A Build-It-Yourself Electric Vehicle 84
Taco Cowboy writes "Here's yet another exciting project for DIY geeks. Modi-Corp, a Japanese company, has just unveiled a new electric car that you can actually build yourself. Not to be confused with the Toyota 'Prius,' the DIY electric car from Modi-Corp is called 'PIUS.' It's a single-seat electric car that will be released next spring in Japan. The company hopes that the PIUS kits can be used as educational tools, expecting to sell them to universities and mechanical schools with the opportunity to have customizable parts embedded in the EV for testing."
Ariel Atom? (Score:4, Insightful)
Specs are 15 mile range and 21 MPH top speed. So we're not talking about a kit car, but a low end electric go kart. Seriously, the environment would be much better served if you went with an Ariel Atom since you're going to be killing the efficiency of everyone behind you or the inevitable towing when it only goes 13 miles on a charge after 6 months. I assure you, you will be much cooler and have a lot more fun to boot.
Re:A problem with electric cars (Score:4, Insightful)
So much THIS.
Mid 60's cars are the best electrical systems to work on. Though, I do tend to prefer to throw on the one wire HEI distributor and single wire internally regulated alternator from later years for even greater ease. Not to mention, inside all three or so wire connectors you have for lights, what do we have, regular, industry standard size spade terminals. Just so easy.
One of the top issues in the used car market isn't that cars aren't lasting mechanically. Many are mechanically good for 15+ years with minimal maintenance. Most issues I am running into are burned out electrical parts and bad wires. This is especially frustrating because the bad wiring issues are due to poor insulation quality, yet stuff 40 years old are still soft, pliable and without cracks. Same issue since the automotive industry jumped on lead-free solder. It's less the complexity and more the construction quality that has made ECU's a huge cash cow in the 5-8 year old car market. And here is another hint: a hall effect or other inductive pickup (Cam / Crank sensors) which is internally solid state by nature, should be UNBREAKABLE. If a solid hunk of plastic with x number of turns of insulated copper magnet wire wound around a soft ferrite core burns out, somebody either designed or built something WRONG.