It begins, my electric work truck

[Jims5543]

I was not kidding in the other thread about commuter cars.

I am seriously going to build an electric pickup truck.

I just got the truck, pics coming soon, its a 1993 Toyota Pickup with 240K miles on it and a blown engine. I got it for $250 and I am picking it up Friday.

I have begun looking at Batteries so far I have this but I am still shopping and doing lots of research as to what I need power wise and what I need engine wise. I found this Electric Motor but have not found a price yet. I suspect this is going to be my biggest expense.

I am meeting with a fabricator/friend tomorrow about working on this project.

Pics should be coming in this weekend I will keep you posted as to my progress, I am also welcome to any information or vendors you know of that might be helpful.

I am excited about this, each of my trucks run up about $600-$700 a month in gas bills alone. We drive from 40-80 miles a day so I hope to get a 100-120 mile range out of this truck. If I can save $600 a month and this costs me $6000 to build it will pay for itself in a year.

If it works I am building a second one and then a Small car for my wife to use.

[the]

If gas costs $600 per month, how can you save $600 per month by going electric? Do you get electricity for free?

[Jims5543]

I found this site as well.

http://www.electroauto.com/catalog/price-pts.shtml

the- tell me what you think it will cost me to charge this thing up overnight per night 5 nights a week. How much will a charger draw?

I had thought of that but to be honest, it has to be much cheaper than 23 MPG in my truck and 17 in the co-workers truck. It might take longer to become profitable for me but so what, I am one company that will no longer be using crude anymore.

gotta start somewhere and since none of the big 3 want to be bothered. I may as well try and do it myself.

[jyl]

Might contact this guy, built an electric vanagon. His blog has info on the motor, controller, batteries, etc he used.

http://e-vanagon.blogspot.com/

[Jims5543]

Here you go it will cut my operational costs i

How much does it cost to charge the car?

Energy usage usually works out to about .4 kWh per mile for DC systems, and .174 - .288 kWh for the more efficient AC systems. You can multiply this by your electricity rate to get a cost per mile. For example, if you pay $0.13 per kilowatt hour, this works out to a little over a nickel a mile for DC and about half that for AC. For comparison, gas at $2.00 per gallon on an efficient 25 mpg car works out to almost $0.08 per mile.

To look at total operating costs, you need to also factor in battery replacement at about 4 year intervals ($1,000 - $3,000) balanced against 4 years of tune-ups, oil changes, mufflers, starters, water pumps, radiators, etc.

I am still crunching numbers to see if this Electro Automotive route is the one to take or if I want to put this together myself. I have to do more research, I am wondering if I can cut the cost in 1/2 sourcing my own parts.

[Tobra]

contact otto at 914world, he is pacific NW, Oregon maybe

or check this
http://www.electroauto.com/catalog/kits.shtml#voltsporsche

they have generic, 914 and rabbit kits it looks like

oops, missed that link

[the]

Originally Posted by Jim Cesiro

the- tell me what you think it will cost me to charge this thing up overnight per night 5 nights a week. How much will a charger draw?

I have no idea, but I know it will cost something.

I think it really depends on where you live, how much you get charged for electricity, and if there are any penalties or surcharges for excessive usage.

I had a friend in California who had a 125 gallon saltwater reef tank. He was shocked (pun intended) to find that his electricity bill went from $60 per month to several HUNDREDS per month after he got the tank.

I want to say it went to around $600/month, but I don't remember the exact number. It was big enough to make him get rid of the tank. He said it was because of surcharges for high use, once he got over a certain level, the cost got way jacked up.

I'd think that charging up a monster battery pack that powered a pickup truck 80 miles, every night would suck quite a bit of juice.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by Tobra

contact otto at 914world, he is pacific NW, Oregon maybe

or check this
http://www.electroauto.com/catalog/kits.shtml#voltsporsche

they have generic, 914 and rabbit kits it looks like

oops, missed that link

Interesting link when you look at the little stuff like power steering and vacuum for brakes. You forget that stuff works off the engine.

[Jims5543]

70 miles x 0.4 kw = 28kw x $0.0522 per kilowatt hour = $1.40 per night to charge

$1.40 per night X 5 nights (typical work week) = $7.00 a week.

$7.00 week X 52 weeks = $364 a year / 12 months = $30.33 a month

Compared to:

70 miles a day / 20MPG (average of both trucks) = 3.5 gallons X $4.00 a gallon = $14.00 a day x 5 days = $70 week

$70 week x weeks = 3,640 a year / 12 months = $303.33 a month


$270 a month savings divided into $10,000 (est build cost) = Pays for itself in 37 months.

The next year will be gravy and the following year batteries will need replacement at a cost of $1000. 4 months later I am back in black.

The big bonus here which you cannot put a price on, I am not using gasoline anymore.




Source of my kwh rates:
http://www.fpl.com/rates/pdf/electric_tariff_section8.pdf

[Jims5543]

BTW - the, thanks for forcing me to work this out mathematically, it just convinced me this is the way to go.

I am putting this link here so I can read it tomorrow when I have time. off to bed.....
http://www.autobloggreen.com/category/american-electric-vehicle/

Another link electric car on a beer budget.

http://www.gassavers.org/showthread.php?t=386

[Danny_Ocean]

Originally Posted by Jim Cesiro

70 miles x 0.4 kw = 28kw x $0.522 per kilowatt hour = $1.40 per night to charge

28kw x $0.522 = $14.56.

[the]

Oops.

[Jims5543]

Damn, Danny your right I carried a decimal place when calculating this.

Now it comes out a wash.

Now I am angry, because I really want to get away from using gasoline and going electric. The only viable option now is to go with a A/C motor instead as it required 1/2 the recharge costs of a DC motor.

Or say hell with it and do the conversion and pay the same except I am not using gasoline anymore.

[Danny_Ocean]

Originally Posted by the

Oops.

I'm pretty sure he meant to post .0522, but that seems awfully cheap for electric here in FLA. There are also "base charges", "customer charges", etc. and the rate goes up if you go over a certain kw/h per month. Combined, it's most likely higher than .0522, but I don't think it's as high as .522.

Edit: OK...just dug out my FPL bill from last year. With all the fees, charges, taxes, etc., cost was .1822 per kw/h. However, I know rates have gone up since last year (don't have a current bill in front of me)...






...

[Jims5543]

Wait I was right, its 0.0522 per kilowatt hour or five cents not 52 cents I just typed it in wrong.

[Jims5543]

I could not find a FP&L Bill, wife handles home finances and I think she is paperless on it.

I did find a duke energy bill from NC and they are charging ten cents a kwh. so that 0.0522 might be more in the ten cents range after you add in all the other charges.

28 x .10 = $2.80 day vs. $14.00 a day for the truck.

That still looks good on paper.

[Danny_Ocean]

This looks promising:

http://www.chriskate.net/electriccar.html

[Danny_Ocean]

Just found my current FPL bill....

.15 per kw/h. Not sure how that happened...rates allegedly went up, but I'm paying less this year (unless the .18 was summer rates...bill was from July).

So...assuming you're with FPL, you'll be paying somewhere between .15 & .18 per kw/h.

[kstar]

Even if it was a wash and an electric car met my needs I would still do it.

I think what you are doing is great. IMO, I'd bet there are many more folks like you who are disgusted with the whole gasoline/oil issue and are taking similar action.

Perhaps these days of record oil prices will one day be remembered as the tipping point from oil to alternative energy.

Good luck! Pictures and build info are now required for this thread!

[Hawktel]

I'm with you Jim.

I live 400 yards from work. I started walking the other day.

I live 2 miles from the train station. I'm really considering buying this: http://urbanscooters.com/cgi-bin/urbanscooters/X-250.html?id=oaTytkMD for going to the train station, and riding it anytime I have to go to SLC.

This insane oil **** has to stop.