Rick Raw: Electric Car–Why Wait, Build It Yourself–Patrick Roth did It

By Rick Grant Commentary rickgrant01@comcast.net

GM has promised that it will sell the Volt, an all-electric car, next year. Chances are it will be expensive. Patrick Roth from Indianapolis, Indiana heard about the GM model. He was driving a Lexus hybrid and thought that he could research building his own all-electric car. His reasoning was simple, he could build his own electric car cheaper than GM from available parts, even factoring in the cost fo the car.

After finding out that building an electric car would not be that difficult, he bought a 1998 Ford Escort and took out the entire engine, the gas tank, and the radiator, and ordered an electric motor and the other parts to connect the motor to the car. He worked in his car garage with regular tools and rented the special tools to complete the job like a small crane to hoist the engine out and place the electric motor into the car. He completed the job in six weeks.

Roth claims he has no special mechanical skills and is not an engineer. He created a video that details every step for anyone else who would like to tackle the project. The job does require some precision machining to adapt the motor to the transmission, but he outsourced that job. His step-by-step video was published on http://www.theindychannel.com/ media station in Indianapolis. (Search: "Man whizzes past gas stations..")

Roth bought the parts and regular Interstate batteries off the rack from local dealers. To make sure the batteries fit the compartment he had designated, he made mock-ups of the batteries out of wood. He also researched the legality of his self made electric car and it is perfectly street legal. And, his insurance company said they would insure it.

"It works great, actually. I’ve tested it on the highway up to 70 mph," Roth said. "It works out that I’m spending the equivalent of .75 cents a gallon," he went on to say.

Roth said everything works on the car including the power steering. It drives very smoothly and quietly. "If I can do it with no mechanical experience and no engineering degree, then anyone can do it. Just follow my step-by-step instructions. The total cost of the car and conversion was $13,000–far less than the Volt will cost.

Legendary singer / songwriter Neil Young converted an old 1959 Lincoln Continental convertible into an all electric vehicle. He then drove it across the country and wrote an album’s worth of songs about the experience. So, with some ingenuity, most anyone can build their own electric car.

So Patrick Roth says! Well, it’s worth looking into for the weekend mechanic. I don’t believe Roth doesn’t have mechanical experience, but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. I once built my own guitar amplifier. It looked easy, but it was tedious and frustrating.

After that experience, I bought a Fender Twin Reverb because my self-made amp sounded like crap. And remember those experimental kit planes guys built in their garages. Many of them crashed and killed the builder/pilot. Be warned, these projects are always more difficult than they look when you start to work.