Kessil

PV to EV

Alright Jim m'boy! You're 15 minutes of fame will be great :D

Although I can't say I like the articles

laughing that he "MacGyvered everything," paying homage to 1985
television show where the hero could solve anything with a Swiss Army knife and duct tape.
I mean seriously, was an explanation needed?
 
Well, the cost of my conversion can be split three ways:

1) "donor car" cost
2) classic car restoration
3) Internal combustion engine (ICE) to Electric vehicle (EV) switcharoo.

1) I paid a bit more money for mine because the previous owner has already sunk a few thousand dollars into the car, partially restoring it and souping it up to be an 18 year old's daily driver, if you know what I mean. There's a father-and-son team who I'm helping with their project right now, they paid $500 for the 914 off of Craig's list. They've got their work cut out for them. Pun intended. Like cutting out rusty metal. But if they're having fun and bonding (& bondo, too) more power to them.

2) It's common knowledge that classic car restoration is like pissing dollars down a rat hole. Only in rare occasions do you get your money back should you sell it. I'm not a Porsche purist, by any stretch of the imagination, but parts, even imitation ones, are still pricey.

3) If you already have a car and am happy with it's looks or condition, this can be done well under $10,000. I've seen conversions that look like POS. Duck tape visible, wires hanging all over the place, redneck repair with WD-40 and JB Weld, crap all over. But then owners are hippie types in tie dyes, so everythng's cool. Dude.
 
[quote author=LeviTillie link=topic=3801.msg50654#msg50654 date=1217604041]
15k to convert it, wow. But cool none the less.
[/quote]

I've seen many a reef setups north of 15k.

This project was never intended to be a money saver. Combination of motivations: concern for the environment, putting the solar production to work (other than feeding the tanks), hedging against gas price increases (it was ~$2 a gallon when I started) hobby, challenge, get away from honey-dos by camping in the garage.
 
I have been intrigued by the addition of extra batteries to Prius' to increase mileage from 45ish to 80ish. That would be cool. Once again, around $10,000.
 
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