Another new guy here...
 

Hey guys, I just joined after reading one of your member's comment on my blog. Looks like a pretty cool place.

A little about me: I'm 16 years old (almost 17) and I've been interested in alternative energy for quite some time. I converted a Mazda pickup to electric last year and I've been loving it ever since. I documented the whole process on my blog: greenflightev.blogspot.com.

Right now I'm working on my second electric car, a Toyota Tercel, looking for better performance. It should end up being a fairly quick car. You can see the stats on both my cars at these two pages:

http://www.evalbum.com/1445

http://www.evalbum.com/861

Anyway, this looks like a pretty active and useful site. I'm looking forward to sharing ideas with you guys!

Andrew

Welcome!

To convert the Mazada pickup was a large accomplishment for a first timer at any age. I hope you'll grace us with pics of the before/during/after for the toyota if you are able to.

Dont forget to add your cars into the
EM Garage for all to see. :D

psst.... i'll swap you two beaters for one good ev. :D

Welcome to the site! Glad you saw my comment so quickly, :)

I would have darin post something but he's out of town right now (and prolly jealous of your budget).

Awesome :thumbup:

If you were 21 - I'd buy you a beer :thumbup::thumbup:

Wow!
 

Good going Greenflight, I'm impressed at your accomplishments.
And thank you for the links, they lead to even more sources of information
on EVs. They sound like an interesting project for me to try in the future.
Something along the lines of a commuter car I can plug in at night might be useful here in congested silicon valley.

Come to think of it I think I saw a video of an EV someone here in San Jose built using a Nissan Versa. Hmmm, I think I'm getting an idea. :thumbup: No, it was just gas. :o

Welcome welcome.

Glad that Ben took my advice and contacted you about this site. :D

Unfortunately now though we (well at least I) demand you start a thread documenting the build of your EV.

I get those all the time :D

^ I second that blurp. :D

You do give good advice. All hail!

Add another person wanting this! I love the idea of the EV Tercel. I too am a Tercel owner (1993 here). Mines going a slightly different direction, but its great to see another Tercel owner here. This is mine.

welcome,

nice work! That's a hefty motor going into your tercel :D.
No heat here in a michigan winter must not be too fun, but I'd put up with it in return for not needing gasoline :thumbup:.

Okay, I hadn't even thought of heat.
So let me ask a dumb question, how do you defrost or defog your windshield and side windows without heat?:confused:

It seems that adding a heater would cause a drain on the batteries and severely shorten an EVs range.:eek:

Pep-Boys
Small ceramic heater with fan, uses some, very little energy, then you shut it off.
Use it before you disconnect your charger and you lose nothing in your trek. Might lose some coming home tho.
IIRC they are generally ~$20.oo
S.

Hey guys, thanks for all the comments. I'm currently working on a heater for my truck. Right now I have a small 12v heater, but my 12v battery is kind of limited- basically only good for defrost and stuff. I really need to install a heater off the high voltage system, but I haven't gotten around to it. It is getting a little on the cold side! :D

A heater off the high voltage pack wouldn't be much of a load at all. You'd be looking at no more than a couple miles off the range. It would probably pull about 15A- compared to the 140+A the vehicle uses, it's not much. ;)

I don't think I have time right now to do a build thread- when I get the chance I'll post up a few pics of my Tercel. Other than that, I'll try to keep my blog (greenflightev.blogspot.com) updated, so check in often! I'll try to put all of the specs in the garage too.