High school student Andrew Angellotti contacted AutoblogGreen last fall to tell us about his 1988 Mazda B2200 pickup truck that he converted into an electric vehicle, taking nine months to learn how to do it and getting seriously DIY on the project. Our friend at Michigan Public Radio, Dustin Dwyer, was able to spend some with with Angellotti and an update on the teen and his truck was broadcast this week. Angellotti put 20 "basically golf cart" batteries into his truck; most (16) take up lots of space in the bed. The batteries give him a 40-mile range from a 10-hour charge. Considering that the truck's heat originally came from the engine, the EV doesn't have a warm cab any more, which must make for some tough driving these days. Still, Angellotti is pretty darn happy with his homemade truck. As he told Dustin, "There were quite a few points during the project, during you know, kind of a hard part, I'd start thinking, you know, for six thousand dollars I could have a really cool car. But, you know, I woke up the next morning and I'm like, 'But nobody else is going to have an electric car. So I decided to keep going with it." We're glad he did.
Listen to the report here or read the transcript here.
UPDATE: Andrew was kind enough to send us some more pictures of his truck and, as you can see in the gallery below, he is making progress on his second conversion, a Toyota Tercel.
LATER UPDATE: Yes, he has a heater.
21. Nice job, don't listen to the wackos, batteries are easily recycled. Let's see, new batteries every 100K miles and recycle the old ones vs $1500 for a new timing belt and 40 or 50 oil changes for a diesel VW... tough choice! I'd buy a plug-in-electric in a minute. And so will many others - that's why the OEMs are pouring money and research into the technology.
Again, excellent work!
Posted at 9:46PM on Jan 21st 2008 by tommy