I got a new job and a new 12 mile commute right down I80 towards San Francisco. It's one of the worst commutes in the state. I was thinking that if I could get an electric or CNG car it would easily save me 1.5 hours a day (350 hours a year).

I found this page:

http://www.electroauto.com/index.html

The Volksporsche kit is like $9K and their parts list doesn't even list the batteries. Is there anyway to do a homebrew electric 914 job cheaper? I wouldn't even need the advertised 80-100 mile range. I easily live with half the range.

When you figure the battery cost, the car cost, the kit, and the time to build it a production electric looks much better. Too bad you can't buy them anymore.

Can individuals own CNG cars? They seem to usually be a fleet-only thing.

The hybrid cars are more effecient than than the CNG cars....the fueling is a bitch unless it is a fleet car and the company has it's own fuel station.

Electric cars ..... the big deal is the motor, then the electircs....any deep cycle six volt battery will do. They take and hold charges better than 12 volt.

You mean the gas/CNG hybrids? I've seen a couple of those in classified ads but I don't think they get me the benefit of the commuter lane.

I think they do allow the hybrids in the diamond lane.....we don't have any here in SB.....

There are a few electrics 914 on this page
http://www.austinev.org/evalbum/index5.html

Otmar have a nice one:
http://evcl.com/914/

And this lady is even racing one:
http://www.dgi.net/914/feat/electric1.html

All we need now is a category for the electric vehicules at the local solo events, I bet a 914 would be quite competitive.

Check out this google search.

http://www.google.ca/search?q=Electric+EV+...F-8&hl=en&meta=

Enjoy!

Looks like one of these projects costs $15-20K to complete. Those Corbin Sparrows don't look so expensive now. Too bad they filed chapter 7.

I did order the electro automotive instruction book for the conversion and it look quite straightforward. It is quite basic and many of the parts are for security. Over here in Quebec we got the cheapest electricity and the most expensive gas in North America. We should be the first on to go electric. The major problem is those nice cold winter we get.