Posted on 08/12/2008 7:02:35 AM PDT by Red Badger
WHITE BEAR LAKE — The ignition key is turned and all you hear is a “click.” For most automobile owners this would illicit a sinking feeling, followed by a scramble for jumper cables and assistance — for Thomas Birkeland, the “click” is a signal that his electric powered car is turned on and ready to roll.
Early morning bird songs and the sound of the neighbor’s sprinkler are clearly audible as Birkeland quietly backs his vintage 1974 Volkswagen Beetle out of the garage. He shifts out of reverse and then begins whirring forward down Lake Avenue on his daily commute to work at the Forest Lake environmental engineering firm Jacques Whitford NAWE (North American Wetland Engineering). Conspicuously absent is the distinctively loud clatter of the car’s original air-cooled, internal combustion engine.
Concerned about gas prices and the environment, Birkeland began conducting an internet search for electric vehicles and discovered that there just wasn’t much out there. He found that his options were limited to a “neighborhood vehicle” with a top speed of 25 miles per hour and, on the other end of the spectrum, the expensive hybrid vehicles currently on the market. So, with the help of Volkswagen mechanic Dave Kapan, he began the process of refurbishing and retrofitting the vintage car to run exclusively on electricity.
Birkeland chose the Volkswagen Beetle as a platform because he has always been a fan of its style and body. It has a simple design, and because of its lengthy production run (58 years, 21,000,000 cars produced) spare parts are plentiful and cheap. He also said he was able to find some conversion information on the internet because “a couple of other people” have also converted their VWs to run on electricity.
It took a year and about $7,000 to complete the restoration and conversion process. With six rechargeable, 12-volt, deep discharge traction batteries providing the power, the vehicle costs about three cents a mile to operate, produces zero emissions and doesn’t require the regular maintenance, such as oil changes, of a gasoline powered car.
The “Bug” currently has a range of about 20 miles (Birkeland is working on increasing the range) and has a top speed of about 55 miles per hour. “It’s just a great car for commuting and getting around town,” he said. On a test drive, it seamlessly merged into traffic on Hwy 61 and then accelerated north (past a gas station), while keeping pace with all of the other drivers on the road.
A charger is installed under the hood along with the batteries, so the vehicle can be charged anywhere there is an outlet. This feature came in handy earlier this summer when Birkeland overshot his range and began to lose power. “It doesn’t just stop, but gradually starts to lose power,” he said. He always carries an extension cord and was able to find an outlet after limping into a gas station. “Once you start looking for outlets, you start seeing them everywhere,” he said. After plugging the car in, he had a snack, read the paper and then was able to make the last leg of his journey home to White Bear Lake.
While not for everyone, the car definitely fills a niche and demonstrates some grass roots ingenuity that the major car manufacturers could, perhaps, learn a lesson from. “I just thought it was a good solution for a short (10-mile, round trip) commute,” said Birkeland.
He should be able to get at least 3 or 4 more in there..............
Well the Bug never had much of a heater anyway, so he won’t miss the heat during the coming Minnesota winter.
I hope he has some serious CCA batteries in that thing.................
Guess they didn't figure in the $7000 conversion cost into the fuel factor. Also the fact that he is stealing the electricity. Would it be any different if the paragraph started with: "Once you start looking for gas caps, you start seeing them everywhere,” he said. After putting in his plastic tube and started siphoning...
In keeping with your theme,
here’s more automotive news:
http://www.carlustblog.com/2008/08/car-lust—lotus.html
This is a “go-cart” I’d love to drive!
A retrofitted natural gas heater would work fine.. for winter.. Better keep it in the garage though.. lead acid batterys don’t like the cold..
A high performance golf cart would have been cheaper & more practical.
Shame the article never pointed out Minnesota winters means he either has to heat the batteries all day & night or just park it for 4 months out of the year.
4 months? What do regular people drive?.............
Nice idea, but during the Minnesota winter the cold will drop the battery capacity dramatically and he will be lucky to maybe get 10 miles per charge. My wifes hybrid Mercury Mariner has a considerable drop off in mileage when temperatures are below freezing especially in short trips as the gasoline engine is running almost constantly to keep the cold battery charged.
I’m sure he asked permission. They said he was in a gas station. Obviously someone’s going to notice your car plugged into their building.
Even so, it does represent a shift in the cost of driving from him to the station owner, so it wouldn’t be practical if a million people had cars like this.
Well that $7000 is alot cheaper than the $40000 estimate for the new Volt.
80->32 = 50% for lead acid
What a conscientious greenie.
$7,000 to convert to battery power. At an average of $3.50 a gallon, that's 2,000 gallons of fuel. A typical VW should get around 25 MPG (maybe more, maybe less depending on state of tune). Thats 50,000 miles he'll have to drive before he starts to break even on fuel.
Subtract the “hidden” cost of electricity to charge his batteries. It has to come from somewhere. If it's his home, how much does his monthly utility bill go up? And, what's the additional load on the grid (him, not so much, add millions of others like him, huge). If he's plugging in elsewhere, he's no better than a thief siphoning gas out of other peoples’ cars.
This is just a “kind of neat and quirky, but what's the point?” High School Auto Shop level project.
...B-b-but it’s GREEEEEEEN!!!...............
And....and....and....SUSTAINABLE too!!!!
As long as he can find an outlet...............IT'S FREE!!!!!!..........
So is he paying for this energy or stealing it?
My guess is he’s “borrowing” it.............;^)
He's in White Bear Lake, MN. That's a suburb of St. Paul, and only about 50 miles from the Grand Prairie plant.
Which means that no matter where he gets it, he's getting at least some significant portion of that “Green” power from.... wait for it..... wait for it....... here it comes........ a NUCLEAR POWER PLANT!!!!
I'll have to walk down the hall when I go back to work and get one of our Nuke Engineers to figure out how much fuel it's gonna take to power his little experiment to a nominal 50,000 mile break-even point. Oh yeah, he's "downstream" too.
So, he never has to change oil. That saves him what, maybe $50 per year? He still has to maintain the rest of the car, including brakes, tires, and the like. And he has a car that only he can work on, one that has major alterations which affect it's handling, braking, and safety (not that an old Bug is all that good in any of those respects). He has surely made a marginal car worse with his tinkering. If he should ever get into an accident with it, the other guy's lawyer will have a field day with his electric bug.
snow plow trucks
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