Photo by bigfootmedia. Licensed under Creative Commons license 2.0.

This fall, the Advanced Automotive Electronics (AAE) group in the UK will host AAE2008, a one-day conference about vehicle electronics system design and development. While that may not sound like something totally in line with greener driving, there will be at least one presentation that would likely attract the attention of our regular readers: Barry Shrier, CEO of Liberty Electric Cars (these guys), is going to predict the end of the ICE.

Unsurprisingly for a CEO of an electric car conversion company, Shrier expects that internal combustion engines will be replaced on a wide scale by electric motors. His talk will focus on how legislation, customer awareness and technology all impact EV adoption. Shrier's is not the only speech that we'd like to sit in on. There will be a panel on "Environmental constraints – help or hindrance to automotive electronic design," and 14 other technical seminars.

[Source: AAE2008]

How can we figure out how much potential electric car buyers are willing to pay for their battery-powered rides? Why not just ask them?

That's what Liberty Electric Cars did at the recent Eden Project 'Green' Car Show. Liberty conducted "in-depth interviews" at the show and found that green car fans are willing to pay up to 30 percent more for a car if it's powered solely by electrons. That's a huge premium that at least some in our little community are willing to fork over. On a $20,000, for example, that's six grand, and 65 percent of the people Liberty interviewed said the 30 percent extra is no problem. Forty-five percent, though, said that smaller, less powerful, "city" cars would not be acceptable. I guess that means that 55 percent think that the Th!nk City (pictured) would be OK, which is good.

Liberty Electric Cars is the company that's working to convert Range Rovers to EVs. More info after the jump.

[Source: Liberty Electric Cars]

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Take £30 million, create 250 jobs and end up with "tens of thousands" of new electric vehicles in the UK. This is the plan of the new company Liberty Electric Cars Ltd. Liberty announced today that it will be converting many currently-existing large luxury cars and 4 x 4s (SUVs) into electric vehicles - starting with Range Rover models - and sell them for between £95,000 and £125,000 ($187,000 U.S. to $246,000). Liberty Electric Cars made the announcement at the Eden Project Green Car Show.

The battery technology that Liberty will use in these luxury EVs was not disclosed, but it will be "state of the art energy storage and management systems" that will give the vehicles "extended driving range and shorter recharge times." On the electric Land Rover, that means a range of around 200 miles. Whatever the system looks like, Liberty says it will offer the technology to other automakers. ETA on these expensive rides? N/A. More details after the break.