Not all electric conversions are small Geo Metros, Volkswagens or Porsches. For sale on the San Francisco Bay Area Craigslist, here, is an eVolvo. It's a converted 1995 Volvo 850 sedan. It's got new batteries and new low rolling resistance tires. The seller claims a range of about 40 miles with 15 kWh of lead acid batteries. Asking price is $14,000. Searching through the EVAlbum database, a useful resource with over 1,500 electric vehicles listed by their owners, one only finds three Volvo conversions in the U.S., including, I believe, this car listed by its previous owner in Seattle.

For Volvo fans awaiting the ReCharge plug-in hybrid, we've previously reported about, this could get you into an electron-driven Swede today.

[Source: Craigslist]

Toyota made the electric RAV enticing but it is now unavailable. Ever wonder what a regular old gasoline RAV4 converted into a electric RAV4 would be like? Some folks have taken matters in their own hands. A RAV4 in Oregon converted to electric drive is up on eBay. Take a look.

The NiMH batteries that propel the Toyota-built EV over 100 miles on a charge are, of course, unavailable on the open market. (Wikipedia has an entry on the much-debated "Patent encumbrance of NiMH batteries.") Using lead-acid batteries, this car has less than half that range. But as GM keeps hammering home with its Volt commercials, the average car drives under 40 miles per day. This conversion's claimed range is over 40. The lead acid make this EV affordable compared to the $50,000+ RAV4 EVs that pop up on eBay from time to time. The Buy It Now price is just $22,000.

[Source: eBay]

One of the most common beliefs about the Tesla Roadster is that it's an electric Lotus Elise. The reality is that the Roadster is a descendant of the Elise but, as Darryl Siry so forcefully documents on the Tesla blog, it's a very different car. The Tesla used the Elise as a starting point because it's one of the lightest and best-handling sports cars in the world. The chassis of the Elise is made up of bonded aluminum extrusions and the basic design makes it relatively easy to modify for different applications. For an electric car with a nearly 1,000lb battery pack, minimizing the rest of the mass of the car was critical. By the time the electric powertrain and battey were added, few of the mechanical bits of the Elise were left. When I visited Tesla in January to drive the car they told me that about 15 percent of the Elise components were carried over with the rest being modified or all-new (mostly the latter). According to Darryl the number is actually be seven percent by part count. Regardless of the actual number, the fact is that this is a very different car although it does retain some of the character of the Elise, only a lot quieter. In spite of some "luxury" upgrades, this is still a pretty bare bones and hardcore sports car. Other than the Elise/Exige, you won't find a much more direct driving experience in a full bodied road legal car anywhere. It's not an electric Elise, but the heritage is there and nothing to be ashamed of.


[Source: Tesla Motors]

Travis Gintz from Portland, Oregon is currently working on converting a 1986 Honda VFR from gas to electric power. He's using a DC motor from Advanced DC, twelve 12-volt lead-acid batteries and other assorted electronic pieces, including a 600 amp motor controller. With this setup, he's planning on being able to get up to 70 miles per hour or so but the range is undetermined thus far. He managed to get lots of free stuff and managed to find good deals on the rest, so his conversion is moving along quite nicely. His VFR is currently stripped down and awaiting the installation of the motor and batteries, so this would be a good time to start following his progress. We'll keep you updated when his project is completed, so stay tuned for more.

[Source: eVFR]