I'm pretty interested in the electric cars that are being promised for the next few years... my commute to work is too far to cycle, public transport here is non-existent (unless accessed by car!!!), but my commute is well within the range of a battery-electric.
I've been dreaming about doing a conversion for about 7 or 8 years now, but one thing that has always put me off is price: you can buy the motor and controller for a reasonable figure, and you can DIY the conversion, but as soon as you put a decent battery capacity in there you're talking £5000 spent on a car that is slow and doesn't have enough range for the once-a-month trip to see family and with the life of batteries it won't pay back the initial outlay over its lifetime. But, everytime I see a DIY conversion on Youtube it rekindles that interest and I think "Hmmm, maybe I could do that?"
The Vauxhall Ampera is interesting, but I won't be in a position to drop £25K+ on a car in the near (or distant!) future.
So, has anyone here ever run an electric vehicle? What was it like? Did you build it yourself or buy it ready-made?
I've been dreaming about doing a conversion for about 7 or 8 years now, but one thing that has always put me off is price: you can buy the motor and controller for a reasonable figure, and you can DIY the conversion, but as soon as you put a decent battery capacity in there you're talking £5000 spent on a car that is slow and doesn't have enough range for the once-a-month trip to see family and with the life of batteries it won't pay back the initial outlay over its lifetime. But, everytime I see a DIY conversion on Youtube it rekindles that interest and I think "Hmmm, maybe I could do that?"
The Vauxhall Ampera is interesting, but I won't be in a position to drop £25K+ on a car in the near (or distant!) future.
So, has anyone here ever run an electric vehicle? What was it like? Did you build it yourself or buy it ready-made?
