Homebrew solar electric car wins fans in Utah
Utah is a state that gets a lot of sun but not a lot of attention on these pages for their green transportation moves. Still, it does seem that the DIY crowd is strong there. Remember the homemade Ariel Atom? That's not the only homemade vehicle taking to the street in the state.
Kyle Dansie and Michael Mielke run ZEVUtah (Zero Emission Vehicles of Utah) and are two strong proponents of taking control of your transportation energy sources. The Salt Lake Tribune ran a story recently about the 1994 VW Golf that the two converted to all-electric drive with solar panels on the roof. They draw extra power from the solar panels deployed on the roof. This isn't an EV for everyone, but the 65 mph top speed and 40 mile range should be enough for most people to use on a daily basis - at least, people who can swallow the $10,000 price tag for the electric components on top of whatever it costs to buy the Golf. There's a multimedia slideshow of the converted car here and ZEVUtah contains detailed descriptions on what happened during the conversion and explains why decisions were made as they were. Very helpful if you're thinking of tinkering yourself.
[Source: Salt Lake Tribune]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
gorr 3:17PM (10/06/2008)
Why is there nobody in this hobby-crowd gang of electrical car builders and chatters that experiment too with inboard small gasoline or hydrogen electric batteries recharger and booster.
Gm is doing so with their volt, so why happy and naive car builder not doing the same thing. Do you realize the range, 40 miles ???. With a small gasoline generator im sure it can be strech to 400 miles. So a volt-a-like before the time. And im curious abouth it so im trying to convince some people to try that too.
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stevefazek 7:42PM (10/06/2008)
Because the cost of the electronics and engine control wouldn't exactly be easy. Think of it you would have to program a secondary computer to control the throttle, it has to see the amount of amps being drawn from the battery and then increase the engines power to drive the generator to create the same amount of power.
tankd0g 10:25PM (10/06/2008)
Because all who try it quickly run into a wall, it's called reality. The shit you are describing, doesn't work the way you think it does.
Nick 7:07PM (10/06/2008)
$10'000 to convert a less then $4000 car....tha't s price tag of $14'000 for an electric car with 40 mile range and solar panels on the roof. That's not bad at all ! That's actually pretty close to CHEAP !
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tankd0g 10:26PM (10/06/2008)
Probably do it even cheaper with a CRX, drive the rear wheels with electric, leave the gas engine where it is.
Gary 11:29AM (10/07/2008)
This story is implying that the car can run indefinitely at highway speeds on solar power. That simply isn't possible.
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Total Solar Energy 7:49PM (11/04/2008)
the price needs to drop for it to become mainstream
http://www.totalsolarenergy.co.uk
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Davin Pilling 2:16PM (11/19/2008)
? Any place In Salt lake have a shop to take my car to get it done?
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