Converting your Regular Car to an All Electric Car Looks like your Best Bet for a Long Time to Come
Hybrid car technology isn't that old. It sells well, and new companies are entering the fray everyday. And yet, hybrid cars are already on their way out. You'd be hard-pressed to find a major car manufacturer anywhere, who wasn't planning on, or halfway there, with all electric car models of its own, with an eye to the future. Still, there aren't more than a couple of models actually at the dealerships yet, and it could be a year or more before more right here. The most promising American model, the Chevy Volt, for example, could actually take a year more to be manufactured in large enough numbers that you could expect to get your hands on one without too much trouble. And then, it'll cost you $40,000. Hot rodding cars, converting them with one or another fancy air filter, fuel injection system or the other, used to be a well-loved pastime in America, before cars became so hopelessly computer-controlled. It looks like the good times could be back again for those who like to mess around inside the hood of a car, because the US government is cutting you a 10% tax break if you will put up front the $4000 you need to convert your regular gasoline powered car into an all electric car.
A $4000 price tag certainly sounds a lot better than the ten times more it'll take to buy a properly-built brand-name car, doesn't it? That must be the thinking, because there are nearly 2000 cars in the USA now that have registered for that tax break. And yet, this isn't for everyone. In a country of vast distances, the 40 mile range that the car promises, could be nothing more than a neighborhood run-about. But you could be seduced by other incentives on offer too. Californians, for instance, get the additional incentives of access to the carpool lane, and special low prices on insurance and electricity when they drive an all electric car. So let's say that you are interested; how would you go about it? Converting at home is as popular as this, because the core components you'll need, the motor, the switching systems and batteries, are made in America by world-class companies. Perhaps American made cars have somehow slipped down the quality charts in the past couple of decades; but that hasn't anything to do with the quality of the components they are built of. American-Made components still rank as the best in the world, and you'll get some pretty great choices when you roll your own.
So when you get down to it, what ways does reality have of raining on your parade? Well, the $4000 price tag only applies if you choose lead acid batteries, and those will last you no longer than four years tops. These don't pack as much power in the weight and space they take up as, say, the lithium ion cells you see in a laptop. The Tesla roadster supercar for instance uses 6000 actual laptop batteries for power. If you opt for the lithium ion cell, they'll set you back about $10,000. However, that could still make a lot of sense, as they last around three times as long as standard lead acid cells, and will extend your range a hundred miles on a charge. But either way, this does sound a whole lot cheaper than what you pay for a factory-built Chevy Volt. If you do have the time and the patience to learn how to do the conversion yourself, or if you can pay someone to do it for you, this looks like the cheapest way to get going, for a long time.
Hybrid car technology isn't that old. It sells well, and new companies are entering the fray everyday. And yet, hybrid cars are already on their way out. You'd be hard-pressed to find a major car manufacturer anywhere, who wasn't planning on, or halfway there, with all electric car models of its own, with an eye to the future. Still, there aren't more than a couple of models actually at the dealerships yet, and it could be a year or more before more right here. The most promising American model, the Chevy Volt, for example, could actually take a year more to be manufactured in large enough numbers that you could expect to get your hands on one without too much trouble. And then, it'll cost you $40,000. Hot rodding cars, converting them with one or another fancy air filter, fuel injection system or the other, used to be a well-loved pastime in America, before cars became so hopelessly computer-controlled. It looks like the good times could be back again for those who like to mess around inside the hood of a car, because the US government is cutting you a 10% tax break if you will put up front the $4000 you need to convert your regular gasoline powered car into an all electric car.
A $4000 price tag certainly sounds a lot better than the ten times more it'll take to buy a properly-built brand-name car, doesn't it? That must be the thinking, because there are nearly 2000 cars in the USA now that have registered for that tax break. And yet, this isn't for everyone. In a country of vast distances, the 40 mile range that the car promises, could be nothing more than a neighborhood run-about. But you could be seduced by other incentives on offer too. Californians, for instance, get the additional incentives of access to the carpool lane, and special low prices on insurance and electricity when they drive an all electric car. So let's say that you are interested; how would you go about it? Converting at home is as popular as this, because the core components you'll need, the motor, the switching systems and batteries, are made in America by world-class companies. Perhaps American made cars have somehow slipped down the quality charts in the past couple of decades; but that hasn't anything to do with the quality of the components they are built of. American-Made components still rank as the best in the world, and you'll get some pretty great choices when you roll your own.
So when you get down to it, what ways does reality have of raining on your parade? Well, the $4000 price tag only applies if you choose lead acid batteries, and those will last you no longer than four years tops. These don't pack as much power in the weight and space they take up as, say, the lithium ion cells you see in a laptop. The Tesla roadster supercar for instance uses 6000 actual laptop batteries for power. If you opt for the lithium ion cell, they'll set you back about $10,000. However, that could still make a lot of sense, as they last around three times as long as standard lead acid cells, and will extend your range a hundred miles on a charge. But either way, this does sound a whole lot cheaper than what you pay for a factory-built Chevy Volt. If you do have the time and the patience to learn how to do the conversion yourself, or if you can pay someone to do it for you, this looks like the cheapest way to get going, for a long time.