Just a quick note to let you know that EVAmerica has put out its 2007 e-newsletter and it's chockfull of customer conversions you might want to cast your eyes over, including a gorgeous 108-volt MR2 conversion, and a 1984 Corvette that seems to be powered by Optima Yellow-tops. !!! When we bought that for the auxiliary battery, I wondered whether it might be suitable for an EV conversion: it requires no watering, which is awfully nice. (I know, I know, an EV requires almost no maintenance besides monthly battery-watering, so I shouldn't complain. I'm just very, very lazy.) Also interesting -- a 1981 Honda EV into which the owner has installed a 5 kw Honda generator, making it a homemade hybrid and extending its range to 88 miles!
Bob Batson has included some nice pix of unusual conversions from old issues of the newsletter, plus links to some customer web pages and conversion shops. Drop him a line at EVAmerica@aol.com if you'd like to request a copy. Be sure to tell him that I sent you, I want him to feel bad that he didn't include any pictures of the e-van!
Friday, December 14, 2007
Friday, December 7, 2007
Conversion Workshop Initiative in Canada
Ron Rancourt and his cohorts at the Electric Vehicle Council of Ottawa have been bitten by the EV Conversion Workshop bug, and they've put up a terrific website where you can track their progress in sponsoring what they're calling a "Gas to Electric Vehicle Conversion Course."
(You will see that both the Bucks County Renewables EV video and the 15-minute C2EC2T video from San Diego 2005 are featured on the website. I've tried to assist Ron by sharing all that we learned from sponsoring last summer's workshop, and he's also in touch with Abran Quevedo and Mike Parker out on the West Coast.)
The evconversions.ca website will be used for developing course content, announcing progress and development, and promoting the class. One exciting aspect is that EVCO plans to make the course material freely available under a Creative Commons license, to encourage course adoption in other cities.
Readers who might be interested in sponsoring an EV Conversion Workshop in their communities will find it especially useful that EVCO has posted samples of their funding application documents online. If you are unfamiliar with grant-writing, browsing these files will give you a sense of what to expect, and anyone considering applying for financial support for a Conversion Workshop will benefit from a peek at the thorough and succinct formulations of these documents.
Best wishes to Ron and his companions in this effort!
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