Ok, I have a few questions about this and I have a few ideas running through my head and I know you are the guys to run them by. I'll start with my goal and the best way would be for you to tell me what I have to do to achieve it, or refine my ideas into something that would work.
My goal is to have an all electric car that would have at least 40 miles range (for my commute to work, which is a straight drive down a busy road that opens up for about 30-40% at 55mph.. more range would be great!, then I could drive it to school too) and would be able to do 55mph. Where should I start my research on this? I'm thinking of turning the civic into the electric, but I'm open to suggestions on what would be a better starting platform. I'm trying to do this as cost effective as possible, but I will spend whats needed to get the job done. Meaning, I won't skimp, but I would like to keep the costs down where applicable. The way I look at it is, if I can eliminate gas altogether from my budget, then at some point and time, the mods will pay for themselves, and I realize that my electric bill will go up, but lucky for me, electric is included in the rent... plus I like the idea of tackling a project like this.
-One thing I have thought of was to add solar panels on the roof, trunk and possible hood to charge the batteries while it sits at work all day, I know the cost of the panels will be high, but if it will add a considerable amount of range to the car, then I believe it would be worth it. I haven't done my homework on this yet.
-One con That I thought about would be the lack of heat. I'm in Buffalo NY and it gets pretty chilly here in the winter. I know an electric heater will kill my range and I want to start looking into that. My drive home will also be at night in the winter, so I will have to use headlights also.
-One major problem I will have with keeping the build cheap is going to be time. I don't have a whole lot of free time, and I don't have the space to disassemble a forklift, so I will have to buy these parts seperately, which I know will drive the cost up. I plan on building the car myself, and honing my welding skills at the same time
I'm hoping you guys can give me some insight into this project, and opinions too on if you think it would even be worth doing. This site actually gave me the idea. Its just a thought for now, but if it turns out to be a plausible one, then it will quickly become a project.