http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/ Engadget Comments for Build your own street-legal solar-powered electric car http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/Mar 19th 2008 5:54PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/

umsolar.com]]>Mar 19th 2008 7:14PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/road and the other guys car with a sharp stick and a wet sponge.

This thing is a backyard creation. For $4500 you can buy a nice looking and
much safer golf cart and toss a few solar panels on its roof.

]]>Mar 19th 2008 9:30PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/
The whole point is to be an efficient local commuter car, to get to grocery and back, for example, so you don't have to waste a gallon of gas just to pick up bananas.]]>Mar 20th 2008 1:22PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/
Sometimes I manage to get to 0.5mph top speed.


But most of the time it's stuck in reverse.

:(]]>Mar 19th 2008 5:55PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/Mar 20th 2008 3:17AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/Mar 19th 2008 6:00PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/
http://hometown.aol.com/rufflife3628127/images/ugly%20girl.jpg]]>Mar 19th 2008 6:03PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/
EEK! I fell out of my seat! I mean, WTF is that!?!]]>Mar 19th 2008 6:16PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/Mar 19th 2008 6:19PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/Mar 19th 2008 7:11PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/Mar 19th 2008 9:22PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/
I'd be willing to pay upwards of $35k for a completely solar/electric car.

Literally the only things I would want more of out of this vehicle is range and speed. Not too much more, though. 60MPH top speed would be fine for me and the range would be fine at 100 miles max.

Surely a large car company could do something like this and make it profitable and economical.]]>Mar 19th 2008 6:18PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/
http://www.flytheroad.com/ if you want to check it out. They are planning on an April 2009 release in California with 1,000 vehicles for the first run.]]>Mar 19th 2008 6:34PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/Mar 19th 2008 6:16PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/Mar 19th 2008 6:21PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/
I'll take the Harley.]]>Mar 19th 2008 6:21PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/Mar 19th 2008 6:27PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/
I do agree that I'll need a higher top speed and longer range before I sink my money into it.]]>Mar 19th 2008 6:31PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/Mar 19th 2008 7:18PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/Mar 19th 2008 6:34PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/Mar 19th 2008 6:53PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/Mar 19th 2008 7:12PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/
It's pretty obvious you made up all your numbers.]]>Mar 19th 2008 7:38PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/
Deep Cycle Battery - 12V - 110Ah - $170 x 3
http://solardyne.stores.yahoo.net/trojdeepcycb2.html

Hood - 55 Watt PV Panel - $350
http://www.solarhome.org/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=2089

Roof - 150 Watt PV Panel - $720
http://www.solarhome.org/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=2098

So $510 for Batteries and $1100 (1 roof) or $1800 (2 roof) for the PV Panels
Thats between $1600 and $2500 in extras depending on how you configure the PV Panels. And those prices were found on Google in 5 minutes, you might do better if you look harder.


I researched Electric Conversions a while ago and the Motor is usually the most costly piece.]]>Mar 20th 2008 12:12AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/http://www.sunnev.com/proto.htm
]]>Mar 20th 2008 12:13AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/Mar 19th 2008 7:29PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/Mar 20th 2008 2:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/Mar 19th 2008 7:30PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/
http://www.visi.com/~sandhoff/Bark.htm

Whip up a solar-powered version of that, and I'm sold!]]>Mar 20th 2008 1:02AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/Mar 19th 2008 8:04PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/
That kills it right there.

Unless you in the heart of downtown, or a residential neighborhood, speed limits are 40+ here. ]]>Mar 19th 2008 8:34PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/
My only concern is the safety and the duration of charge off solar power.]]>Mar 19th 2008 9:30PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/Mar 20th 2008 8:57AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/
If you are like me however, you may want to check out some of the really nice electric powered vehicles at http://www.zapworld.com, especially their NEVs at http://www.zapworld.com/electric-vehicles/offroad-ev which will give you about the same utility as this one.]]>Mar 20th 2008 1:34AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/
For around $6k you can get all the parts needed for a full speed normal electric car conversion. The problem is batteries. THEY are the only reason these things have limited range.

This car is odd with 110amp hours (or 55 amp hours going below 50% kills leads) I would have expected a lot more than 20 miles range. I am guessing the low voltage (36volts) system is what is killing the range. If they upped it to 72 volts I bet they could tripple the range and up the speed a bit. Not too sure on that but it seems odd that it can only go 20 miles)

Keep in mind that $6k cost I mentioned is for NICH cottage industry non mass produced parts. The parts total for an EV conversion would easily go under $1k if they were mass produced. There very simply cheap to build parts. Manufacturers just straight up refuse to make an electric car. This keeps the prices very high and with the nimh patent lock by chevron (can not wait till 2015 when it expires) keeps the range low :-(

If the patent were released and companies were permitted to make the batteries for EV usage we could have UNDER $10,000 100+ mile range 80+mph Electric cars on the road in 1-2 years. GM already did it over 10 years ago (go look up a film called "Who Killed The Electric Car")

They sold the CRITICAL component (batteries) to texaco and a week later chevron bought texaco. Since chevron maintains VETO privileges for any License of the Nimh technology and will not permit EV usage or any usage that MIGHT be EV usable.

OH and screw the solar panels. cost to drive an EV is about $1 per 100 miles driven using GRID power. Yeah a full charge would cost less than $2 you can not even buy a single gallon of gasoline for that much. (this is with NIMH batteries)

I spend more money in 3.5 weeks on gasoline than I would spend in an entire year of electrical usage charging an electric car. Better to pay $1600 for a grid tie in and put that solar panel on your roof where it can generate good power all day that you sell back to the utility to offset the cost of charging your car.

Oh and built right they are virtually maintenance free and virtually everlasting (thats why GM killed them)

Oil is why Chevron refuses to license the battery patent. Sadly its a controlling patent so no one else can make similar batteries without violating the patent.]]>Mar 20th 2008 3:19AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/
Next time somebody posts something like that please hide pics and add "Contains explicit content!"]]>Mar 20th 2008 6:32AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/http://ecomodder.com/blog/2008/01/26/16-year-old-builds-electric-pickup-truck/

I'm going to be doing that project in 6 months. I could always add a cover to the truck bed and attach solar panels. ]]>Mar 20th 2008 3:28PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/
He wanted a car to take him to town & back, no doubt he could have whipped it up himself, but decided to get kids involved. Bravo! Sure beats making ashtrays in wood shop class.

Are there better electric cars out there, sure but that's not the point....]]>Mar 20th 2008 12:01PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/Mar 20th 2008 1:54PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/Mar 23rd 2008 1:09AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/Dapo]]>Mar 30th 2008 6:46PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/
]]>Apr 18th 2008 3:05PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/Apr 26th 2008 3:36PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/19/build-your-own-street-legal-solar-powered-electric-car/
I'd be scared to death in that thing over 35mph anyway. Why doesn't someone just take one of those solar racers and make it more practical for daily life?

I'm sure it isn't easy getting something through DOT but come on... that thing is VERY simple. It looks like it'd be worth it if it came fully equiped with the electro gear,]]>Apr 26th 2008 8:17PM