One of my upcoming projects is going to be converting an old Ford Aspire to full plug-in electric. I’ve planned out the conversion and the costs, but the only tangible thing I’ve done is clean out the project car. I ripped out the rear seats to make room for the battery bank and I put down a layer of roofing flashing for sound dampening and to add some density to the body panels. When I was a kid I used to have radio-controlled electric cars and slot-racer style electric cars. Back then, I always wondered why the principles hadn’t been applied to real cars. Electric cars aren’t new, but they aren’t very prevalent. The goals of this conversion are to have a zero emissions vehicle that has decent horsepower and to save money (not purchasing gasoline). I haven’t calculated my return on investment for this project, but the project car has already paid for itself as a commuter car. I expect this conversion to pay for itself after a period of time; I’m just not sure how long that will be.
This should be a worthy project for several reasons:
- it doesn’t consume gasoline
- it will pay for itself over time
- it’s better for the environment
- my state offers nice incentives for alternative fuel vehicles; single-driver HOV lane travel being one of them
Here’s a picture of the project car and some of the [future] conversion materials:
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- The project car
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- The electric motor
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- The controller
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