Episode 8 finally posted!

Sorry for the long delay.  Since the last episode my wife went on a week long trip, we were in various stages of illness for two weeks, and it rained for about three weeks.  The weather is finally starting to dry up, and everybody is on the mend and at home, so here we go, pressing ahead!

So here's the timetable I see left for the project.

Week 1: Take out the alternator, move the air conditioner compressor, any other loose attachments

Week 2: get the extras we'll need to take out the engine (hoist, breaker bar, torque wrench, etc).

Week 3: take out the engine

Week 4: Get the clutch plate out and measured

Week 5: send off the clutch plate for the adapter fabrication and drop off all the salvaged parts

Week 6: install EV parts (motor, controller, pot box)

Week 7: create battery boxes

Week 8: probably still be creating battery boxes and installing them

Week 9: wiring (primarily battery packs, motor, controller, etc)

Week 10: wiring (primarily dash, tachometer, spedometer, etc)

Week 11: Extra component installation (vacuum pump, heater elements)

Week 12: Paperwork (insurance, title)

Week 13: Paperwork (registration, inspection)

So that puts us at completing some where around mid January, which isn't too bad.  I've labeled this as weeks because I've put aside all aspersions that I'm going to work on this each weekend day.  But hopefully, some of these can be consolidated, for example the ones where I just need to go get parts or ship things off.  I also expect there will be more delays.  I'd like to be finished before the end of the year, but we'll see how that goes.  I've given up all hope of setting a firm date because my stamina is just not there sometimes, and when it is, the weather isn't, or someone is sick, or the house collapsed.  That one hasn't happened yet but I'm waiting for it.

Sorry, no new updates...

A family reunion, weather, and a schedule change at work have kept me away from working on the car.  But next weekened, I have a three day weekend coming up, should get some movement then!

Two for the price of one!

There are two new videos out, episode 6 and 7. I've also got about an episode's worth of unused footage that I may cobble into something later on.  I'm not real happy with how Episode 7 is right now so you may see a reloaded update later on, but for now it's good enough.

First up is Episode 6, detailing what's been done and what's left to do:

After that, we emptied out the gas tank.  I've since emptied out the power steering as well.

Here's what was drained out of the tank.

New video on the way!

Hey guys, I have the next video shot, but not edited yet.  It's been a busy week but I have a long weekend comming up, so not only should I be able to make some progress on the car, but also get that last series edited and posted.

In the mean time, I have gotten the gas tank removed and think I'm ready to tackle the fuel pump next.  Then it's the exhaust manifold and the halfshafts, and we're ready to pull it out!

Here's a shot of the gas tank as a parting gift:

Making progress

Okay, episode 5 is up!  This week I got the wipers off (don't ask me why, you have to take them off for engine removal apparently) the hood off, the radiatior and radiator resivoir, battery, battery pan and some bit of relay (I think maybe a thermostat) taken out. 

So far I have the alternator, and power steering pump to take out, and the air conditioning condenser to move.  After that, I think it's time for lift out!

On something of a down note, I have to get another passenger side wiper arm, as you'll see in the video.  Hopefully this will be cheap.  I've also got some before and after shots of the interior.

Before:

After:

The dirver's side looks just as improved, but I don't have a good before shot.  I haven't shampood the floors yet, but they're next.

And without further delay, episode five!

More fluids comming out!

As you can see, I'm getting a tidy little collection of hazordous waste.  One more to go! You see the engine oil and radiator fluid pictured here.  Once the gas is out, I'll start yanking things out.  After that, I'll change the oil in the transmission, and we'll be ready to take it to the hazordous waste dump, maybe as early as next weekend.  This weekend I plan to try and get the gasoline out and to start removing internal combustion engine (ICE) bits, like the radiator, fuel pump, etc.  We're making progress!

Finally! Liquids are comming out!

Well tonight I was able to get the radiator fluid out with suggestions of folks at diyelectriccar.com.  I gave up on finding the radiator drain plug (I'm going to look for it again once the radiator is out, I swear that thing is no where to be found), but with the suggestion of one of the members at DIY, I pulled the bottom radiator hose and it drained nicely.

Anyone care to guess what this gross liquid is?

Is it:

a) horribly blackened oil?

b) horribly blackened transmission fluid?

c) horribly filthy brake fluid?

d) water?

If you picked D, you got it right! This nasty, vile liquid is what came out of my carpet shampooer after cleaning just the front seats, and the passenger's side still has tan stains!  I'll take an after picture when I'm done cleaning, but it already looks 80% clean with just a quick going over.

Here's what's comming down the pipe, hopefully.

a) drain oil and fuel

b) remove fuel tank and lines

c) remove radiator and fuel pump

d) remove the engine!

Maybe in this upcomming week I can get some of those first things done, and be ready this weekend to remove the engine.

Disturbing revalation

I took this video on Wednessday, but am just getting around to uploading it today. I've been very busy remodeling the bathroom.

Suffice to say, nothing went right, and while I planned to be done by now, I have succeeded in putting in the new floor. The painting can be done over the week after work, and the shower stall is just going to have to wait for a while, I'm pooped!

But enough about that, you're here for the car. I did finally get it up on jacks and should have at least most of the fluids out of it this weekend. I also did some vacuuming and cleaning on the inside of the car. It still needs a good shampoo and another wash, but it's starting to come along!

Sadly, as you can see at the end of the video, there is, yet another, complication. I'm not sure how I'm going to tackle that yet. Maybe I'll post about it on diyelectriccar.com and see if anyone has dealt with tracking down a leak like that before. Leave comments if you have!

Today, we fight!

Today we're tackling the rust problems on the car. There's still some more work to do, but overal, it came out pretty well. The video, which I thought would be short, turned out to be the longest yet! I had to break it up into 3 parts. They'll be video responsed together as usual.

Here's the first one:



The manual did come in, but I did not get time to work on it. Today I'm tackling the bathroom, so I'm not sure I'll be able to get to working on the EV again until later in the week, when the hard bits of the bathroom are done. I'll update when I can, but I suspect it will be Wednesday at earliest.

Situation Normal

Well, as usual, nothing goes quite as planned. I did get the tarps hung up, though it took quite a bit more innovation than I realized. It turns out I didn't have any metal drilling bits, which is good to know now rather than during the mounting period. Failing that, I decided to try and run some string over the length of the overhang. A toy and a bottle of water stuck on the roof proved to me this wasn't going to work right.

I finally got the bright idea to just drill into the wood siding and the wood posts, and that worked pretty well. I need to get some fasteners to attach the corners together, but it's functional for now.

I got out there the other day to put it on jacks, and when I got down under the car (on the passenger side; I can't get under the car on the driver's side because the tires are too flat), I couldn't find the jackpoint! Usually there's a pretty obvious spot, but there's so little undercarraige down there, I'm affraid of twisting or crushing something important. I've ordered the Chilton's Geo Storm repair manual, which I was probably going to need for the clutch/engine anyway, but am now stuck waiting on it. This is exactly what I wanted to avoid by ordering parts ahead. Oh well! Sometimes you just have to roll with the punches.

That should be here tomorrow, so hopefully this weekend I can start removing bits. At the very least I want to get the fluid drained, but I have a home renovation project going on too, which has to come first (only one bathroom, so leaving it half done is not an option).

I'll get some more pictures and maybe a video later this weekend back up. I did at least get the stuff I'll need to repair the rust whole, so maybe I can get that done and posted if nothing else.

Going to the car wash!

Well, I didn't get as much done today as I wanted, but it was a start. I spent about two hours washing the car today. It still doesn't shine like a diamond, but at least it's clean enough to be crawling around. I still need to vacuum and shampoo the inside before I start driving off, but that's a ways off yet anyway.

Let's start with the video and go from there!



You can see some of the grime, but the video camera is not exactly super crisp. Here are some stills I took:

Before:



After:



You saw the hood in the video as before. Here's after:



And one last shot, while I was cleaning the roof, I took a shot while I had cleaned one side and not the other:



Yuck!

So what's on the agenda now that it's basically clean?

1) Get the tarp up (tomorrow)
2) Get it on stands (tomrrow)
3) Get the tires off and get them inflated (this week)
4) Get the various fluids out and disposed of (this week)
5) Start removing bits! (Hopefully, this weekend).

In particular for step 5, I need to get the clutch plate out so I can get it to EV America for the adapter, along with some other parts.

All the tools and work needed to tow the car with U-Haul set me back on the budget quite a bit, but next week I'll get the second payment on my car, so that'll perk things up. I ended up having to pay to have the hitch receive installed because the leaf springs had to be supported to do it. Then they had to wire the trailer lights, and I bought the wrong sized ball hitch the first time. While none of it was very expensive, the whole thing ended up being about $420! Plus, to really take the cake, I backed into the fence like an idiot and cracked one of the tail light covers on the van. No real harm done, but it'll probably take another $80 to get that fixed. I'm looking for ways to cust costs where I can but there's not a whole lot to be done. I think I may come in just a hair over budget, unless I can get a deal on the batteries. It won't kill me to go over, but I'm trying to keep it as low as possible and still have a vehicle that meets my specs.

Got the car!

Well, it was tough, but I have the car under the car port now! U-Haul messed up my reservation plans, so instead of leaving at 5:00 AM to get it and be back before work, I didn't leave until almost 11:00. We got back at about 9:00 PM and it was too late to make the video then. I made one today but the lighting was poor and the video didn't come out well. I'll do it again tomorrow and show off the Geo.

Right now, it's in need of a little love. The dash is quite cracked and there is a small rust hole on one side, a bit of rust on the wipers, but not too bad. The main problem is that it is filthy. I hope to get it washed tomorrow and maybe drain some of the fluids, but I also have a home renovation project I have to get done as well, so we'll have to wait and see.

Some helpful resources for an EV conversion

As you can see, I've added a new column on the right for helpful resources to an EV conversion. If you have a site that you'd like to see added, leave me a comment or drop me an e-mail (e-mail address is in the welcome text on the right).

Things are starting to pick up the pace now, and soon we'll be ready to start the full blown conversion. I got the trailer hitch reciever I'll be installing to tow the Geo Storm yesterday, and I got the electric motor!

I got the hitch from etrailer.com. I checked all the auto parts stores in town, and none had a hitch that would work with the Stow and Go seating, so I ordered it through here. I used 5 day shipping, it got here in three. They processed my order on the same day - can't beat that! They even sent me a personalized e-mail to let me know it was processed and sent out.

The electric motor was even faster; I ordered it from cloudelectric.com. Because the Apple Store sent out three pre-authsorizations the day before, the sudden charge tripped the fraud filter. I called them to make sure everything was okay, and I didn't even have to tell them the order. I just said "Hi, this is Phil," explained the fraud trip, and they found my order and got it packed up and shipped to me. I ordered at 8:50. By 10:30 the next day, it was already here! I didn't pay anything extra for shipping, mind. I couldn't be more impressed with their support.

I'm also in contact with a fellow from EVAmerica.com, and as soon as I get the clutch plate out of the Storm, I can have my adapter made. IT's even going to be about $50 cheaper than I had initially expected.

So far, things are going great. Next video installment will be this weekend, and hopefull by next weekend we'll be making some real headway on the conversion!

First video is up!

Well, it's not much, but you can at least see who I am and hear me talk about the state of things right now. This shows my old Honda and why I'm looking for a new ride.

You can see the video here:



Or go to the link directly: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTDK8xVP1w4

Future updates will be video responses to make it easier, or you can subscribe to my channel and really make my day!

Now I did forget to mention during the video why the Honda wouldn't be a good conversion project even if it was new. I'll cover that in the next installment, but there are a couple of reasons.

1) It's an automatic. Remember in my donor car specs that I was only looking at manual transmissions. There are several reasons for this.

a) Converting an automatic requires additional work and expense. My general laziness will become apparent in no time, so I might as well introduce it here. To make an automatic transmission work requires a more complicated setup, as the automatic transmission is under constant movement from the engine idling. In an electric vehicle, the motor does not idle, however. This means you have to either get an additional motor, or every time you stop you have to put it in nuetral and continue to give it pressure on the throttle, wasting a lot of energy. It also adds significant weight, having the fluid there, the heavier gear box, an additional motor if you choose that route, etc.

b) It's significantly less efficient. Part of that is because of the weight, but also, the more complicated automatic gearbox introduces increased resistance. That is why manual transmissions are given better gas mileage on dealer stickers. On a sticker for a gasoline car, it's only a few MPG, not that big a deal, but in an EV where range is already a limited resource, cutting into it further should be avoided where possible.

2) The car is too heavy. Now I'm sure you've seen people create heavier electric vehicles; the S-10 pickup conversion is very popular right now, so let me qualify that a bit. The gross restricted vehicle weight is not high enough for it's weight. The curb weight (what the vehicle weights with a full tank when it's devoid of passengers and cargo, i.e. parked) is around 2,822 lbs. I forgot to write it down off the door, but the gross weight (the total weight it can cary, car, cargo, passengers and all) is only about 3,600 lbs. In other words, it can only cary 800 lbs. of passenger and crew. When doing a conversion, depending on how many/what type of batteries you are using, it's not unusual to add 800 lbs. of batteries. For example, some 12v batteries I looked at the other day were 82 lbs. each. For a 96 volt system I need 8, making the weight of the batteries alone 656 lbs. The motor is then about 150 lbs. The weight of the other bits, like the controller and charger, etc. come to about 50 lbs. I would esitmate, making the total weight added 856 lbs. That leaves me -56 lbs. of passenger and cargo room! While the engine and exhaust system and tank are taken out, that only makes about 200-400 lbs. weight, depending on the size of the engine. Taking an easy average, 300 lbs. leaves me with 244 lbs. of stuff. Since I was recently up to 200 (I've lost some weight since thankfully) that gives me 44 lbs. of stuff to move around.

Now this would probably be fine for my usage. But if you forget about it and break a strut or axle because you had a buddy hop in one day, you'd sure be upset!

With the Geo Storm, the GRVW is around 3,200, or about 1,000 lbs more than the curb weight. It also has a larger engine, which gives me more weight to play with. I don't think I'd want to haul my mother-and-law around in it, but you can reasonably haul two people.

In the next installment we'll pick up the car, ready the work area, and if we get ambitious, drain some fluids! I'm very excited and can't wait to pick up the car this Saturday.

Planning Stage: choosing the donor car

So, I've covered who I am, and what I'm doing, and some of the reasons for it. Let's do a quick recap:

1) Me: Computer Scientist with very little (i.e. none) mechanical experience

2) What I'm doing: Converting a Geo Storm to an electric vehicle

3) Why I'm doing it: My 1994 Honda Accord LX has some age related issues that I just don't want to spend the money on to fix. Also, it feels incredibly wasteful to use a 2,800 lbs. vehicle to drive all 180 lbs. of me 16 miles a day, with three seats and the trunk completey empty. I like the idea of an electric vehicle, not because I have a gas hog or dreams that it is going to save me thousands of dollars (though, as we will see later, it may), but because it's neat. Computer scientist == geek.

That's a pretty good summary. So let's talk about my criteria.

1) I need to get at least 25 miles on a single charge. This is enough for my 16 mile trip, and some left over for possible detours, lunch trips, adverse driving conditions, etc. Most EVs can get this without problem.

2) I need to be able to go at least 45 MPH. The highest speed limit in town is 60 MPH, but I don't go on that road that often, if ever, and I could avoid it. Other than that, 45 is as fast as I'd need to go.

3) I want a two door car. While I realize this does not necessarily make the car smaller, it will feel like it, which is what I wanted. I realize this is not rational in the least, but I feel bad about driving around what seems like a big car. If it doesn't seem like a big car, then I won't feel bad. Rationality has very little to do with this. But in fact, most two doors are significantly smaller and lighter (about a foot or so, and weigh around 300 lbs. less), so while it's a completely superflous decision, it does also serve a purpose, even if on accident.

4) I wanted a sporty car. Not necessarily a sports car, but something sport and fun looking. This ties in to #3 as well. Again, this is just something I wanted, not for any rational reason. But if I'm going to sink a small car's worth of money into this, I want to get something I like.

5) It had to be a manual transmission. This wasn't a preference, but a necessity due to technical issues that I will discuss later.

6) I want to keep the budget under $6000.

So, that gave me some good starting points. The last one was the first considered; I needed a cheap car. That meant used, and used for a while. This lead me to search for 1990-2000 cars. Old enough to have some miles on them and be cheap, not so old that they're just rust-bucket derelict, though I did see plenty of those as well.

I looked on Craigslist.org and found several vehicles that fit my budget in the $500-$1000 range. I didn't want to spend over $1000 because that severly cuts into my already rather optomistic budget.

Next, I elminitated those with more than trivial body damage. Motor is blown? Great! Has a dent in the fender? Eh, not so great. It sounds kind of twisted, but when you're going to gut the engine compartment, what's in there doesn't really matter. On the other hand, spending money fixing superficial issues eats up your budget for no real reason. I didn't cross anything off for a dent or a rust hole, but if it had a fender replaced and was a mistmatched color, or a cracked windscreen, etc. I marked those off.

Between this and my sporty, two door requirement, it didn't leave too many to consider, maybe a dozen cars. Now I started looking at what would make a good EV, and crossed off those that weighed too much. This crossed off more cars than you might think. For example, the 1990 Toyota Supra weighs in at a hefty curb weight of 3,219 lbs.

Let's pause here a moment to talk about why that's important. Weight pretty much determines everything else with the EV. The heavier the car, the larger the motor you will need. The larger the motor, the more voltage you will need to reach decent speeds. That means more batteries, a beefier controller and charge system, all of which adds even more weight. For a typical EV conversion you need to aticipate adding at least 600 lbs. The reason for this is that even though you are removing the heat sheilding, exhaust system, engine, and radiator, along with some other related bits, you're also adding 10-20 batteries at about 70 lbs. each. Quick math, that's 700 to 1,400 lbs. right there on its own. This is mitigated by the weight of those internal combustion bits, but not entirely absorbed.

So if you take a 3,200+ lb. car and add 600 - 1,000 lbs, you now have quite a monster on your hands. The car will handle more like a small truck, especially when you take into account that many EV converters do not hook up power steering (I'll talk more about that in future posts). Also keep in mind that all this added weight on an already heavy car can exceed the gross vehicle weight, either on an individual axle or on a more central component. And you still need to include the weight of you and your passengers/cargo in the gross weight, and take it into account for your power consumption too.

The rule of thumb is that you should shoot for 2,500 lbs. or less. This left me with the following choices in a manual transmission:

1) Toyota Celica - curb weight 2,496 lbs.

2) Eagle Talon - curb weight 2,550 lbs. This is technically over 2,500, but just barely.

3) Geo Storm - curb weight 2,280 lbs.

4) Saturn SC2 - curb weight 2,363 lbs.

You can see that from an objective point of view, the last two are the most favorable. For those of you wondering about the aero-dynamics of these cars, they're all in the .29-.32 drag coefficient, so that won't be a significant consideration.

Now each of these had pros and cons based on the specifics of the cars. The Eagle was perfect except for the motor and the weight, at $600 and was within half an hour's drive. The Celica had minor body damage, only cost $550, but was three hours away. The Saturn was an hour away and $700, but the description was very non-technical. I had concerns there may have been more than just motor problems. They didn't even know the model - I had to look up some pictures and visually identify it.

The Storm had minor engine trouble - it would still crank and run, but appeared to have clogged injectors, as the fuel preasure wasn't there, and some cylinders seemed not to be firing properly. This made it undrivable, but functional enough to know everything else was OK. Keep in mind that even with the conversion, the gear box and transmission still have to be good, or you have to replace them. It was the farthest away at 3 hours and some change, and the most expensive at $1000. I really loved the body style though!

I contacted each of them, and the only one I ever heard back from was the Storm owner. Bingo! I explained to him that $1000 was a bit out of budget (I'm only getting $800 for my Honda) and he agreed to come down to $850. Perfect!

At the lightest, this also gives me more options. With the Talon, I was going to have to get at least an 8' motor and run at 120 volts. There was the same with the Celica. The Saturn and Storm I could both afford to scale back quite a bit, since they're 200-300 lbs. less. I think with either of these, I can use a 96 volt pack and get the performance that meets my criteria. That saves me four six-volt batteries, or 230 lbs. and about $930, depending on the price you get. That's really appealing! The 6' motor is also lighter and less expensive.

In fact, the entire thing is going to be so much lighter than I anticipated, I plan on getting a multi-volt charger, which costs a little more, but start off with only a 72 volt pack. Once I've tried that out, I can easily beef it up to 96 volts if the performance isn't acceptable, but if it is, this saves me another four six-volt batteries. Good for the budget and the handling, and as long as the performance is good enough, it will be fine.

Now, with a 120 volt system, I could probably expect, say 80 miles of range. However, I don't really need 80 miles. Going back to my goals, I only need 25 or so. I think the 72 volt pack will give me the range and speed I need, and I can save up and upgrade later on if I want to take this out onto the highway or visit someone in a neighboring town.

To finish off this post, here's a picture of a Geo Storm. The one I am getting is white, and I'll be picking it up next week. I'm so excited!

The Conversion begins

First, a welcome to everyone, and a short introduction about who I am and what this page is about.

Let's start with the site; these are (or are going to be) the chronicles of my attempt at converting a Geo Storm to an electric vehicle, i.e. completely battery powered. I plan to detail my decisions, my reasoning, my progress and expenses as much as possible.

So now, a little about me. My name is Phil, and I have my BS in Computer Science. I work for an internet hosting company in technical support in North Carolina. I have about this much mechanical experience: ||. That is to say, almost none. I can identify an automobile when I see one (at least most of the time). I'm familiar with the basic concepts of the bits; round wheels are good. Wheels that are square on the bottom are bad. Loud bangs and clunks are bad (usually). You can see the kind of automotive savvy I have.

Now seriously, I have done very little automotive work. I changed the oil in my dad's SUV one time when I was in highschool at his urging and under his supervision, just so that I could say I've done it. I have always paid to have my oil changed. I replaced a dead battery once, which required removing an air filter. I replaced a turn signal bulb. That's about the extent of the automotive experience I have.

So what got me started on a conversion to an electric vehicle?

I recently became the father of three (new baby, not triplets, thankfully!), and so had to get a minivan for room for the third carseat. I like the van; it gets good gas mileage (for a van) and fits our needs very well. But this left my 1994 Honda Accord LX as a single passenger vehicle. I used to drive it everywhere because we only had one car, and I didn't give it much thought. Whenever we went somewhere, we had every seat filled.

But now that the carseats are in the van, I only drive the Honda to work and back. Being the only person in a 2,822 lbs. vehicle and driving to work by myself every day made me realize how underused the Honda was. I didn't really need a four dour, four seater anymore, I just needed to move me. My commute to work is about 8 miles one way, so bicycling or walking wasn't really an option. The public transportation here is a rolling slum, and a slow one at that. I could never get to work on time, and my shift doesn't end unti well into the evening, when the busses have stopped. I tried getting a car pool together, but nobody was ever willing to do more than talk about it. It didn't help we were pretty evenly split on smokers and non-smokers, and neither wanted to put up with the other in their car.

I decided to do some research, and started looking for a smaller commuter car. In my searches, I found a list of the "best commuter cars" from some review or another. They were all four seaters! The Accord wasn't listed, but it's little sister the Civic was. Talk about a disappointment!

Disappointed in my results, I started looking for a single person commuter car. The first result was this:

http://www.electric-bikes.com/cars/ready.html

Cool! Small cars, efficient, cheap to operate, perfect! Well, if you look at the site, you'll notice a small catch. None of these vehicles, except the BugE, are actually accessible. Most are extremely expensive ($20,000 range) preorders for vehicles that, so far as I can see from their information, are not far enough along to even give a firm production start date. Many are still in the design/prototyping phase. Others are in production, but not available in the US.

The BugE was the one big exception. It seemed perfect. An electric vehicle, cheap, efficient, about 100 hours (my estimate for me, the average time I've seen people spend is about 80 hours) of assembly time, no welding, almost too good to be true. Well, in fact, it was, at least for me.

The total cost of the parts is about 5,300, plus shipping, which I was informed was going to be around $600 to the east coast. Now a motorcycle is the most comparable alternative, and 5,900 for a new motor cycle isn't outrageous; for example, the cheapest Kawasaki Ninja (an excellent and very popular starter bike) is the 2009 Kawasaki Ninja 250R: $3,999. It's slightly bigger brother, 2009 Kawasaki Ninja 500R: $5,499. We're not talking a ridiculous cost here.

But there's a few catchs to the BugE.

1) You have to do all the assembly yourself. This is known up front, but it's worth stating again.

2) The $5,900 doesn't actually include everything you need. You might think it does, as it has all the important bits you think about. But if you look closely, there's a throttle potentiometer (potbox). But no actual throttle. You have to buy it separately, along with the the handlebars that it will attach to. There are no mirrors either. And this doesn't include the cost of batteries.

3) This one really irks me. Through no fault of the BugE's creator, it is incredibly difficult to get this registered and tagged in some places. Very few states have come up with coherent guidelines for a vehicle like the BugE. In my own home state, it would be classified as a motorcylce, because it has "no more than three wheels in contact with the ground at any time." I suppose the Dukes of Hazzards were technically driving a motorcycle most of the time too. But with it being classified as a motorcycle, I would have to get a motorcycle liscence, which would require me actually learning how to ride a motorcylce, the prospect of which I find terrifying.

Additionally, because it is a self-assembled vehicle, I would be the "manufacturer," "wholesaler," "retailer" and owner/buyer. As such, it's up to me to get it inspected, get a VIN number, determine it's value for taxation, create it's title, register it, etc. Getting insurance for it was also going to be a challenge, as my current insurer was not willing to provide me a quote for it without actually inspecting the assembled vehicle. It was an exceptional amount of red tape to get through for a $5,900 electric bike (with an extra wheel), that wasn't ready to run without another $1000 or so worth of investment. Looking at evalbum.com, it looks like a lot of people were spending $10,000 and up to actually finish their BugE's as well.

Now don't get me wrong; I think the BugE is a great little vehicle. I encourage people who are intersted in it to visit the site at http://www.bugev.net/BugE_Concept.html. This just didn't seem like the thing for me to start with. There were just too many hurdles to overcome and it killed my enthusiasm. With the suprising extra cost, I also balked at trying to do this.

With that idea shelved, I just went on driving the Honda, feeling a little guilty and silly. The gas doesn't really hurt too badly for it; $25 every three weeks or so at ~$2.50 USD/gal. But it is a 15 year old car, and some things are starting to act up. The spedometer doesn't work all the time anymore. I tried to get a quote to fix it from three different places and got 0 answers. I didn't feel like just dropping it off with a blank check, so it's stayed broken. The door motors don't lock the doors correctly anymore. One of the windsheild wiper jets doesn't work properly, even after replacing it. And to top it off, it needs new tires. Now it's going to cost almost as much to fix it, possibly more, than it is actually worth.

So, I decided to look into a new (to me) car. I had also seen the conversion cars on evalbum.com while doing BugE research, so I thought maybe I would try my hand at that!

Now I do realize that I'll be spending a significant amount to do this. Most often I'm seeing quotes of $6-10,000 USD for the conversion. Just doing my own math, I'm seeing at least $5,000. I'm going to try to keep it under $6,000, but it will be tight. I expect it will take at least 250 hours to make it.

Now I realize that this sounds hypocritical. It may be. But thanks in large part to kiwiev.com, I have a lot of enthusiasm that died off before with the BugE. Also, there are some pros to a conversion over a kit.

1) Little red tape. There are no standards that need to be followed in North Carolina, that I have been able to find, for an EV conversion. This makes it as easy to register and title as a regular car, and it already has a VIN.

2) Insurance is easy. "Yes, I have a Geo Storm I'd like to get insured." Done. Now they were not willing to give me full coverage becuase of the modifications without a ridiculous premium, but liability and personal damage was easy.

3) worst case scenario, I fail, and still have a sellable car shell. Not a good scenario, but I will have EV parts I can resell, a shell I can sell, and at least recoup some funds. With the BugE, I would have a handful of parts to sell, and some hefty dump fees. Agian, I'm not trying to be down on the BugE, but it is, by design, so different that it lacks the broad resale value even an older car shell has.

4)The money saved on gas and upkeep will be good as well. Especially because I was very horrible about getting it done in the first place. I doubt the Honda will last anywhere near as long as it could, as I have been rather horrible about things like oil changes, tire rotations, service checks, etc. With this, I'll have to monitor the batteries and rotate the tires. Done! At least, that's the plan.

Well I think that's long enough for one day. Later this week I should be getting in the tow recepticle so I can go pick up the storm. More updates to come!

Please leave comments if this is a project that interests you, or if you have something in particular that you would like to address.