NBC News reports on electric car conversion shop
Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Volkswagen
Among the videos at the NBC News website, mostly of CEOs and political leaders, there is one video about a company that converts gas cars to run on electricity. This "tiny shop in the middle of Kansas," the NBC News reporter says, "turns out more purely electric cars than any other place in the U.S." The segment includes a 40-year-old black and white video from the Today Show, where the host says electric cars are nothing new, are not golf carts but real cars that operate on the streets. Lots of people are still trying to get that message out today.
I think conversion shops will soon be a thing of the past as the large auto makers become aware of the advantages of electric vehicles. The video includes a converted VW, but VW has said they plan to make every car with an optional hybrid drivetrain. VW has also said if all cars were a hybrid the auto industry would go bankrupt. So, while they might not have a great future, for now, converters do enjoy their moment in the spot light as literally the only source for a normal, affordable, electric car.
[Source: NBC News]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-11-2008 @ 1:49PM
Brian Hague said...
Well Kansas isn't that far away from Texas... wonder if he'll do my old S-10 pickup...
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2-11-2008 @ 2:25PM
MarkR said...
Lintton said, "I think conversion shops will soon be a thing of the past as the large auto makers become aware of the advantages of electric vehicles."
I tend to find my self on the other side of what you say for some reason and this is no exception.
If I were a betting man I'd bet you there will be more electric or electric hybrid conversion Auto shops 25, 50 years from now than there are today. People want to be "green" but people also like there classics. 15-20 years there will be a huge market to convert the cars from the 1950's all the way to the time we are totally off Gas. 15-20 yrs from now there will be a huge custom conversion market to convert hot rods of today to electric. All the Vette's, Stangs, Camaro's etc. etc. etc. There will also be a market for converting todays Trucks and 4x4's to electric and any other favorite flavor of automobile. Just look at the overall Auto market, the customization shop will never die. And it will be a long time before the electric conversion shops die, just watch it move under the custom shop banner. Please, Today there are only a fraction of number of the conversion shops 20 yrs from now. Not everyone will want to drive a car of the future they will want to drive the car of today or their youth with the technology of the future. Same as it ever was......
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2-11-2008 @ 2:29PM
Lad said...
If Firefly can bring their much-improved Pd technology batteries to market at a competitive price, that might make retrofit BEVs feasible.
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2-11-2008 @ 4:27PM
Andrew said...
I've meet Wayne (the guy who does the conversions) before and would like to give anyone interested in his conversion shop his website. www.ev-blue.com
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2-12-2008 @ 6:24AM
Lascelles Linton said...
MarkR, All good points but I don't think anyone is counting. Once the Volt, plug-in Saturn, plug-in Prius comes online, I would assume the market would be hurt. After that, if say, gas prices go up more, I expect car makers to just re-issue electric versions of their cars. That again, would hurt the conversion market.
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2-12-2008 @ 9:30AM
MarkR said...
I'll grant you there will be an interesting transition period but I wouldn't call the shops dead. Maybe dead as we know it, as with most business models you must change/evolve or die. And some individual shops will die, But there will be others to take there place with a new and better business model. Conversion shops will not totaly die its to new of a market. However ones that convert crappy old cars may have their days numbered. But then again the names you mentioned not one is a truck so the ones that convert s10's may have a few years left on their life. I wouldn't claim its dead until it actually is. I'd still bet they have a long life ahead of them.
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2-12-2008 @ 10:24AM
Lascelles Linton said...
MarkR, I think the main problem for conversion shops is Cost. Look at the cost of the Nano and the Air Car. It might be cheaper to buy an EV than to it will cost to do the conversion. We are talking about, to use an example, steel or bronze razors when the real problem is disposable razors from China :D Sure, if EV ramp up is slow and gas cars stay on the road, conversions shops should do better. If we are flooded with cheap EVs, major brand will just jump on the bandwagon, snapping on their frames to cheap Evs from over seas, killing the conversion market.
The conversion market really only works if the big automakers don't catch on. Think about it. They are buying the car, eating the automaker's profit, add on top of that, they take out the most expensive part of the car, the engine, then replace it with man hour and products, and must sell it back to the consumer at a reasonable price, comparable to original car anyway, all while losing the warranty on the car and in many cases the parent company saying what these guys are doing is dangerous. Auto industry's profit margin is RAZOR thin, I don't see how converters will put if off for too long.
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6-19-2008 @ 3:23AM
barfbag said...
The automakers don't want to sell us simple EVs, they want to give us hybrids overloaded with technology and luxury features that keep the price tag high and insure there will be a lot more maintenance than with a straight electric car.
VW said that with electric cars the auto industry would go bankrupt? well then I guess we don't need the auto industry as it is today, let them go bankrupt, and welcome the EV conversion shops! Hopefully they'll grow and take over the manufacturing plants of GM and Ford.
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7-03-2008 @ 1:15PM
Mic said...
I don't believe the conversion shops will die. As Mark R. said, the shops will adapt and the weaker ones will, indeed, die. The 'industry' won't. The major auto makers 'caught on' in the late '90's but didn't want electric to catch on, so they only leased cars and not only repossessed them at lease expiration, but destroyed them. People will eventually find that they can't afford the high price of gas or 'phony' hybrids that burn gas except on start up. If you go onto the highway, you're certainly going faster than 25mph. The hybrids actually have the same electric capability of the NEV's.
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