After quite a bit of searching we finally found some plans which told us how to make electric cars... the problem was that after reading them we couldn't understand anything we read! It seemed that the author simply wanted to proved that he was smarter than everyone who was reading them. We continued searching and finally found some that actually told us in laymans terms how to make electric cars.



The plans told us the exactly what we needed to know and started out telling us what parts we needed. To start out we needed to find an electric motor on eBay, 10 - 12 deep cycle 12 volt batteries, some electronics from radio shack (or the source), and some nuts and bolts to put everything together.

The motor was no problem, we found it the first time we went on to eBay for about $65 (including shipping). I'm sure you're thinking that 10 or 12 deep cycle 12 volt batteries was going to cost at least $1000, but you'd be wrong. You see, they found a way to find free batteries. I thought it was awesome. I went to the "secret place" and found the first 7 batteries I needed right off the bat! I went to the other "secret place" and found 10 more! So I had 5 spares just in case something went wrong.

I asked my friend to help me take the engine and transmission out (not as hard as you think, they're only connected by a few bolts), and to help me mount the electric motor to the drive shaft. The whole process took a couple hours and it was starting to look really cool. We made some mounts that went on top of the electric motor where we would mount the batteries. After wiring them all together we were ready to assemble all of the electronics.

This part was what I feared, but I was able to do it in about an hour. All that really needed to be done was to hook the gas pedal up to a potentiometer (this controls how much electricity flows to the motor) and then hook the batteries and electric motor up to it so we can control the flow of electricity. You can also hook up an amp meter inside the car so you can see how much electricity you still have left.

I love my electric car. It costs me nothing every month to have it, and people who aren't off the grid usually pay about $20 a month to drive per month. For most people that's a savings of about $150. I'd say it's well worth your while to consider learning how to make electric cars.