You need the following to get started:
- Detailed pre-plans on how to construct your own electric car.
- You can use any vehicle- gas, diesel
- A garage, shop or barn is nice, but not necessary
- Simple tools every home workshop has- wrenches, drills etc.
- A large DC motor (9 inches or larger) and a source of batteries. Note that AC motors can be used as well but they are a bit more expensive so we went with DC. They are easier to install too.
- You can, of course buy all these parts brand new but this is the heaviest cost of the whole project so we suggest using the sources of free DC motors and free industrial batteries listed in the plans.
- They’re not hard to find either and since a DC motor will run for probably longer than you will own your car, using salvaged motors makes sense.
- After obtaining your DC motor and batteries you have to remove your gas engine from your car.
- Leave the clutch and flywheel assembly and detach the rest. That will leave you room for batteries and DC motor mounting.
- It is imperative that you only use a standard transmission vehicle for your conversion as automatic transmissions simply won’t work.
- Don’t worry, you won’t even have to shift gears in traffic once the conversion is done. It will drive just like an automatic transmission, which is nice. Put it in gear and go. When you stop the engine simply stops too. It doesn’t keep idling, requiring clutching like a gas engine.
Learning how to build your own electric car is a lot of fun too. Putting together the controller and motor assembly is not that difficult either.
Your new Electric car will be able to go 50 mph and travel up to 200 miles on a single charge too. Isn’t it amazing. Try it!!