[ausev] Converting a vehicle

[Chris Robison]

Alexa Villalobos wrote:
> Hi,
>     I am really interested in converting a truck to electic so that i do not have to drive everywhere and waste a whole lot of gas.  i do construction and landscaping and was going to keep my regular truck for hauling stuff and use the electric vehicle for the days when im working with light tools.  which is really quite often.  i am getting a home equity loan to use for whatever on friday and im trying to put together a mix of things to use it for and one category i wanted to put an emphasis on would be energy efficiency because....well its important, and i have wanted to do these things for a while, ...but also it will be something that will save money and help to pay the loan off.  so im trying to figure out whether im going to insulate my house and put solar panels on it, or convert an electric truck.so i would appreciate any info on what sort of truck would be best.  whats the furthest i can make the truck go (unfortunately i do drive quite far every day....which is
>  one reason i want to do the truck.)  how fast can i go.  what sort of cost is there for the conversion.  i am assuming the more money i spend on batteries the farther i can go.......i saw it takes like 100-200 hours to convert.  do you guys guide people through that?  or how does all that work?  thanks for any help....alexa    


At the moment, there are plenty of good reasons to be interested in EVs; 
lower cost of ownership is not currently among them. Day to day, the 
ownership of the vehicle will be cheaper since the electricity is 
cheaper per mile than gasoline, but once you factor in the cost of 
replacing the batteries, the total cost of ownership will be about the 
same or a little higher. It's difficult to nail it down because the 
price of lead batteries continues to rise, and everyone's experience 
with how long their batteries last is different, and of course there are 
different types of lead acid batteries available, with different costs 
per watt-hour of storage. But it's not a good bet that you'll come out 
ahead by enough to make any meaningful difference.

If you're still interested in considering it, the vehicle can go as fast 
or as far as you can afford. :o) Be aware that there's a price threshold 
above about 45 miles ...  to go much further than this, you'll need to 
switch to lithium batteries which are much more expensive.

And regardless of how much battery storage you have or what type it is, 
ongoing driving during the day requires some consideration of how 
quickly you can recharge. Assuming the most powerful off-the-shelf 
charger currently available (12kW), and a guess of about 385Wh/mile for 
a compact pickup truck, you're recharging at a rate of about 31 miles 
per hour -- for every hour of full-power charging (50A, 240V), you can 
go 31 miles.

Of course, you won't find 50A charging everywhere. From a normal outlet, 
the maximum you can expect is about 1.8kW (15A, 120V), which will 
recharge your truck at about 4.6 miles per hour.

Anyway, for the best return on your money, solar panels are probably 
among your better options, especially since the city will pay for a big 
chunk of it.

   --chris





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