If I am remembering correctly, if you drive more than 50 miles a day and spend about an hour and a half in your vehicle a day…you are a megacommuter.

People make negative comments or ask me all the time about daily commuting – Assuming the commute is really bad? It is at times but like most things I like to adjust my lifestyle and daily routines to fit my wants and needs at the time.

Some of the things I do to make my mega commuting better are

Pick a senic relaxing route with less traffic.

I have two choices here a scenic country back road commute, or a beautiful water front route with over 7 miles of causeway and bridge travel.

The thing I really hate about commuting is the fuel consumption and fluctuating high cost of fuel. To the tune of around $300-$400 USD per month for our family using one car.

The S-10 is a light weight pickup to start with. There is plenty of room between the rear frame rails to mount enough lead acid batteries (budget consideration) under the bed between the driveshaft and the frame rails.

This conversion has been done many times by many different people. There is a ton of data available on parts and real world range research based on every day drivers.

Here is a range example from

http://www.evamerica.com/eveconomics.pdf – Chevrolet S-10 2700lbs curb weight 120 volt conversion T-145 Golf cart batteries 4100 curb weight after conversion 61 miles per charge average 92 maximum miles on a single charge

Using this setup will exceed my minimum range goals and come close to my desires range goal of 70 miles per charge for everyday use. I wonder if a high voltage AC conversion would increase the range with regenerative braking?

Parts List

I will most likely use the following components

Implse, advanced DC, or WarP9 nine-inch motor.

Soltian Jr controller or Synkromotive controller

So far those are all of the main components I would like to use. I may however end up with a used setup from someone else’s old project.

Here is a detailed parts list of the required components and some prices http://www.evamerica.com/031011120vtruck.pdf This complete kit runs just under $7,000 without batteries. Budgeting $2,000 for batteries and $1000 for a decent 5 speed donor S-10 extended cab. A Blazer would be interesting too, much harder to mount the batteries I would imagine since you cannot have to bed rise up. I wonder what It would take to be able to lift and entire Blazer body?

Converted Chevy S-10 With Tilt Bed

Here is a project in parts that includes all major components except batteries for $5,500. Allowing us to come in at around $8,000 two thousand below buying everything new http://tampa.craigslist.org/pnl/cto/2866107040.html

I love the idea of converting an ATV or sand rail into a two seat side by side car like reverse trike. I saw an alunminum frame kit for $10,000 not realistic budget wise for our project though.

Originally we were going to convert a car to electric with a budget of ten to fifteen thousand dollars. The main goal is to prove we can get off gas. We intend to build electric concept vehicles that will be practical commuter vehicles.

Here are the important details about my daily commute

• I spend about $4,800 per year on gas commuting to work.
• My commute is 32 miles each way.
• I will be able to charge at work.
• My bare minimum range will be 45 miles.

A lightweight two seat EV makes more sense since it will be much easier to get the required range on a 50% lower budget over converting an electric car.

We are looking for a donor motorcycle for the rear suspension and related parts. We will also need a small car for the front end suspension and steering parts. The Xzilarator (pictured below) plans use 1984 Pontiac Fiero front suspension and steering parts.

I purchased a set of plans online and will use them as a guideline for our electric reverse trike. Here is rough sketch before reciving plans 04012012. I plan on designing around the batteries rather than trying to stuff batteries into an engine compartment. This way the weight will be in just the right place.

The electric parts are easy. Except for the batteries they are another story. The t-105 6 volt golf cart batteries are the lease expensive way to go.

Budget for reverse trike EV

Our budget for motor, controller, motor plate and sproket parts will be about $2,000.

Hopefully we can get the donor vehicle parts for under $1,500

The batteries will run six to twelve hundred depending on how many we use (6-12). We are hoping a 48 volt setup with a pancake motor will achieve our speed and performance goals which are 80 mph top speed and 45+ mile range. We will probably have to upgrade to a 72 volt system. We will get some advice from the pros on the exact setup before we purchase the electric parts.

Our max total budget for a lead acid battery electric trike will be $4800 which just happens to be a years gas budget for my commute. There will be some operating expenses like battery changes every three years until we can swing lithium-ion phosphate batteries. Those should last 3000 charge cycles which will be 10 years.

Reverse Trike EV Parts List

Here is a nice little electric motorcycle parts kit that would work well for a lighter weight reverse trike. I am following the old timers advice which is to check the weight of the motor. 50 lbs or greater is recomened for this type of project.

I think we are going with a 6″ to 9″, preferably the 9″ Advanced DC or Impulse 9. Here are some other nice motor controller kits I found.

Dream Specs for this reverse trike project

I may be able to increase the budget a little and go with a premium AC drive train kit and Lithium ion phosphate batteries, taking advantage of regenerative braking to put a little energy back into the battery pack.

The kits I am looking at will cost a total of about $6,400. This will put the budget in the $8,000 range. Leaving $1,600 to acquire and fabricate the chassis parts into a rolling trike chassis.

The motor kit is the AC-20 drive kit http://www.electricmotorsport.com/store/ems_ev_parts_kits_ac.php

This is the battery pack I am considering 48V 100ah with BMS and charger http://www.electricmotorsport.com/store/ems_ev_parts_batteries_lpf_gbs_kit48.php

The 48v kits are priced about 3K less than a 96V kit which is why I am looking at them instead of a 72+ volt system.

A little more research with Bob from evamerica.com is steering me to use 10 T-1275 golf cart batteries. The cost for them will be just over $2,000 vs $6,000 for the 24 160ah Flux Power cells. It looks like the battery choice has been made for me in order to have a reasonable build cost and get the range I need. With 10 12 volt golf cart batteries I should get and average of 50 miles per charge.

Ready to take action

I am as done as I can get with the dreaming / planning stages of this project. It’s time to take action and get to work on this.

I have arranged to borrow a welder and I will need to install a 220v line in the garage for the welder. I have an available 50A GFCI circuit for a boat lift that is no longer being used. So that should be easy.

My buddy located a Fiero front end from a friend so I should be able to pick that up pretty soon.

Next keep an eye out for a donor motorcycle and start making the individual metal pieces out of both square and round metal tubing.

There is a whole community of reverse trikers here. They have plenty of prototypes, professional quality plans, and even a few soon to be production electric reverse trikes featured.

My favorites so far.

Here is a trike builder that offers plans to build your own

I am considering purchasing these plans from the inventor designer. If I do I’ll put up a review on the blog. They are inexpensive and will be a good research tool aiding in the decision to convert a Classic VW Bug into an electric car or build an electric reverse trike. This design does call for a Honda Goldwing engine and possibly other rear suspension parts I believe.

sand rail reverse trike project for sale on evfinder.com

XR-3 Plugin Hybrid Reverse Trike

Solar Reverse Trike

http://www.e-volks.com/solar_electric_reverse_trike.html

It’s oppturnities like this that show recycling a vehicle that has a bad enging but is in otherwise good shape can produce an everyday driver that anyone would want to drive for less than $20,000 before any tax incentives.

I want to work on as many of these projects as possible in order to spread the work and show examples of real people implementing technology that has been around for many years.

There is a high demand for batteries that will deliver the performance required to travel over 100 miles on a single charge.

Bug For Sale In Florida

WV bugs and their parts have been used in vehicle conversions and kit car platforms for many years. I think this makes them a top choice for an EV conversion donor car.

Electric Vehicle VW Bug Conversion Kits

Another reason the VW Bug always remains on my radar is the large selection of electric Bug conversion kits. Almost any online retailer of electric vehicle parts has a complete electric conversion kit for a Bug.

Here are a few I like

http://rebirthauto.com/EVKits-2.aspx – this is one of my favorites – all top quality parts.

Here is a super cheap ev conversion kit http://www.e-volks.com/electric_car_conversions.html? it’s not much more than a NEV kit but great for getting around town on the cheap. You could convert a Bug that will go several miles and a top speed of 40mph for less than $4,000 total with a kit like this one.

This low-budget electric vw conversion assumes $1,000 for the donor car, $2400 for low-budget kit, $500 for batteries.

I initially dismissed the bug as a good choice for me because I assumed they would be too hard to find cheap and in decent condition. Only after scanning Craigslist for a few months did I realize that someone was always selling a bug project for under a $1000 and nice running cars for $1500. I would go for the runner and sell the ICE (engine) parts to reduce the budget even further.

I am always keeping my eye out for the right VW Bug to convert.

Check out our other top choices

Chevy S-10 EV Conversion

Electric Reverse Trike Kit

“make electric vehicles more affordable and convenient to own and drive than today’s gasoline-powered vehicles within the next 10 years.”

Our Challange to build electric vehicle conversions that cost between 10K-20K and can travel daily for 100 miles

Controller
Soliton JR from evnitics.

Synkromotive controller http://www.synkromotive.com/DCControllers.htm

Here is a successfully converted Honda civic parts / spec list. I like most of this parts list since they used parts closely following the parts selection used by manufactures building vehicles for everyday use.

In my opinion one of the most successful electric vehicles is the 2002 Toyota RAV 4. They come up for sale every now and then out of California mostly where they were originally sold. I have seen a few for sale with 100K to 150K miles on them, they have been used as everyday drivers for over 10 years now. What better testing is there? Some common things I have noticed are AC motors running higher voltages around 300. Then of course there is the top secret battery pack and BMS.

For me this is my own way of telling the tax collectors, price fixers, refiners, and all the others with their hands in the cooking jar to stick it! I can still live where I want and get to work everyday without having to worry If gas is going to cost me 300 or 400 or even 800 per month.

Electric vehicles are a great way of reclaiming our independence in my opinion.

My thinking is that especially for our early builds we are going to use a clutch. The main reason is that it just seems logical that the vehicle will be easier to for anyone to get in and drive. And that is my main goal for taking all of this on. To have a gas less car that will carry me back and forth to work everyday. To have a car that my wife and soon to be of driving age kid(s) will be able to get around in.

I plan on testing a clutch less EV for sure. So we will probably end up making on of the two Toyotas clutch less and compare the difference driving.

Just as I was going to consider clutch less I found this

Since new, the car has had brief power drop-outs. I will soon try replacing the Curtis controller with a Logisystem.
This car is clutchless. Up shifting is no problem. Down shifting, without a tachometer, is difficult. If I had it to do again, I would get a clutch. here

Latest battery technology used in racing EV

Batteries are the limiting factor for range on an electric vehicle. This causes what people refer to as range anxiety for many folks considering electric vehicles.

The main battery types are the golf cart 6 or 8 volts

Car batteries that are 12 volts “old-fashioned” lead acid or newer AGM type car batteries

There are also gel type car batteries like the lead acid ones with gel for the liquid.

The above are the “affordable” options that most hobby builders use. These batteries are able to take a vehicle up to about 40-70 miles on a single in most cases that I have reviewed.

There are a few small pickups that have been converted that have gone 120 miles on a charge using 40 of the golf cart type lead acid batteries. Check out the Red Beastie Toyota pickup conversion.

There are also high-capacity fast rechargeable batteries like what are used for RC cars or call phones. These are the type of batteries that the new car manufacturers are using to achieve their 70- 300 mile ranges.

These batteries are very expensive costing between $10,000 and $40,000. These batteries are supposed to last up to ten years. More widespread use a will determine if this is true or not for the average user.

Image credit http://photos.plasmaboyracing.com/