01-31-2012 Updated Estimates

One common question we get is "how much will a conversion cost?" We try to answer this on our web site by providing project estimates with various driving ranges.

Last year, we added the Federal Tax credit into these estimates and this year, as most of you probably know, the Federal Tax credit for converting your car to electric has expired. Though there is still some hope that it will get reinstated, the fact is, it's gone for now.

So, we recently made an update to our Estimates page to remove this tax credit and in doing so, refreshed a lot of the numbers. ThunderSky batteries seem to have fallen out of favor recently, so we replaced the batteries in the estimates with CALB. Of course, these estimates are only posted as examples to help you plan your conversion - there are hundreds of motor/controller/charger/battery combinations that you could use with our EV Miata kit and it would be pointless to try to document them all.

There was one anomaly that we wanted to point out before the emails starting coming in...

The 100ah DC estimate costs more and results in less range than the 70ah estimate.How could this be right? Well, there are two reasons for this -

1. Each ah rating uses a different cell size. We calculate how many of these cells we can comfortably fit into each battery pack. Some cells just fit better than others. The 70ah CALB cells happen to fit better than the 100 ah cells.
2. The motors/ controllers we use in the estimates have maximum voltages. This limits the number of cells in the pack. Now we do look at using "buddy" cells where appropriate - that is, wiring groups of two or three cells in parallel to reduce the overall pack voltage.We do this with the 40 and 70ah estimates for both AC and DC and 100 ah for the AC. 

Let us know if you have any questions in planning your conversion. We are here to help. sales@evmiata.com

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...