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Frequently Asked Questions

BulletIs electric drive the best "green" vehicle technology?

Absolutely. Electric engines are far more energy efficient than other types of engines; you get more distance traveled for every joule of energy spent. A typical well tuned and maintained heat engine (gasoline, ethanol, etc) has a mechanical efficiency of around 20%. That is only 20% of the energy stored in the fuel makes it to the drive train. Typical efficiencies for electric 3-phase induction motors are above 80% and can be over 95%. Another major advantage is electric motors don’t care where the power comes from. This means you can any electrical storage/production source to power an electric vehicle. To name just a few: batteries, hydrogen fuel cells, super capacitors, solar cells, and generators.

BulletCan I buy a kit and do this conversion myself?

There are many websites selling do-it-yourself, DIY, kits for electric vehicle conversion. Here are the reasons I believe electric vehicle conversion should be handled by professional installers:

BulletWhat about the water powered car I keep hearing about?

This is mostly a hoax. I will try to keep this short, but there is a long list of reasons this technology has never been seriously considered. Let me explain the technology. The idea is that water can be broken down into oxygen and hydrogen; these two elements can then be captured and fed into a hydrogen combustion engine to power the vehicle. This is true and was demonstrated by many inventors and enthusiasts for the past 100 years. These two facts are responsible for all the hype around this technology. The problem is one of physics. The first law of thermodynamics states “In any process, the total energy of the universe remains constant.” This means that in any reaction energy is neither created nor destroyed, it merely changes form. Now armed with this physical law of nature, we can reexamine this technology. It requires energy to break water into hydrogen and oxygen. This process is accomplished with electrolysis which requires the input of electricity. So these types of vehicles truly run on electricity since they require it to start the process. So with the input of electricity, the water changes form from H2O into H2 and O2. These to elements are highly explosive together and turn back into water. So in essence the energy input from the battery is partially reclaimed by the explosive reaction by which the H2 and O2 react to form water again. A hydrogen combustion engine has a typical heat engine efficiency of about 20%. So the bottom line of this kind of vehicle is that you turn less than 20% of the battery energy you spent into distance traveled. If you just hooked that battery up to an electric motor you could get more than 90% of your battery energy turned into distance traveled. So to come full circle, this kind of vehicle is a hoax because of its extremely inefficient use of energy and massively dangerous hydrogen combustion engine.