Untitled - ev-bg.com

Chapter 4: The Best Electric Vehicle for You 81Fi g u r e 4-5 Bradley GT II kit car electric vehicle.someone handle the entire conversion for you, you can convert to an electric vehicle fora very attractive price compared to buying a new EV.Converting Existing VansWhile large vans, such as Sacramento Municipal Utility District’s (SMUD’s) convertedGMC van (shown in Figure 4-6), make great test-bed vehicles for the utility companies,they are heavy, more expensive to buy, take longer to convert, give less than adequateafter-conversion performance, and cost you more to own and operate. For thesereasons and others, you will never find an 8,000-lb. van recommended in this book asa potential conversion candidate. On the other hand, minivans—particularly thenewer, lighter models—offer intriguing prospects for conversion, and you can lookfurther into them as your needs require. But vans in general, even minivans, areusually more expensive, heavier, or take longer to convert than other chassis styles, soinvestigate before you invest.Some Conversion ExamplesThere are a ton of vehicles that are immediately available for car conversions and itwould triple the pages in this book to cover them all. We’ll just look (for eye candy) atan electric Rolls Royce, but the principle is simple: you can convert an existing car tosomething new!Figure 4-7 shows Paul Little’s custom-built electric Rolls Royce with a standard(Centurion) body. The vehicle uses a 2,000-amp controller that moves this shipeffortlessly around town or on the open road. He even keeps all of the amenities likepower brakes, power windows, video screen, automatic transmission, and air