Another Beetle to Become Electric!

Autopia's Matthew Redd, just released a story on the progress of their new dual project - a Beetle Restoration, and EV Conversion in his story - Our DIY Electric Car Slowly Comes Together.

Unfortuneately - it seems that they broke the basic EV Rule - Son't start with a Rusty Car! The Reason is simple for at least three reasons:
1 - It's really hard to weld batter boxes or racts and trays to a rusty car,
2 - Electric motors will likely run longer than the car at its best,
3 - EV Parts are still expensive - and now you have two expenses to deal with!

He Raised funds for his project by selling his old Mazda 626, but that left him without wheels! He was lucky though - in that he had a friend at ZEV Utah, that loaned him a set of wheels - an EV converted 1994 VW Golf!

About his ride - he says "My daily commute is 10 miles each way, and the e-Golf offers about 40 miles depending upon conditions. On most days it was no problem: the car had plenty of juice to get me to work and back and run a few errands on the side. There is no way that everyone could start driving electrics today, but there are plenty of people of us out there that drive short enough distance in a day that the range problem disappears."

I llike the part where he says "I test fit 10 batteries to see how the Bug’s suspension would handle the 700-pound load. The back end dropped 1.75 inches." which tells me he really needs to consider a small lithium Iron Phosphate Pack for his Beetle. Even my electricfly pack is just 400 lbs, and I am trying to make sure I keep the weight at or clost to that so the car can still cary people!