Rec'd this question via e-mail; posting here for posterity:
Quote:
Jay wrote:
> Hi Darin, my name is Jay and I am interested in doing a conversion
> myself. I see that you live in Ontario as well and I was wondering if
> there were any requirements by law for the car to be legally driven on
> the road? If there is a guideline created by the Ministry could you
> direct me to where I might be able to get a hold of these guidelines?
> Any help on this would be greatly appreciated!
>
> Thank you
|
Hi Jay -
There are no Ontario-specific regulations for EV conversions. EG. if you convert an already registered & licenced vehicle, you just have to inform the insurance company of the change.
There has been some discussion on the EVDL mailing list recently (
http://evdl.org) that converted Canadian vehicles are breaking the rules if they exceed the curb weight after the conversion. (I haven't confirmed this.) This would be a federal (Transport Canada?) restriction. It would also mean that every conversion in the country is breaking the rules, since it's next to impossible to do a conversion with golf cart batteries that doesn't exceed the stock curb weight.
Your insurance company may dictate whether or not your vehicle needs secondary inspections (eg. TD Melloche Monnex may ask that a qualified EV person - such as REV Consultants in Ottawa - inspect the vehicle). This was the case with the ForkenSwift.
Insurance will be your biggest challenge - unless you have a friendly broker willing to work with you, expect to hear "no" repeatedly if you ask random companies via phone or online whether they will insure a conversion.
Insurance co's hate the term "modified" - when they hear that, they have visions of riced out, slammed imports and the high-risk nut jobs (profiling!) usually associated with them. Say "converted" instead, as in propane conversion.
good luck-
Darin