Can’t Afford An Electric Vehicle? Make Your Own!

The move toward hybrid electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles has many tinkerers thinking about how they can modify an existing production vehicle to employ hybrid technology. One Massachusetts man has converted a 1997 Volkswagen Jetta, which he purchased for $1,000, to an all-electric vehicle that has a range of 30 to 50 miles.

Robert Kelly has spend the last two years educating himself about alternative fuels, and in the process, discovered enthusiast clubs for people who have converted conventional vehicles to electric and hybrid electric drives. Kelly began by stripping the car of its internal combustion components, like the engine and the gas tank. To power the vehicle, Kelly uses a series of standard 12-volt car batteries, and an electric motor, which he purchased from a fellow enthusiast for $1,500.

Kelly says he's spend $10,000 on the conversion, and figures that he can save $800 per year on fuel costs, but clearly, the balance sheet isn't the motivator for Kelly's project. For most people who convert their vehicles, the reward is in the conversion process, not the result. For Kelly, he says that his wife, a teacher in the local school district, is the likely recipient of the conversion. She's happy with that, noting that it fits into the couple's lifestyle.

Less radical conversion projects are also on the blocks. Students at the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany are also working on a hybrid conversion kit meant for conventional vehicles. Their approach doesn't abandon the internal combustion engine, but rather incorporates two electric motors to drive the rear wheels of a front-wheel drive car, and power gas-guzzling accessories using a lithium-polymer battery. The goal was to incorporate hybrid technologies into conventional vehicles and enable them to reap some hybrid benefits.

Another popular conversion route: turning a HEV like a Prius into a PHEV. Most conversions are successful and run about $10,000, but a few attempts have run into problems. It remains to be seen which propulsion technologies are economically viable for the automotive mass producers, but in the mean time, there are plenty of hobbyists who can think of nothing more fun than re-inventing their wheels.