Monday, August 25, 2014

Origins

A brief history of how and when the car came into being

It was the summer of 2008 that I bought a 1972 Porsche 914 with the intent of converting it to a purely electric car. I drove it around as a regular gasoline car that summer and fall, while collecting the parts I needed to convert it to electric. Finally, in January 2009 I was ready. I advertised the internal combustion engine for sale and left it in the car until I had a buyer, so they could see it run. As soon as I had a buyer I pulled the engine and thus began the conversion process that very weekend.

I couldn't have done it without my helper:
I pulled the engine on Feb 1, 2009. After three months of working evenings after my family went to bed and most weekends (roughly 300-400 hours in total), I drove the electric car out of the driveway on April 30, 2009.

I put over 12,000 electric miles on the car over the next couple of years until the original lead acid batteries would no longer hold a charge. They were messy. They were heavy. I couldn't stomach replacing them with the same bulky, outmoded blocks of lead from which emanated corrosive fluids. Lithium was the new technology, lighter and more efficient, with the promise of longer life. Lithium was also more  expensive. Way more expensive. I couldn't afford Lithium batteries. And so the car has sat ... until now.

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