Thursday, July 3, 2008

Purchased Used Chevy S-10

This is my latest project. Its a 1998 Chevy s-10 that I purchased on the 3rd of July. I am converting it to an electric vehicle. NOT a hybrid...pure electric. That's right, no gas required...ever. I plan to document each day of the conversion here and I will mark each conversion related post with a work session number and approximate working time expended.

Some of you may ask, "But what about your Porsche 914 that you are converting to electric?" Well, the Porsche is an ongoing project that requires lots of rust repair and body restoration before it will be ready for conversion. As most of you know I am impatient and so I decided that I wanted to start a conversion right now. Hence...the Chevy S10. I gave the Porsche to the kids and am continuing to work that project with them (slowly). I'll try to continue to update the Porsche blog as time permits.

Also, I am helping my good friend Jared convert a Porsche that he recently purchased. It's in much better shape than mine and should be a great electric vehicle when complete (this year).

Why do I want to convert perfectly good vehicles to electric? The answer for me is simple... I want to reduce my dependencies on "things" that I have to have where I have absolutely no control over the price I must pay. I can't live (comfortably) without transportation which means I must pay whatever "they" want for gas. However, with an electric vehicle I can meet most of my day to day driving needs for very little cost in electricity which I can even generate myself with solar panels on the roof of my house. Yes I will pay more now (approx. $15K total) but I will recoup my costs in a couple of years at current gas prices. But its not just about the money...its the principle that I have no control over what I MUST pay.

Sorry for the diatribe... :)






1 comment:

suzyclayson said...

Hi Kurt,you never cease to amaze me! If I were to draw a cartoon of you, I'd put a squirrel running as fast as he can on a wheel in your brain!:)
The Chevy looks in great shape. Good luck! love ya, mom