DIY Electric Vehicle Conversion

Do you still remember the challenging time most car owners had back in mid 2008. Global crude oil prices were touching $150 per barrel and that has pushed local gasoline prices to a historical height. Many people was unable to cope and had to sell off their cars and use the public transportation.

Now, gasoline price is at a more manageable level but there is no telling when it is going to rise again. Some car owners are preparing themselves by cutting their dependency on fossil fuel by using Pure Electric Car (PEC). Sadly, a brand new PEC is still very expensive and many are unable to afford it. As an alternative, some electric car enthusiasts are converting gasoline driven car to to use only electricity via Do It Yourself (DIY) electric vehicle conversion project.

The concept of an EV conversion project is quite simple. The idea is to remove the internal combustion engine (ICE) and replaces it with a DC electric motor. When the engine is jacked out, all "wet" components such as gas tank, fuel lines, fuel pump and radiator are removed as well. Your new EV will not burn any fossil fuel, hence the exhaust pipe will be redundant. Get rid of it!

How do we propel our homemade electric car forward? To generate torque, the electric motor is connected directly to the transmission unit. This will be one of the trickiest process of the whole EV conversion.

The challenge is to line up the motor shaft with the transmission core perfectly. Any misalignment will create vibration that will reduce the efficiency of your DIY electric vehicle. Not to mention the vibration will also shake loose any connecting bolts and screws. The hold the motor in place, you will have to custom made a metal adapter plate. The plate will line up both the shafts and they will be joined by using a universal coupler.

As a disclaimer, you should not convert go your own DIY electric vehicle conversion at home if you are not well versed with automobile maintenance. The process can be dangerous because you have to deal with electricity and gasoline residue from the engine parts. In this case, it would be best to outsource the electric car conversion work to a professional mechanic. By doing this, you will incur some capital investment but it will save you a lot of time and head ache.

When you send your donor car to the workshop to be electric retrofitted, it is best to know some basic stuff on homemade electric car. At least you would be able to have a meaningful conversation with the mechanic on the EV conversion.There are many electric car conversion guides on the web. One of the most popular is Convert 2 EV by Les Oke.

Les Oke and his family live a green lifestyle. This means they do they very best to produce minimum carbon footprint. One of the way to do so is by using pure electric car for their daily commute.

Les has converted numerous gasoline guzzler to electric vehicle at his home garage. Convert 2 EV e-book is his years of EV conversion experience packed into a manual. For more insightful information about the electric car conversion guide, check out the comprehensive Convert 2 EV review.