No need to spend $40k on a Chevy Volt, convert existing car to electric drive for half that
DALLAS (Jan. 31, 2011) – Electric car conversions have largely been a novelty for the rich because of lowcost and abundant gasoline. Now all that is changing. The ability to convert an existing gasoline car to electric with a kit has become cheap and easy when compared to costs of new ones from today’s automakers.
Another problem has been a fear known as range anxiety, the prospect of getting stranded on the road without a recharge. Now that is changing too with the installation of recharge units at businesses and public places. First introduced in California, recharge units are spreading. “We just thought it was the right thing to do” said Kathy Doyle Thomas, a co-founder of Half Price Books, who installed their first unit at the flagship bookstore on Northwest Highway in Dallas last fall, “and we’re looking to put them at all our locations.”
Among the first to use her new recharge unit was David Oberlander, who converted his gasoline powered ’72 Porsche 914 to electric drive and did it for half the price of a Chevy Volt.
Oberlander explained how he did it on the ScienceNews Radio Network program, the Promise of Tomorrow with Colonel Mason. The broadcast originates in Dallas, Texas, and can now be heard in complete detail at the website, archived for its world audience. Both Thomas and Oberlander spoke by phone from their different offices in the DFW area.
Also on the program was Dr. Pratul Ajmera, speaking by phone from his Electronic Material and Device laboratory at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, LA. Ajmera detailed progress for technology solutions to our environmental energy challenges being studied at the 2011 IEEE Green Technology Conference, site of the recent oil spill in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, April 14 -15. Rapidly gaining world attention as a hotbed for alternative energy solutions, the conference is produced by IEEE, IEEE-USA, IEEE Region 5, and the IEEE Baton Rouge Section. The public is urged to attend by registering at the website.
The public is also invited to the Electric Vehicles and Personal Transportation workshop produced by IEEE-USA March 4, 8am- 5pm, in conjunction with their annual meeting, Engineering in Motion at the Renaissance Hotel, 9721 Arboretum Boulevard, Austin, Texas 78759. Attendees are urged to register at the website.
Comments