Saturday, June 21, 2008

Electric Vehicles Answer to Gas or Toys?

With the popularity of electric vehicles rising on the internet and Americans paying outrageous amounts of money to have their older vehicles converted to electric, the question must be asked, Are Electric Vehicles The Answer to Gas Or Just Another Toy.

To answer this question there is tool at: EVCONVERT.com

It is a calculator that will estimate the range a particular vehicle will travel depending on the variables you insert into the calculator. It is not perfect due to all the other variables that effect the feasibility of using electric vehicles for your primary mode of transportation. According to Wilderness E.V. Factors that determine range include terrain, number of batteries, speed, driving habits, cold weather, weight of vehicle, number and weight of passengers, etc.


A company in West Palm Beach, Florida is currently getting all the cable news attention. Their focus has been on more high end conversions like Porsche and Lamborghini but they are branching out to other less expensive models.

Using the calculator and a 1986 Porsche 911 the results did not look promising for this type of electric vehicle to be the answer to gasoline engines.

The range or distance traveled before the batteries went dead and needed to be recharged depended on the gear you drive it in, 1st gear being the best for this vehicle. The range went from 43.4 miles (at 10 miles per hour) to 8.2 miles (at 90 miles per hour). This is measured on a flat testing track under ideal conditions. On an Interstate type of terrain traveling 60 miles per hour you could travel an estimated 16.1 miles.

I would encourage anyone thinking about electric vehicles for practical alternatives to gasoline to visit the site and use the calculator to decide for yourself before dropping $5,000 to $30,000 on this type of electric conversion.
EVCONVERT.com

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