EV conversion on the news in northwest Missouri
 

Hello everyone!
I figured I would share this, not that informative, but nevertheless, intriguing.

High school senior finds way to get nearly 200 mpg in vehicle - KCTV 5

As you may or may not know, I am the Donovan Matthew Gibson who did this conversion with my father.

If anyone would like specs on it, give me a buzz! :thumbup:

-Don

Congrats on the coverage, Don!

As for your car's specs - do you have an EV Album entry yet? You could post a link to it in your sig.

What about the upcoming Chevy Spark electric?

Darin

Ditto on the congrats and a successful conversion!

There is also the Mitsubishi i-MiEV that is currently for sale as well as the Smart ForTwo EV. The Honda Fit EV is currently being leased in a few states, and a few others I'm sure I'm forgetting. They are out there, they just aren't cheap.

I wonder if they are not cheap because of production costs or is it just a inflated price ?
I would think that electric motors are much cheaper to manufacture then gas motors and the battery packs have got to much cheaper then you or I would pay for it.

Honestly, I never said that I was surprised that there were few small electric cars offered by the large automakers. That was some talking point which he put on to make the story a little more... Vivacious? Something to make it sound a little more scathing to the auto makers.
I do not currently have an EVAlbum page up, I should put one up soon though.

I am actually hoping to try my hand at a second EV conversion, this time taking video of the entire conversion and posting it onto Youtube for the education of others.

Thanks for the input and support!

-Don

Don - I hear you. The reporters have their agenda for sure.

Which makes me wonder: how much did gas prices influence your decision to do the conversion? That was part of the story.

I was once interviewed about the ForkenSwift for the national news, and the reporter's angle was all about gas prices. I told him: fuel prices had nothing to do with it - we did it simply because it seemed like a really interesting automotive project & and we had the space to work in my buddy's newly built garage, with a well stocked beer fridge.

But that wasn't what he wanted to hear, or what got to air. :)

Yeah, that's quite understandable.
For me, it was mostly to see if I could do it. I still want to try my hand at some far more complicated project sometime down the line here soon, like a useful solar car. Range of 100 miles in sunlight, self recharge time of two hours. Something like that.

Now, if only I can get some funding... <.<

-Don