An alternative to buying one of the new all electric cars coming onto the market is converting your old car to run on electric power. While some are seeking immunity from the ups and downs of fuel costs, others want to go electric to lower their carbon footprint. A secondary benefit of owning an electric car reported by some is the "EV Grin" driving one of these unique vehicles can bring on.

Later the benefits of 2 cent a mile 'fuel' cost and no tail pipe emission will be examined more closely.

The Nuts and Bolts of an Electric Car Conversion

The first step in the process is to procure a donor car, ideally a cheap used car with a blown engine, that's otherwise in good condition. (Some professionally converted fleet vehicles are made from new car "gliders" delivered from the factory with no engine.) A lightweight, aerodynamic car is a good choice for achieving the best travel range. Though one Canadian kit maker suggest a pickup truck with lots of room for batteries is the easiest to convert. Get a manual transmission car, the power losses and electric motor power curve mis-match of automatics make them a bad choice.

While state of the art electric cars use 3 phase A.C. motors providing regenerative braking and lithium ion batteries, most home brewed conversions use simper to control D.C. motors and Inexpensive lead-acid batteries, budget and space may dictate the number of batteries used, with 144 combined volts the usual combined voltage.

The main components of a conversion are the electric motor, a matching electronic control, and a set of batteries. Those not gifted with engineering and machining skills are best off buying a kit of parts proven to work well together, the easiest kits are tailored for a particular car model, that include motor mounting plates pre-designed to fit, eliminating complicated machining.

A conversion starts with yanking out the gas engine, exhaust and radiator. Selling these parts gives a financial boost. Custom conversion kits tailored for a specific model should bolt in place (for the most part) saving time and knuckle busting.Tailored kits are available for the VW Rabbit, Chevy S-10 pickup (roomy), Porsche 914 (easy installation with good weight distribution) and a few other popular models. More adventurous conversions may include getting the engine-bell housing adapter plate machined, and fabricating battery mounting boxes.

In addition to mounting the motor, batteries and control electronics, a power steering pump and A.C. compressor may be driven by separate motors, or pulleys connected from the drive motor. The 'gas' pedal needs to be connected to an electronic sensor, an electric vacuum pump will probably be needed to feed vacuum assisted power brakes. A DC to DC converter is commonly used to power the car's 12 volt system driving lights, radio, wipers, etc.  Regulations may require a working heater, the hot water heater can be replaced by an electric home heater element or a solid state heat pump that can cool or heat.

Don't expect to do a conversion in a weekend, owners report needing 120 to 300 hours spread over 2 to 12 months to complete their project. The help of others who have 'done that' can be invaluable, you might find a local EV clubs through The Electric Auto Association. Experienced professionals will do the whole job for a parts and labor cost of $12,000 to $15,000. Kit and component suppliers include suppliers like EVA America, EV Propulsion and EV Components.

A Survey of 50 Real World Electric Car Conversion Jobs

A number of people who have done their own conversions have shard the details on the internet, the key specs for a sampling of 50 different of these conversions will be examined. The conversions selected for examination were cars available in the U.S. included Acuras, BMWs, a Mini, Datsun-Nissans, Hondas, a couple of Porsche 914s, a Plymouth Valiant, a VW Van and a Beatle, a Delorean, a Corvette that was powered by a 740hp engine in a previous incarnation, 10 pickup trucks were also included in the survey.

The average cost of these conversions using mainly new components was $10,000. Most of the home brew conversion costs don't include the cost of the owners labor, though a few of the most expensive did account for labor in their costs. There are a few cars out there (not included in this survey) using motors from retired fork lifts and donated batteries, that have been pulled together for a couple of thousand dollars.

The second most important factor for most drivers is the travel range on a battery charge. Most of these conversions use old fashioned lead-acid batteries, which don't deliver the same range as the newer technology Lithium Ion batteries used in the pricey Tesla. The simpler, heavier batteries deliver an average travel range of 35 miles. Those at the high end of the graph are generally using the more advanced and expensive Lithium Ions.

The top speed of these every day cars is also less than the expensive electric sports cars. The average top speed is about 60 mph, bear in mind that most of these cars can't sustain top speed without overheating components, 75% of the top sped might be a reasonable cruising speed.

Lets examine the cost savings an electric conversion may return. One rule of thumb figure reported by conversion owners is an operating cost of 2 cents per mile, the cost of electricity varies depending on the geographical location and time of day, most users charge overnight , when electric costs are lowest. Here are a couple of comparisons of fuel cost for different travel ranges.

• A 25 mpg gas engine car running on $3/gallon gas costs 12 cents a mile
• In the inevitable future of $4 plus a gallon gas a 15 mpg truck would cost 27 cents a mile.
  

Bearing in mind the limited range of a typical commuter's electric conversion, here are some estimates for a 5 day a week, 50 week a year commute totaling 7500 miles.

• For a daily round trip of 30 miles, the car costs $3.60 a day, $900 a year.
• The future Truck's 30 mile commute cost is $8.10 a day, $2025 a year.
• While the 2 cent a mile conversion's 300 mile trip cost is $0.60 a day, $150 a year.

Despite the low figures given by some shoestring budget conversion guides, the average cost for an electric car conversion is around $10,000. The financial break even time for the examples above would be 11 years for the car and 5 years for the car.

The most important consideration for some is the ecological benefit of driving an electric car. Though there is no tailpipe emissions, there are some environmental costs for electric vehicles.

Chiefly, the fuel used by the fixed electric generation plant that charges the car batteries. While solar, wind and hydro generated power make the electric a clear winner in the environmental equation, 49% of America's electricity currently comes from burning coal. Statistical arguments have been made for other fuels having a smaller net carbon footprint than an electric car running on all coal generated power. Luckily, if you don't live in Virginia or one of the other coal states, a good part of your power comes from cleaner sources.

The relatively small amount of oil used in power generation plants insures an electric car will help in reducing foreign energy dependence.