Audi A4 Electric Conversion?

Question

Hello Yahoo,

I'm from Los Angeles and I've got an Audi A4 quattro year 2000, which I paid around $5,000 for.

I was wondering what you guys think would be better; if i should just go out and buy a Battery powered EV,designed from the bottom up or if its more cost effective to convert it myself to an EV.

The avg amount I'd most likely pay for gas is $1,200/year so the most I'd like to spend on this is around $10,000.

plausible?

Answer 1

There is a great deal of misinformation about electricity usage by electric cars.

Several years ago one of my colleagues had an old Volkswagen converted to electric.

On a full charge he could only travel 50 miles at most.

It took approximately 50 kilowatt hours of electricity to recharge the batteries.

That is one kilowatt hour of electricity to travel one mile.

The only way that it worked for him is that his employer paid for the electricity to recharge the batteries for anyone with an electric car.

Also the batteries only lasted five years before they needed to be replaced. at a cost of several thousand dollars.

I am told that the new batteries are better than the old batteries and that they last much longer.

I recommend that you get warranties in writing to that effect.

Answer 2

Do some more research.  The car you already own isn't necessarily the best candidate for conversion.  Think hard about adaptability, the weight of the vehicle by the time you remove the engine and add batteries, its rolling resistance etc.  You should do careful research as to the most suitable vehicle.

Seriously.  If you insist on converting your beloved jalopy, you could run into SERIOUS issues with range and vehicle weight.  Tread carefully here.

http://www.evadc.org/build_an_ev.html

http://www.austinev.org/evalbum/build

Consider also joining the EV mailing list and talking to folks who have done it.

http://www.madkatz.com/ev/evlist.html

Beware of lead-acid batteries (the cheapest and most common type, because they're cheap.)  They're far too heavy, and they don't last very long, just 3-7 years, which is disgraceful for a large battery.  That's what gives EVs a bad rap for battery life!  

So seriously consider better battery technologies for your EV, like NiFe, NiMH, Li-ion etc.  If not at first, then when your first set of lead-acids go bad.

Answer 3

A lot depends on what you want to do with your car. How fast you want to go. How far you need to travel.

It is conceivable that you could do a conversion for ten grand. But it will be a lower speed shorter range vehicle than what you started with.

As far as new vehicles go the ten grand won't buy a high performance car either. There are quite a few electric motor cycles that could suit you though. there is quite a few listed here.

http://www.electric-bikes.com/motorcys.h...

Some of these qualify as electric bicycles in California

Here is a summary of the rules.

http://www.electric-bikes.com/legal-m.ht...

Probably the cheapest and most effective way to lower your transport emissions is to ride a bicycle whenever you can. L.A has some quite good cycling facilities. As you get fitter (another bonus) you will comfortably cover distances over twenty miles. There are also a heap of other benefits like no more traffic jams, speed fines, parking expenses etc.

If you were to replace 20% of your current car trips with bicycle rides, this would give a better environmental result than spending (ten's of) thousands on an electric car.

Answer 4

convertion is reasonably stright forward, cheaper and more environmentally freindly than buying new. performance/range etc just depends how you design it & what you can afford

for all the design criteria see Bob Brandt's build your own electric vehicle http://www.amazon.com/Build-Your-Own-Ele...

you might also want to visit the diy ev yahoo group http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/diy_... and ask a few questions.

to buy a new ev (not a glorified golf buggy), eg http://www.phoenixmotors.com, is difficult since GM crushed all their ev1's.

but the ev driving experience is much superior to noisy smelly high maintenance infernal combustion - go for it however you can.