Insight EV conversion: Something new?

[Yves M.]

There is this site that I have made a bookmark of and keep checking on every month:
http://ev.whitecape.org/insight

It ends with: "To be continued..." but seems to be dating from 2003 and has not changed.

Does anyone know who it is and if there have been more work done on the car (AC, heating,regen....)?

[Philosophy]

Neat site, thanks for the heads up.

I've thought ever since I got my Insight that their resale value would be buffeted by a lot of people buying them for EV's down the life of the vehicle. I've seen 250k+ mileage Insights on eBay and thought that was a perfect use for them... cool
-Philosophy

Hi Yves:

___Someday there will be a real battery breakthrough and the Insight being a car light enough to make a practical long range EV might be the car of choice. I personally could not deal with a < 200 mile automobile as most are today but when they are capable of around 400 + miles, look out! That is if they do not cost $42,000 < 200 mile range RAV4-EV or $400 - $500/month (I think that is what they leased them for?) EV-1 did

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes
___Hunt Club Farms Landscaping Ltd.
___[email:27jumnup]Waynegerdes@earthlink.net[/email:27jumnup]

[ElectricTroy]

I thought "John Wayland" from honda-hybrid already HAS an electric Insight?

Actually I think the Insight is Wayland's only gas powered car.

[james]

I wonder why they don't go for a grid-rechargable hybrid, rather than a pure electric. Stuff in enough batteries to handle 40 miles or whatever the average daily commute is, then have the gas engine that can come on for long trips, or hill climbing & freeway entry. Almost the mirror image of the Insight, in fact.

[Rick]

No Wayland has a couple of electric Datsun's he's converted. I got to see the White Zombie in person when NEDRA did it's last meet here in Phoenix a few years ago.

Don't quote me on this, but I heard that the person with the electric insight linked to above has the Lithium batteries in the car for a while now, and has something like a 300 mile range.

Hi Rick:

___300 miles on a charge? That is getting darn close to real world gasoline only automobile range. What does a stack of these cost for that kind of range anyway?

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes
___Hunt Club Farms Landscaping Ltd.
___[email:3u2wjhvh]Waynegerdes@earthlink.net[/email:3u2wjhvh]

[clett]

I think I read somewhere that he was using Thundersky LiIon. If that's the case, and he's got about 50kWh of batteries in (guessing 6 miles per kWh) and cost is about $400/kWh (price has gone up recently - it was $250 - supply and demand kicking in?), then that's a whopping $20,000 for the batteries. The same range using 18650s would cost about $12,500 at today's rates.

Hi Clett:

___Thanks for the info … We are not there yet

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes
___Hunt Club Farms Landscaping Ltd.
___[email:11fg0j1b]Waynegerdes@earthlink.net[/email:11fg0j1b]