGHTLY uphill, the tires would just start to slip on the grass.

I would back up just a little, to get a better running start, but every time I tried that the tires would just slip again, and I would end up further back than I started!

When I finally ended up in the lowest point of the side-yard, I decided it was time to give up. I unloaded most of the wood to the ground, and was then able to pull the trailer out to the road, up the driveway, and then into the back property.

It's a big hill going into the back. It's DOWNHILL out there, but UPHILL coming back. I thought that would be OK, because the trailer would be empty for the trip back.

Keep in mind that my father's lawn tractor is a Simplicity V-Twin with a Hydro-transmission. It is very powerful and has an variable speed transmission. However, I was NOT able to pull the trailer back up the hill with that gas tractor. It wasn't really a matter of power, more about where you put that power. The trailer is tail-heavy, and when not loaded, actually pulls UP just a bit on the ball hitch, instead of adding tongue-weight to press the tractor tires into the ground.

I just didn't have enough weight on the ball, and wide enough tires. The tires would just spin, no matter what angle I tried to tackle the hill at.
Of course, I couldn't just hop off and help push, because the tractor has a kill switch in the seat. Believe me, I TRIED to hold down the seat and push the tractor at the same time, it just really doesn't work.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 800x400.

[Similar tractor to my father's 16 HP V-Twin with Hydrostatic drive]

By this time, it was getting toward the end of the day, getting dark, and threatening rain. I had to get home, so I ended up un-hitching the tractor, parking that in the garage, and left the wood in the side-yard, and the trailer in the wayback.

I figured that maybe I could come back the next day bringing my Electrak ELECTRIC riding lawn mower. The tires are wider (and half-flat to boot!) and it's tough to get more torque than you can with an electric.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1023x680.

[My 30-some year old electric riding lawn mower with 1/2HP drive motor]

Soooo, today, I put MY tractor on my beater utility trailer (thanks Mr. Speed!) and drove over to my parent's house. I unloaded the tractor from the trailer, then hooked the trailer to the tractor, and in two runs had all the wood moved from the side-yard to the wayback.

The Electrak handled the big hill with no problems while towing my trailer back up it.

My Dad happened to be about while I was loading up the second load of wood. I explained to him about the night before how the gas tractor couldn't pull the empty trailer back up the big hill, and how I brought my tractor out to finish the job. He said something like "Aw, you just brought it out so later you could brag to your friends how your electric one works better than my gas one."

Um, yeah, I think he pegged me there.

Now that I actually moved all the firewood, the next job was to show off how great my Electrak worked by towing the construction trailer up the big hill.

I rode out back and went to hook up the trailer. That's when I remembered that the ball hitch on my tractor is really low. And the trailer isn't. The jack does NOT swing away, it can only be cranked up so far. I was actually able to hitch it up, but at the first little bump the trailer jack just dug into the ground.

Hmmm. So, that's not going to work. If only there was some way to skid the trailer jack OVER the ground. I grabbed a plastic sled from the garage and put that UNDER the jack. Instead of hitching the trailer to the ball hitch, I just hooked the safety chains to the ball instead. That way, the trailer could be up higher and NOT dig into the earth.
This actually worked. I started climbing the hill, and quickly got past the dug-in tire mark of last night's work with the gas tractor.

Still, it wasn't much further until the bad tail-weight of the tractor, and the increasing steepness of the hill meant that the Electrak's tires were now slipping as well.

Grrrrrr. Frustration.

I backed down the hill. I tried a couple other things, even hooking the BACK of the trailer to the tractor. None of them worked.

Oh, did I mention it was now raining? Not a downpour, but 40 degree rain is never fun, especially when you already have turf trouble.

So, my problem was that the tractor hitched up great to the gas tractor, but that didn't have enough traction, and the tractor wouldn't hook up decent at all to the Electrak, which had MUCH better traction, but still ended up slipping, just further up the hill.

If only I had four-wheel drive.

It occurred to me that not all four wheels had to be on the same vehicle.
One of the many little things I still need to fix on the Electrak is the seat safety switch. Since it doesn't work, it was simply bypassed, which simply means that if you fall off the tractor, it keeps driving without you.

That's also an advantage, because I now had at hand two tractors, but only one me.

I grabbed my tow rope and and moved both tractors to the trailer.

You can see where this is going, right?

I parked the Electrak just a bit up the hill, and hooked the tow rope to the ball hitch. I hooked the other end to the front bumper of the gas tractor. And hooked the trailer to the back of the gas tractor.

I now had an Electric-tow-rope-gasoline-hydraulic four wheel drive torque beast!

I put the Electrak in first gear - which is REDICULOUSLY slow - and then hopped on the gas rider and eased the hydro into its slowest speed. Because it's variable speed, I could speed up or slow down by tiny amounts to match the speed of the Electrak, mindlessly crawling away ahead of me, and keep tension on the tow rope.

Once or twice the wheels of one tractor or the other would start to slip, but all I had to do was speed up a tad to ease up on the Electrak, or slow down a bit and let the Electrak pull the gasser when its wheels were slipping.

I can't believe this actually worked.

I think it was like a Saturday Morning special.

I was all high big-headed thinking that my electric mower would out-torque the gasser and I could brag about it.

In the end, only by gasoline and electric getting along, could we all work together to get the job done.

Go Team Hybrid!

Maybe next year, I will go back to the old-fashioned way: stuffing firewood into the back of an electric car!

THE SPARKSTER! Homebuilt EV Motorcycle.

2009-10-11T18:52:00.001-05:00

A while back, I gave some advice to Mike, on how to rig up his electric motorcycle project.

He decided to build an electric motorcycle after seeing what I had done.

(The Sparkster, (foreground) and the inspiration for it, my EV KZ440. (background))

Today, I was rounding up EVs to show off at a local energy fair, and E-Bike Mike showed up with his converted Harley Sportster, the "Sparkster".

The cycle is running at 60V with an Alltrax AXE controller (72V max), and off-board charging. Mike has a motorcycle buddy who is good with the welder and paint sprayer, so the finish on the bike it top notch!

The chain noise is a little louder than on my cycle, but the chain is about twice as big as well!
I had never ridden a hard-tail before (ouch!), but other than that, it rides really well, with a real low center of gravity and good acceleration.

(Mike, far right, green cap, shows off his cycle.)

See all the photos at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/4203459...7622565028224/

PS - I also just realized why the cycle is a hard-tail. Look where the motor is mounted. It's directly under the seat. As the real swing arm would move, it would change the chain length. One way to solve the problem is to hard-mount the rear wheel. By having the motor right under the seat, it frees up space for more batteries in the original engine area of the cycle. This means more batteries and a lower center of gravity.

Wienermobile Interview

2009-10-09T21:38:00.001-05:00

Open Source controller install

2009-09-27T18:37:00.001-05:00

I finally got the re-done version of the open source controller and installed it in the car.

It doesn't LOOK like much, but works well and is a heck of a lot cheaper than BUYING a new one.

I am still running the car at 72V, but now have the ability to up the system voltage just by adding batteries.

I think a 96V system might work well in the long-run, as I only need to make room for two more batteries, my charger supports up to 108 volts, and my voltmeter only goes to 100!

Chris Cycle update Sept 20 2009

2009-09-21T09:37:00.001-05:00

Yesterday was another EV Build Day with the Milwaukee Electric Car Club.

We did some work on Chris' Motorcycle. Rich bent up some tube for the right-hand section of the frame to replace where the gas engine and transmission filled in.

Chris worked on the motor mounting plate, which will hold the electric motor in place to connect it to the drive shaft.

We still aren't sure what the batteries will be yet, but we do have three Group 24 Interstate 12V batteries kicking around that I think we will start off with.

500A Motor Controller First Tests in Golf Cart

2009-09-16T11:48:00.001-05:00

Home-Built EV controllers seem to be all the rage lately.

Last weeks video of the Lectric Leopard featured a very high-end home-built controller with some very slick features.

This video shows a controller built on the OpenRevolt project, which can be found at Ecomodder.com in the Fossil Fuel Free forum under "Paul and Sabrina's Cheap EV Controller".

What's great about controllers like these is that they can be built by everyday people who have no particular electronics skills.

It is literally "Power to the People".

Enjoy the video.

Lectric Leopard and Jerry Asher visit

2009-09-11T08:59:00.001-05:00

Last night, a few of us local EVer's got together in Madison, Wisconsin.

The main reason was that Jerry Asher was coming through town. Jerry is a board member of the Electric Automobile Association, a proud supporter of all EV's, and a great guy. He has toured the country in his Plug-In Prius, THE SPIRIT OF DC, and is involved in other EVents, such as the recent POWER OF DC electric drag racing event.

Besides the guys in attendance, there was also one Lectric Leopard in the back parking lot. One of the guys has been hard at work on a high-end, homebuilt motor controller.

This video is from right after he did a "firmware update" on the controller - reprogramming it into "fun-mode".

In all, a last-minute, informal, very fun event!

008 part 2 Electric Car Construction 101 - Video 8 part 2

2009-08-12T20:34:00.003-05:00

Part two of video 8.

008 Electric car construction 101 video 8 part 1

2009-08-12T20:34:00.001-05:00

Continuing the adventure with Tom of converting a Dodge Neon to Electric AC power!

VIDEO: Electric Car Conversion 101 - Part 6

2009-08-12T12:52:00.001-05:00

If you have been following Tom's Dodge Neon EV Conversion, you may have noticed that video number 6 was missing. That's because I was out of town during the engine removal. Tom had another friend film him talking about the engine removal on a point n shoot camera. I finally just found the CD of the camera files and put them together to upload to YouTube.

So, here it is, enjoy the missing Video #6.

Cougar Open Revolt Power Stage Milling

2009-06-22T11:45:00.001-05:00

If you have been following the "Cougar Controller", now known as the Open ReVolt, you know it has taken on a life of its own!

Started by our friend Paul, with the early version tested in the Electro-Metro, another member of the crew is now MANUFACTURING the circuit board for the latest version. Here is the power circuit board being milled.

2009-06-22T11:04:00.002-05:00

Can you spot what's wrong with this picture?

I will give you a hint:
That's an electric car.

This is the first time there has been any gasoline in that car in over a year - since the car's gas tank was removed to make room for batteries to power an electric forklift motor that replaced the car's gasoline engine.

Unfortunately, I have been neglecting my lawn for the past two weeks as I was traveling to an "eco-bed 'n' breakfast" and then off to the big renewable energy fair.

While my car is powered by electricity, my lawn mower is not. Nope, I am stuck in the fossil fuel age when it comes property maintenance. Although my long-term goal is to have a bigger garden and planted areas, for now I must trim my lawn to acceptable neighborhood standards.

A few weeks ago, I had an appointment to go see an Elec-Trak (GE-built electric riding lawn mower) that was for sale, but had it stolen out from under me by somebody who swung by and dropped off a load of cash, sight-unseen!

My friend Tim, with help from all our EV Buddies of the Milwaukee Electric Car Club, are converting an old Simplicity lawn tractor to battery electric. Once done, Tim will be able to mow his lawn fossil-fuel-free.

Although I am busy with several other projects, I think something similar would be great. We'll just let Tim be the Guinea Pig on this one.

So for now, I have to use my electric car to go buy gasoline for my petro-mower.

The irony is not lost on me!

-Ben

(PS: Safety first! Yes, the windows were kept open, and there were no EV parts near the gasoline capable of igniting any fumes)

Back at the MREA Energy Fair!

2009-06-19T21:52:00.001-05:00

June 18, 2009
Custer, Wisconsin.

Right now, I am sitting on the futon of a new friend in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, just miles from the Midwest Renewable Energy Fair in Custer.

This year is the 20th anniversary of the fair, and it's bigger and better than ever.

My particular interest is in sustainable transportation. Lucky for me, the fair includes an entire Clean Energy Car Show. In fact, that's why I am here - to show off a pair of home-built electric vehicles - both a car, and a motorcycle.

Although my interest in clean transportation most likely started with the electric motor my brother put on his bicycle as a kid, my most recent foray into clean transportation started here, at the MREA, three years ago.

I saw a bicycle with a front-wheel drive electric motor on it.
Brilliant! The front tire pulls you along, and you can still pedal with the rear! A plug-in hybrid bicycle.

When I got home, I plunked down the cash (ok - debit card, it was mail order....) to buy an "electric bicycle kit".

The kit included an entire front wheel with motor, controller, charger, and the other required doo-dads - just add a bike and batteries! I hit up my local thrift store and found an old ten-speed, complete wire wire rear baskets - perfect to hold the batteries!

A couple hours later, I had an honest-to-goodness electric bicycle! No more gasoline for me! Just fresh air and sunshine, and silent 20 mph cruising without pedaling!

While I zipped around in an electric euphoria for much of the summer, I eventually found that it wasn't the perfect vehicle for me.

The ten-speed frame had NO suspension. Terrible on my rough country roads. Worse than that, I was shocked how cars treated me. Vehicles constantly pulled out of driveways RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME. I suppose my grannie panniers did not add to the speed-demon image. Indeed, a headlight and horn would not have been back additions.

Hmmm. Suspension. Lights. Horn. Something that says - "Get out of my way! I'm really flying here!" I believe that's the definition of a motorcycle.

That's right a motorcycle - not an engine cycle.
A motorcycle is really just a big bicycle. It couldn't be too hard to make one of those to be electric, could it?

I then began my quest to build an electric motorcycle. Eventually, I found one cheap. The engine and transmission were shot, the tank was dented, and there was no title. But it met my main requirement. It was cheap!

I went to the library and found a book about converting vehicles to electric, and bought an electric motorcycle guide through the internet.
I scrounged for parts on E-Bay, finding an electric motor being sold from college robotics battles, and purchased a motor controller through a golf-cart store.

The motorcycle was really coming together. Of course, I have no background in welding, nor do I really have any tools beyond a socket set. Everything on the motorcycle was simply bolted in using threaded rod through the original frame mounting points.

The motorcycle was ready and on the road only days before the MREA Fair, exactly one year after I had first seen that electric bicycle. Of course, it wasn't pretty, and it was running on the tiny 18ah batteries that I had been using for the bicycle.

It wasn't until the next year that the motorcycle was back at the fair with the Optima Yellow Tops.

I love the motorcycle, but it still isn't the perfect vehicle for Wisconsin, especially the 8 months of the year with snow on the group. If only I had some sort of motorcycle with a roof and more than two wheels on the ground.....

Of course that then lead me to thinking about building an electric car. Come on! I gotta be kidding myself. How could I possibly build an electric car?

Well, I already learned some basics working on the motorcycle. The car is heavier, needs more batteries, but is pretty much the same otherwise, right?

Well, it's a bit more complicated than that, but in the year in a half since I decided to build an electric car, I have learned more about motors, power brakes, batteries, guages, watts, ohms, amps, cables, and myself, than I ever thought possible.

I have made new friends, chit-chatted with the Tesla salesperson as I sat in a Roadster, learned that brake fluid and plasma cutters are a bad combination, and so much more. I even bought a 1970's street legal electric car, met the creator of the vehicle, and drag-raced it (winning!) against others.

Now, I have been asked to consult on a battery-powered vehicle for a net-energy-producing "house of the future".

So here I am, at the Energy Fair again, where so much of this started, ready to show off both an electric car and motorcycle I couldn't have DREAMED of a few years ago.

Last year, I lost my voice speaking to so many fair attendees about clean transportation. Just two weeks ago, I installed the cheapest radio I could buy in the Metro. One of the radio features is MP3 audio playback from a solid-state USB thumbrive. Rather than answer the same questions over and over - How far does it go on a charge? What's the top speed? - I will simply record a sound file and have it play through the stereo.

This time, the work will simply speak for itself.

Prius 70 MPH Electric Mode (Second Demo): Ewert Energy Systems

2009-06-12T16:18:00.001-05:00

The Ewerts are at it again!

This time with a more watchable / less bouncy demo of the 70 mph EV Prius mode! Filming during the day makes the view screen much more watchable. They also answer a few questions that people have asked since the first video.

Electro-Metro Instrument panel

2009-06-12T12:08:00.001-05:00

I am trying to get as much "spit and polish" on the car as possible right now.

The MREA energy fair - the largest in the Midwest, and one of the largest in America, is only a week away, but I am gone all next week!

I just got the dashboard back in with the new stereo, and mounted the ammeter, volt-meter, vac guage, and 12V gauge.

Still not really a "final" version, but it is functional and looks much better than what was there!

Next Up: Zip-tying ALL the loose cables under the hood!

Local man builds electric car

2009-06-10T07:47:00.001-05:00

Here's a little news piece on a guy in Indian who did a really nice conversion on an Eagle Summit.

I like the green lightning on the side of the car! Sort of what I was thinking for my Metro!

Prius 70 MPH Electric Mode: Ewert Energy Demo

2009-06-09T22:35:00.001-05:00

A Prius that can go 70 Miles per Hour on just electric?

Yep! A couple guys in Chicago just did that last night!

Just watch the video! (Or listen to it, the video is a little bumpy!)

Ride the Citicar ! Tomorrows technology, yesterday.

2009-06-07T21:49:00.001-05:00

I spoke with a guy in Madison on his way to the HotRod power tour who had a Amphi-car. In talking with him, I found out he bought it from a guy in Illinois who restores them.

That guy is known as "Dave the Wave".
I was also told he had a Citicar.

I looked him up and found a YouTube video I had seen before. It features Dave the Wave and his Citicar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66v_X2PJeqs

-Ben

Chicago EVs and Alt. Autos

2009-06-05T16:25:00.001-05:00

Recently, I had a chance to speak with George Gladic on the phone about his Prius converted to a Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle. (PHEV)

George and other members of the FVEAA (a Chicago electric car club) are featured in this video.

Citicar Cruise to Bob's

2009-05-23T01:14:00.001-05:00

What's more fun than a Citicar? How about getting a whole bunch of them together, drag-racing, and tooling around town!

Here, we drive a bunch of them to the home of the Citicar creator.

2009-05-20T22:24:00.004-05:00

Electro-Metro project donates parts to High School EV Race Team!

This afternoon, I was over at the Watertown, Wisconsin High School to lend a hand to the Electrathon Team

Electrathon is a high-school competition to design, build, and compete electric go carts.

I had an e-mail from an advisor this morning saying that their competition was this Saturday, today was the last build day before then, and they just lost their ammeter.

They were looking for a last-minute replacement, so the guy thought of me.

I drove over to the school, hauling along my electric motorcycle to show off to the students.

They got a kick out of the cycle, especially since it used the exact same motor and nearly identical controller as their electric go-cart.

They also had another car there which was propane powered.

Their electric car weighs about 70 lbs without batteries. That's light enough for two students to pick it up and set it on a welding table to work on.

I also noticed a few trophies kicking around from previous wins in the competitions.

The Electro-Metro's Ammeter was mounted to the Electrathon cart with a piece of Lexan. It's really light stuff. Weight is important, as a big part of the competition is an endurance run.

The entire car is completely designed and built by students. In some cases, students designed parts on CAD software and then had the cutting done by a machine shop. Check out the nice shape of this custom steering wheel. Notice the thumb-mount throttle.

Here's a shot of the propane car.
It has some crazy-nice front end suspension on it. The brake rotors, rear sprocket and a few other parts were CAD drawn and then custom-cut. Last year, this car was electric, but they kept burning up Eteks, so they changed it to propane this year.
On the business end of that car,
the brake rotors were drawn by the students and the differential was designed by one of the parent advisors.

Good luck this weekend!

Bring back the Metro's Ammeter in one piece!!!!!

UW-Whitewater Earth Day Alt. Car Show

2009-05-10T20:50:00.001-05:00

Here is a video done by a student about the University of Wisconsin at Whiteware about the alternative car show they had there on Earth Day 2009.

It has a couple of shots in it of me and the Electro-Metro, including driving the student off in the Metro at the end of the video!

Elon Musk on Letterman 2009.04.29 (HQ)

2009-04-30T10:10:00.001-05:00

Not a bad bit of having a real electric car getting some exposure to the masses.

Unfortunately, David Letterman has some laryngitis and helps per petuate a few of the common myths/fears that people have about electric cars.

Dave also didn't have much good things to say about the Volt's range, even though it's more than 30% longer than the average American's miles driven per day.

All in all, still worth watching, including seeing the Tesla S car itself very briefly at the end.