Elactric Car

Introduction To Electric Car Conversions

Can a gasoline powered car really be converted to run on household electricity? Yes, you absolutely can. In fact, why there are no local businesses offering to do these conversions for profit, I’ll never understand. I think they’d clean up, and some day, I might even try it as a new business.

Learn more about electric car conversionsat diyhomepowergrid.com

There are several different approaches you can take to convert a car to electric power from gas. In some areas of the country, there might be mechanics that will do it for a price, but you might as well try to find a new one for the amount they’ll charge you. You can buy a kit, which will run you between $2000 and $8000. These have some basic do-it-yourself instructions and most of the electrical components required. Please note that kits you purchase never include the batteries you need. Since an electric car won’t run without batteries, so figure on another $1000 or more for those.

Our favorite alternative is to use reconditioned parts you can get cheap and do the whole thing yourself. You have the choice of using a DC electric motor or an AC electric motor. AC motors are lighter and produce more power than DC. However, AC motors are much more expensive than DC. For this reason, we always opt for a second hand DC motor. There is no reason to spend the extra money buying a new AC motor for your electric car conversion when a decent DC motor that you can get very cheap (and sometimes free) will outlive just about any car you put it in.

You’d want to find a DC motor in the 9 to 13 inch range. A top speed of 50 MPH or more can be achieved with this size motor. You’ll also need a controller to manipulate the amount of current that flows from the batteries to the motor which determines how fast you go. The controller is assembled to your old gas pedal linkage for smooth control of the vehicle.

The conversion requires an on board battery charger in order to charge your batteries between trips. That way you can simply plug it in to any common AC circuit and get charged up again.

To achieve a range of 200 miles between charges, your car will need about 20 deep cycle batteries. There are a number of sources for finding these very cheap and often free. Deep cycle batteries allow you to charge more quickly and discharge further than regular car batteries normally found in gas powered vehicles. In fact, that’s why they are called deep cycle - because they will stand up to and permit greater and more frequent draining, as opposed to the battery used by gas powered vehicles. Deep cycle batteries can regularly be discharged down to 30% or so, but that’s just about the limit.

Don’t forget to balance the battery capacity against the space available to hold the batteries in the car. For example, if your project will require 20 batteries, you want to be certain there is room enough for 20 batteries. Common sense, I know, but still - you might be surprised how many people overlook this detail.

If you are planning to complete your own electric car conversions, you can find more information on our site including the best type of car to use.