My fascination with electric vehicles began in high school in the early 80s. My high school science teacher, Mr. Jensen, drove an electric car to and from school and while I was impressed with how it worked I wouldn’t have been caught dead riding in it.
In 2007, when I learned that a car dealership in North Carolina was selling electric cars, I was eager to have a look. The cars were called Neighborhood Electric Vehicles or “NEVs” for short. Very disappointing; think nerd mobile with Yugo-styled fashion, a moped engine and a top speed of 25MPH. I passed on buying one.
While Tesla had designed a commercially viable sports car, word was their lithium-ion battery packs weren’t yet ready for prime time. After doing a little reading and consulting with some North Carolinians who had built their own EVs, it was clear that the technology was available to build a really cool EV of my own.
I consulted with people in North Carolina, New York, South Carolina and Florida on the design of my car. My goal was pretty clear: I wanted an awe-inspiring, high-performance electric sports car. The frame of the car had to be lightweight, spacious and sporty. I considered dozens of vehicles ranging from Lotus to Volkswagen but ultimately decided the Porsche 911 Carrera convertible’s dimensions and timeless beauty were perfect. With the final design we ended up with 22 batteries weight-balanced throughout the car, a “controller” distributing amps from the batteries to the to the 11″ motor, a DC-to DC coverter keeping the house battery topped off, and kept the car’s existing power steering and braking systems. The “Tiptronic” transmission caused additional headaches and delays however I was pleased the air conditioning worked well while the car was in motion.
How does it ride? When you step on the gas pedal, the acceleration is instantaneous. Most people’s reactions when I accelerate are “wow”. Starting out in third gear, 0-30 is roughly 2 seconds. The car easily reaches 80MPH, handles well at that speed and would probably go faster although I haven’t pushed it beyond.
This conversion hasn’t been without heartburn, with more than a few “outages” along the way. However, the message of this car is simple: it’s fun, fast, has all the conveniences you expect in a vehicle, can drive for 50 miles before needing a charge which takes a few hours and costs around 50 cents. The technology exists to mass produce electric vehicles …. hopefully American companies will be at the forefront of this venture.
Read about how this car is now being used for vehicle research.
