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90 Build Your Own Electric Vehiclecan. There is also a lot of useful material online (in other words, surf the Net!). Go tomeetings, shows, and rallies. Most of all, talk to people who have already done aconversion. If you listen to what they say, you will soon discover there are more opinionson how to do an electric vehicle conversion than there are snowflakes in the knownuniverse. Then integrate all this information and make your own decisions. After you’vedone your first conversion, you’ll notice a new phenomenon—people will start listeningto you.How Much Is This Going to Cost?Now we come to the part where, as they say, the rubber meets the road—your wallet.Let’s look at an actual quote, then add vehicle and battery costs and analyze the results.While you should not consider these costs the last word, you can consider them typicalfor today’s EV conversion efforts. In any event, they will give you a good idea of whatto expect for a 144V car system.Notice also that the professionals such as Electric Vehicles of America, Inc. tell youwhat performance you can expect, when you’re going to get it, how much it’s going tocost, and how long the quoted prices are valid. Be sure you get the same information, inwriting, out of any supplier you choose. It is important to select the components thatwill perform as a system. Don’t expect to buy random components from the Internetand then get them to function properly as a system. In addition, professionals should beavailable after the sale to assist you with any problems. Bob Batson of Electric Vehiclesof America, Inc. has stated that their services remain with the converted vehicle. Soeven the second, third, or fourth owner of his conversions is assured of his professionalservices.Table 4-3 adds the pickup truck chassis and battery costs to the quote shown inFigure 4-15 (the Typical column); shows what savings you might expect with a usedand older chassis (the Economy column); and shows what extra costs to expect whenusing the latest new chassis and a few extra bells and whistles (the High or customcolumn). The Typical column summarizes the 1987 Ford Ranger Pickup EV conversiondetailed in Chapter 10.Amounts you might obtain for selling off the internal combustion engine componentswere omitted from the comparisons; you can expect the vehicle costs to be lower if youdo sell them.Conversion for Fun and ProfitDarwin Gross drew a picture of a two-seater sports car EV on a napkin over lunch oneday and said, “You could sell that for $4,995.” My own scribbling on the napkin(aluminum tubular frame, plastic body, thin/hard high-pressure tires, no powersteering, heater, optional fabric top, motor, controller, batteries, etc.) led me to a moresobering $9,995. But I’m talking about a TR3-sized sports car that could whip a TR3 à laBertone’s Blitz—a mouth-watering idea. In thinking more about it later, if a personapplied the Dr. Paul MacCready technique and optimized on cost, such a vehicle is notonly energy-efficient and high-performance, but very reachable. Think of it as a “poorman’s Impact.” And if a MacCready-style team was brought together to accomplish it,you’d have a working model on the streets within a year or so. Somebody’s going tomake a lot of money on this, or something just like it. You heard it here first.