Alternative Technology Association website » Blog Archive

Low-cost EV conversions

David Rowe explains how converting a car to electric needn’t break the bank. Do you have experience changing a small car to electric? (Low-cost EV conversions can be read in ReNew 107)

This entry was posted on Friday, March 13th, 2009 at 2:45 pm and is filed under Renew Popular Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “Low-cost EV conversions”

Brian Bartlett Says:
April 5th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
Direct action is a good example of whar’s needed to convince our MP’s of the real benefits of moving to a solar electric economy. I’m sure they will try there best to get industry interested but often the biggest impediment to change is our own bureacracy ie govt depts. Over regulation often slows down good things, as well as of course, vested interests.

My own spin on EV’s is one related to disability. I am always keen to point out to those in high places the leadership we have taken in using electric vehicles. Many disabled and elderly people have been using electric transport for years, so we are miles ahead of the rest of the community. I just wish the rest of the community could keep up.

As our population ages, slower, simpler , inexpensive and more practical transport options are going to be in greater demand. One in four people are going to be over 60 in the next decade. Why not allow elctric golf cart style vehicles on suburban streets for example. Less noise pollution into the bargain. Smaller car parking spaces required, the list is endless.

Another very well presented article.
lancet Says:
April 6th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
Yes, what we really need is to:

a) start designing our cities and towns so that we have large low-speed zones so that slower vehicles can be used for local transport without them having to interact with high speed roads and vehicles. Many other countries o this, including the USA, so we should b able to.

b) We need governments to understand the need for low speed vehicles and to legislate for a road-going category so these vehicles can be legally driven on roads with a speed limit of up to 50km/h or whatever. Many countries have such vehicle categories, they are known as LSV (low speed vehicle) or NEV (neighbourhood electric vehicle) or quadracycle categories…
Brian Bartlett Says:
April 8th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
Looks like the ball is rolling at last Lance

Mitsubishi has an EV approved for sale in Australia.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/04/08/2538359.htm

I suspect we will start to see a snowball effect once they get started. Regards the LSV category, in cities like Brisbane average speed is only about 16km/h anyway.