11-04-2011 Gadget and EV Miata on KRON4 News Weekend 11/5 @8:45

If you are near SF, tune into KRON4 News Weekend 11/5 @8:45. Gadget, of Left Coast conversions, will be interviewed on "Revenge of the Electric Car." We are providing our test car for the show and hopefully we'll get some air time as well.

09-19-2011 EV Miata Kit now supports AC

With our new revised Motor Mounts, the EV Miata kit now supports a choice of motors - DC or AC. AC provides improved efficiency over AC - plus regenerative braking.
AC components with a battery pack of 90 amp hour lithium batteries can power your electric Miata to 90+ miles on a single charge.
This revision provides support for the widest array of components available, truly making our EV Miata kit the dream solution for a conversion shop, school or EV enthusiast.

press release - EV Miata kit now supports AC and DC

09-12-2011 Visit us at the SVEAA Electric Car Rally and Show in Palo Alto, CA

If you can make it out to the San Francisco Bay Area on September 24th, the place to be is Palo Alto High (in Palo Alto, CA).  We will be attending the 39th annual Electric Car Rally and Show put on by the Silicon Valley chapter of the EAA.

It's a great show with production and custom built electric vehicles - bikes, scooters, cycles, cars, trucks - you name it. We'll be there with our car to answer questions and maybe even take a few people for rides.

Plus, we'll be doing a special giveaway to launch our AC support!

The rally is from 10:00 to 4:00 Saturday September 24th.

http://eaasv.org/rally.html

Hope to see you there.

09-07-2011 See us at the Green Car Expo - September 17

Come see us at this year's Green Drive Expo!

Green Drive Expo is home to the largest gathering of hybrid and alternative fuel vehicle owners from around the country.

Explore a full range of green alt transportation from concept cars to purchase-ready vehicles: • Richmond, CA: Sept. 17, 2011
http://www.greendriveexpo.com/

7-25-2011 Revised Motor Mounts

Even with vacations and sneaking off to the beach, we were able to get the next phase of our revised kit completed. The new motor mounts were designed, fabricated and installed for testing. These new motor mounts are intended to work with a number of different motors - AC or DC. There are two mounts - one on each side of the motor - and they securely bolt to the adapter plate on one side and the stock rubber motor mount pads on the other. The motor is then securely suspended above the subframe with the weight of the motor/transmission assembly placed squarely in the stock location.

          

As we mentioned, this is the next phase of our EV Miata Kit redesign - the first was to lower the front battery rack to make room for a new mounting bracket that will accommodate your choice of controllers and chargers. The new motor mount will allow for a choice of motors to be used as well. This opens up our kit to allow for choices in all the major components:

• Batteries
• Controllers
• Chargers
• and now, Motors

Testing of the new mounts is currently progressing. We expect to announce availability of the revised motor mount in the August/September time frame.

05-22-2011 Maker Faire update

The 2011 Maker Faire was a great event for us. I was a little concerned with our placement - well in the back of the fairgrounds, but people came out and found us and we had a lot of great conversations.
One suggestion was to do a build at the Faire next year. It's certainly possible, but I'm not sure if the casual observer would get as much out of it as seeing a completed conversion. Definitely worth considering, though. Maybe we could turn it into a conversion workshop and get some help with the assembly?  Now this is getting interesting...

05-17-2011 - Nice write-up on us at All Cars Electric

http://www.allcarselectric.com/blog/1059992_tesla-fun-for-think-prices-the-ev-mazda-miata-conversion#comments-area

05-16-2011 Meet us at the Maker Faire

We're excited to say we'll be at the Maker Faire in San Mateo again this year.  This is always a great event full of fascinating creations, inventions and things that shoot flames. We had a great time last time we exhibited there and look forward to another great event. If you are in the Bay Area this weekend, try to make it out - you won't be disappointed.

04-21-2011 Re-designed Web Site is LIVE!

We've redesigned the EVMiata.com web site to make it better looking and more functional. We made the home page flashier and with a digital newspaper feel. We added more details and images to the components pages and numerous improvements throughout.
We also added the ability to buy the Install Guide in advance of buying a kit. Now you can have a thorough understanding of what it takes to build an EV Miata kit before you even buy one! Plus the cost of the Install Guide is fully discountable from the purchase price of the EV Miata kit - what have you got to lose?
And that's not all, we also added the ability to download Chapter 2 of our Install Guide - Choosing a Donor Vehicle and Selling the Engine - for FREE! We don't even make you fill out one of those annoying forms - you click the button, it downloads.
So check out our new site and let us know what you think - > www.evmiata.com

04-05-2011 Luscious Garage offers conversion services for the EV Miata kit.

If you’ve been thinking about an electric Miata, but don’t want to tackle the conversion project yourself, Luscious Garage in San Francisco will do the work for you. Carolyn Coquillette, the owner of Luscious Garage, is a great proponent of electric vehicles and Luscious Garage has made a name for itself by specializing in hybrid repairs and plug in conversions, and hosting the Golden Gate Electric Vehicle Association. You provide the car, EV Miata kit and conversion components, and LG will do all the work. You simply pick up the keys and drive off in your clean, efficient electric sports car. And the introductory price for this service? A very reasonable $5,000. For more information, email contact@lusciousgarage.com

04-05-2011 New kit is ready to go!

Testing is complete and we are taking orders for the redesigned EV Miata kit. The redesign allows for a choice of controllers and chargers providing you more freedom to select the components that match your needs. The new Controller/Charger bracket will accommodate components up to 10.75” wide. 28.75” long and 6” tall. This bracket allows you to use your choice of DC controllers such as a Curtis 1231C, Zilla1K, WarP Drive and many others. Larger controllers, such as Evnetics Soliton1 or the mighty Zilla 2K, can also be accommodated by relocating the charger to the trunk.

This redesign is a big step forward for us, but not the final step. Our next redesign focuses on the  motor mount. The planned redesign of the motor mount will allow for a choice of motors to be used - DC or AC.

Stay tuned for updates on our progress.

01-09-2011 Let the testing begin!

The updates to the car are finally completed and we are pleased to say we are back on the road.

It seemed like a small project to swap the high voltage enclosure (top right in the picture) with the controller (bottom right), drop the nose rack down 2", and redesign the bracket for the charger and controller but vacation schedules and vendor issues got the better of us.

We'll be testing out the changes over the next month or so, while we update the install guide and the technical drawings used in fabrication. 

The new design will allow a number of different charger/controller combinations to be used with the WarP 9" DC motor.