EV ESCORT: WHY?
Click here for the CONVERSION LOG INDEX
Why build an electric car? Obviously, it's not for the fainthearted. I'm doing it for three reasons:
My formal training was in engineering, but for various reasons I've moved from product design to teaching. While I like teaching, the engineering desire: to design and build something useful, still burns. Let me say this at the start: this will be an engineering journel. It will deal with the practical problems of converting a car from gasoline to electric and how they are solved. If you're a person with no technical bent, you might find these chronicles tedious and boring.
The feasibility of building an EV was first demonstrated to my by the sites I found on the web. Jerry Halstead's EV conversion chronicles convinced me I could do it, because his log showed how all the problems were manageable and could be worked out. I linked up with Bob Batson at EVAmerica, partially because he came highly recommended from Jerry Halstead and partially because he's the only EV supplier on the East Coast. I've read three books on doing conversions: 'Convert it,' 'From Gasoline to Electric Power,' and 'Build Your Own Electric Vehicle."
In thinking about doing an EV conversion, the first question to ask was: will an EV work for me? After all the engineering and tinkering is done, would I have a useable car? Well, how far can I drive the EV on one charge? Bob Batson has software that can calculate the approximate range of an EV based on weight, motor, batteries, etc. When I sent him the data on my Escort, he reported back that my converted vehicle should have a maximum range of 60 miles, a typical range of 40 miles, and a minimum range of 30 miles.
I sat down and made a list of my most frequent trips. While my working commute is around 50 miles, when I get home there's shopping, going to church, going out to eat, visit my friends, visit my parents, etc. I made a survey of these trips and found the longest one was about 35 miles (round trip). I could use an EV as a second vehicle.
Then something even better happened: I talked with the people where I work, and they said I could plug my car in while I was at work. Since it's only about 23 miles to work, the car should easily travel that distance in Summer and Winter. This made the car feasible as a daily driver.
The EV will be my little way of helping to reduce pollution in the in the greater Philadelphia area. I commute into the city every day. My EV will mean one less gasoline engine filling the air with carbon monoxide and oxides of nitrogen.
I planned to do an Escort conversion because a number of them
have been done. I also favored the Escort because I owned one
back in the 80's and was generally happy with it. My car of
choice for a conversion would be a Saturn, but since the used
ones are still rather pricey, it seemed best to start with an
Escort. I picked up my 1987 Escort for $735.00.
Updated 2/26/00
Below are all the entrys for the EV Escort. Each is linked to the one before and the one after it. Each is also linked to this index and to my home page. You also see a link for the EV Schedule. This is a table of all the tasks associated with doing the conversion including estimated and actual completion dates and approximate costs.