EVs in the News
Current news about EVs from all around, check it out!![[new]](new.gif)
Bay Area Action and The ProjectThe Electric Car Project is one of many projects at Bay Area Action (BAA). BAA is a local environmental group in Palo Alto that grew out of the 1990 Earth Day headquarters in Palo Alto. The Electric Car Project was started with the donation of an MG Midget from Will Doolittle with the stipulation that the MG be converted to run on Electric power. An outline of the project was written up and interested project members met to work on turning a noisy, smelly gas burning car into a quiet, clean, smooth riding electric car.
General EV Information
General information on EVs and some of the numbers.
The Technical Stuff
Here are some of the specifications on the MG.
The MG Users Manual Large document, but lots of good informantion.
Lead Acid Batteries How to choose the right battery for your EV.
EVs in the News
Current news about EVs from all around, check it out!
EVs on the Web
EV Web sites: Organizations, Companies and Individuals, surf it out!
EVents
A calendar of up Coming EVents, passed EVent reports and additions to the page.
Report on the Palo Alto Parade.
Report on the SF BEAR rally.
The donation of the a MG Midget by Will Doolittle, with the stipulation that the MG be converted to run on Electric power, got the project rolling. Since then the MG has been to many EVents (as EV people call them). The first such EVent was Earth Day 1994 at Stanford. After that we were at the Palo Alto Concours d'Elegance and then the "All Right Now" Parade to celebrate homecoming at Stanford and a salute to the Palo Alto Centennial. At each event and the smaller ones in-between we hand out general EV information and answer questions about our projectspecifically.
Our first resource customer was the Schools Group at BAA. After the MG was donated we got a VW rabbit donated. After unsuccessfully trying to give the rabbit to a high school auto shop class some where, the Schools Group said they wanted it to convert. This is currently an on going project by the Schools Group.
We also developed a Users Manual for the MG, complete with a Suppliers Reference for EV parts and a Reference Books listing. This will be available on this sight at a later time.
Another good source of information has been the local EV community here in Palo Alto. Otmar Ebenhoech of EVCL and Bob Schneeveis have been invaluable in there help and expertise. Local to the Bay Area but e-mail in scope is Bruce Parmeter , an EV advocate willing to disseminate EV information. The Electric Auto Association , with chapters nation wide and the EV mail group have also been good resources for our project. The last two references are part of the GreenWheels Electric Vehicle Resource List. This has other good EV references that are all over the Web. Check it out!
Over 90% of the daily trips made in the US. are under 50 miles per day. This is with in the range (40 to 60 miles) of most EVs. EVs are a perfect car in the urban areas where the smog is the worst and daily commutes are short. Many families have two cars: one larger one for longer trips and a commute car for the ride to work. EVs can be the perfect second car in this common situation.
Maintenance on an EV is much less then on an ICE car. Most of what you have to do is check and add water to the batteries once every month or so. If your car has sealed batteries, then you don't even have to do this. You will have to check the brakes and suspension a little more often if you have an EV that does not have regenerative braking; where the force of slowing down the car is used to charge the batteries. The main battery pack will have to be changed every 3 to 4 years depending on your driving and on the batteries.
What about all these batteries? Lead acid batteries are 98% recyclable. The lead is melted down and reused, the plastic case is shredded and recycled and even the acid is naturalized and made into fertilizer.
California has passed a mandate that says that 2% of all cars sold in the state in 1998 must be zero emission vehicles. This increases to 10% by 2003. New York and Massachusetts have adopted these same mandates and ten other eastern states are also considering the California mandate as a way to meet federal clean air standards. So what are the big auto manufactures doing about these mandate? They are fighting them as usual; as they have fought against any regulation on the cars they make; seat belts, catalytic converters, air bags, etc. They are also developing proto type EVs and saying that EVs will be too expensive. This is a catch 22 type of situation: the big auto manufactures will not mass-produce EVs because they don't think they can sell a high priced car, and the price is high because they won't mass-produce EVs.
So where does this leave us? Converting a gas car to electric cost between $5,000 to $7,000 to do it yourself or $10,000 to 20,000 to have a conversion shop do it for you. If you compare this to the price of a new car today, EVs can be cost competitive. Is there an EV in your future?
Our car is an 1978 MG Midget. All of the Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) parts have been removed: engine, gas tank, exhaust system, etc.. In its place we have installed a 20 hp (60 hp max.) Prestolite series DC motor connected to the standard transmission by an adapter plate. The motor is controlled by a Curtis 1221B motor controller powered by 11, 12 volt 30XHS deep cycle Trojan lead acid batteries. The car is charged by a simple diode bridge type of charger that has an adjustable auto shut off. The 12 volt system is run off of two small 6 volt gel cells that are charged from the main battery pack using a DC to DC converter from Power Cube. The heater is a small ceramic space heater that has had the AC fan changed for a 12vdc fan and the main heater core element switched by a 120 vdc, 20 amp. relay.
Car Specs.
For more information about the Electric Vehicle Project at BAA send email to David Coale . We are still getting around and promoting the use of EVs as a clean, quiet commute alternative. We have been featured in several articles on electric cars in the local papers and we are planing to do a video about EVs. Stay tuned.
Sacramento EAA page
The Sacramento chapter of the EAA is vary active chapter and has all of
this years past chapter news letters avalible at this site.
EcoElectric home page
EcoElectric is another EV conversion company in Arizona. The owner of
EcoElectric, Mary Ann Chapman is very active in the EV cause and has a very good web page!
Green Wheels Web page
Green Wheels is an EV company back east that does conversions. This
web page has many good pointers to other good EV sources.
ZAP web page
ZAP... Zero Air Pollution; This company sells EV kits for bicycles.
They also sell completed assembled electric bikes.
Jeremy Phillips Home page
Jeremy is a very active EVer. His page includes EVs and EV parts for sale and on going progress report on a conversion of a Honda Del Sol that he is doing in his garage.
Jerry Halstead
Jerry is doing a conversion of a Mazda 626 and is still in the early stages. His web
page is tracking the process/progress of his EV conversion
California Energy Commission
Lots of good information on energy here. It may take some digging, but they got it.
Southern California AQMD
Southern California Air Quality Management District.
Report on the Palo Alto Parade.
Report on the SF BEAR rally.
The MG Users Manual is here! This is the complete documentation on the MG to date from a users point of view. It also has an EV suppliers reference guide to suppliers, EV conversions, cars and parts. There is also an article on Lead Acid Batteries : How to choose the right battery for your EV. Also see the EVent reports listed above. Next update will have photos of the MG! Please send questions and comments to David Coale .