I'd consider one for commuting purposes

6/30/2008 3:39:01 PM

I had asked for this to be bttt to see the change in opinions with gas prices continuing to go upwards. I actually love the Aptera (the sperm). I have changed into willing to entertain a straight plug in and I'll keep my existing gas car for long drives.

7/1/2008 3:28:22 PM

one of my coworkers converted a '69 valiant into a plug-in.

it cost him about 10 Gs, and he has a range of about 70 miles per charge.

i'd love to do it as well, but i don't have the skills or the time to learn.

7/1/2008 3:56:06 PM

10000$ / 4$ = 2500 gal * 30 mpg = 75000 miles

7/1/2008 9:15:20 PM

true enough, but it would not be solely a financial decision.

there's also the "this is a fun project" aspect of it.

but either way it's a moot point for me.

7/1/2008 11:11:35 PM

I'm not sure how much fun it would be to drive a car not designed to be weighed down with hundreds of pounds of batteries

7/1/2008 11:30:10 PM

^^

Obviously not.

It's more of a financial disaster.

That's a lot of lead acid batteries to dispose of and maintain.

Maybe I should ask : What battery chemistry he choose?

[Edited on July 2, 2008 at 12:56 PM. Reason : .]

7/2/2008 12:55:28 PM

^^ He removed the engine, I'm pretty sure the cumulative weight of the batteries is less than what the engine was.

^ I dunno, I'll ask him. He's not a tree-hugger, so I'm fairly certain he isn't trying to save the earth here.

10Gs a financial disaster? maybe if you're making minimum wage.

7/2/2008 1:13:19 PM

The point is its prohibitively expensive to create a plug in hybrid due to the initial cost . This cost is quickly escalated with the cheap battery of choice (SLA) going bad every 3 years. I'm curious like I said as to what he chose. I don't think you could get a 70 mile range with SLA's unless you had a damn truck bed full.

7/2/2008 1:20:56 PM

Quote :

"He removed the engine, I'm pretty sure the cumulative weight of the batteries is less than what the engine was."

Yes you remove the engine but you're putting in 1-2 heavy electric motors.

7/2/2008 2:22:10 PM