Electric Cars For Sale

So you've been researching and looking into the full process of an electric vehicle conversion, and your actually interested in an EV car now. You've read the 'How To Build An Electric Car From Home' guides, and are a little overwhelmed by the fact that you will be replacing your entire internal combustion engine with an electric engine. Don't be hard yourself, it's a big step to take if you are going to build an electric car from scratch, but you still have plenty of options. You can own your very own electric car without having to do all of the work yourself.

+++Follow the link to learn how to convert from gas to electric car+++

But where should you start? You can shell out some serious dough at a dealership if you happen to know of one nearby and get a brand new electric car. Believe it or not, you can actually find quite a few electric cars for sale on eBay, and there may be some in your area if you look on Craigslist. You may not think buying a car would be very safe on eBay, especially if it has to be shipped to you, but they've really stepped up their game recently in how they deal with car sales, and there are quite a few dealerships that are selling cars on eBay and providing perfectly safe shipping methods. There are even a couple websites out there dedicated to those interested in buying and selling electric cars.

You can check out eBay's electric car listings here: http://green.ebay.com/green-driving/electric-cars-trucks
And also check out the EV Tradin' post website here: http://www.evtradinpost.com/ they have a lot of homemade projects and many relatively cheap electric cars for sale.

I really like how many different vehicles people have been using to do some of the homemade electric car conversions on, like the Volkswagen Karmann Ghia and some of the Porsches I have seen on EV Tradin' post. One of the problems a lot of people have with buying an electric car is that as soon as you hear the words 'electric car', many car enthusiasts cringe at the words because it just doesn't sound like it would be a cool car. Sure you would be doing good for the economy, but a lot of people's choices when it comes to which car to buy often comes down to the styling and looks of the car.

Not all electric cars have to look like these!

Not only do many people prefer the styling options of a homemade electric car, but the electric car conversion kits and labor to get it installed often cost thousands, even sometimes tens of thousands of dollars cheaper than to go out to a new car dealership and buy a manufactured electric car by Nissan, Chevrolet, Toyota, etc. While you can buy some brand new electric cars for around the $30,000 price tag, many, more sportier ones by companies like Tesla and Fisker cost a hefty $100,000!

While we can't wait on the technology for longer driving ranges to become available to the public at a decent enough price to have affordable, long-range cars, I can show you that we do have the technology to produce a homemade electric car that can go fast! Check out my post on the White Zombie Electric Car

Click here for more electric car information

White Zombie Electric Car

How fast can electric cars go? Ever heard of the White Zombie Electric Car? Because if you are conditioned to the idea that all electric cars must be slow and boring, this car is the electric car that will change your mind!

The project started out as a 1972 Datsun 1200. While the White Zombie is known for tearing up the drag strip in NHRA class races, it is fully street legal to drive around anywhere! How fast can this car really go? It's two best times were done on different battery setups. With lead-acid batteries it was able to pull an 11.882 quarter mile at just over 109 mph! If you think that was fast, wait until you see the time it got on a lithium-ion battery set up: 10.258 at a whopping 123.8 mph! It's amazing how much more power was able to be supplied to the wheels by just using a different battery setup.

So what are the some of the specifications on the White Zombie electric car? Well like I said before, it's body is a 1972 Datsun 1200. It has a customized electric motor, which actually incorporates two nine-inch motors combined together. It utilized a direct-drive drivetrain, meaning that there is no transmission, the power is supplied directly to the wheels. There is no shifting required at all. It's custom built battery pack supplies 355 volts and 2,400 amperes, and is able to hold 22.7 kWh of energy. It plugs into a industrial standard 240 volt supply to charge up. The top speed of this monster is 129 mph, and has a driving range of between 90-120 miles, depending on the driving conditions, and whether in-town or on the highway.

Check out this video of one of the White Zombie's faster runs a few years ago. Remember that the setup in the Datsun is a direct-drive, so the shifting you hear is from the car it is up against!

Electric Car Parts - What You Need To Covert To Electric

If you are interested in learning how to convert your everyday gas car into a full electric car, check out this easy to follow ebook

There are quite a few options out there when it comes to electric car conversions. Some companies will provide full electric car conversion kits, and some will provide different electric car conversion parts, so that you can convert your car to your own tailored specifications. Some variables you will encounter is the weight and size of your car, and how short of long of a range you want to be able to drive between charges. In this post, I will discuss the three main electric car conversion parts that will be required.

1. The Electric Motor. This of course, in most cases, will replace the internal combustion engine that powers your car. The electric motor will be connected to your stock transmission and drivetrain, and is what provides the power to the wheels to get your car going. In an electric motor, there is only one moving part that generates the electricity required, whereas in an internal combustion engine, there can be hundreds of moving parts. This means that as long as you have a good electric motor, they will be very reliable in the long run and require very little maintenance.
2. The Electronic Controller. In most internal combustion engines, the accelerator pedal (throttle pedal or gas pedal) is mechanically connected to the throttle body, which controls the amount of airflow coming into the engine. The farther the pedal is pressed down, the more air and fuel is allowed into the engine's combustion chamber, making your car accelerate faster. The purpose of the electronic controller is to incorporate the throttle body effect to the electric motor, since there is no airflow or fuel mixture inside the electric motor. The electronic controller will replace the mechanical aspect of the throttle pedal, keeping the same effect, though. The more you press down on the pedal, the more electricity is produced, making the car accelerate quicker.
3. The Battery. The battery is what stores the energy provided to the electric motor, just like they store energy for our cell phones, laptops, TV remotes, etc. With an electric car conversion, you can have multiple batteries interconnected to each other. The more, higher quality batteries your system has, the farther you will be able to travel without having to plug in and charge the system.

These are the three main parts involved in an electric car conversion kit. There are a few other pieces that are required, such as the wiring of course, and the adapter plate to connect the electric motor to your car's factory gearbox or transmission. We will get more in depth about the rest of the parts in a later post, and also look out for a complete how-to guide coming soon.

As always, if you enjoyed this information or learned something valuable with it, please share it with friends and family, and feel more than welcome to leave a comment. You can also subscribe to my blog to get the latest updates by email. 

Welcome to DIY Electric Car Conversions

Welcome to my website, DIY Electric Car Conversions! Here I will provide resources and tutorials for those of you who are interested in learning how to convert your gas car to electric.

I will show you where to find the best electric car conversion kits, as well as review some individual parts and compare brands for those of you who want to piece together your own electric conversion kit.

Why convert my car to electric?

Before converting my car, my tank cost me just over $80 to fill my tank. Keep in mind I live in California where gas prices tend to be a little bit higher, and having a car that requires 91 octane premium gas doesn't help that fact. So at just over $4 a gallon, plus having to commute a 60-mile round-trip to school and back four days a week, plus get me to work and around town whenever I needed something, you can see how quickly the money flows right through my gas-guzzler.

While there are many electric car conversion kits out there, you can get them economically priced started at just a couple hundred dollars. So for the price of 2-3, maybe even 4 gas tanks, you could completely eliminate the cost of gas from your budget. What would you do with all that extra money?

Most of the conversion kits are pretty straight-forward and fairly simple to install, but I still recommend that you have same basic understanding of the mechanics of the automobile just to be safe. Either that or you can have a friend help you out, and perhaps even convince him/her to do the same!

I hope you learn a lot from this website, and if you eventually decide to convert your car after researching all that goes into it, please come back and share with me and my other readers your experience! If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comment box at the bottom, and if you found any information useful, please share it with your friends and family.

Learn the basic parts involved  at The Main Electric Car Parts