What do you get when you cross a Geo Metro with an electric forklift, a golf cart, and a bunch of used batteries? You get a ridiculously inexpensive, home-built, street-legal electric car.
This battery powered grocery getter was built by Darin Cosgrove and Ivan Limburg, of Brockville, Ontario. The friends were looking for a project to do in Limburg’s new workshop, and set their sights on building an EV after reading about a couple of DIY electric car conversions on the web.
Since neither of them had tackled anything quite like this before, they were wary of breaking the bank on what amounted to a rolling science project with a questionable outcome. So they bought all their parts & supplies second hand, and scrounged a few for free. They even recovered some of their costs by selling left over parts as they went along…
- They sold the Geo’s engine and its recently replaced gas tank through an online ad - you don’t need either of those in an EV!
- Most of the electric parts came from an old, used forklift they bought for $500. After removing its four DC motors and control module, they got most of their money back by selling the 16,000 lb chassis to a metal recycler, and one of the extra motors to another EV builder.
They caught a big break when it came time to get the car’s lead acid batteries.
“We met another EV owner who liked what we were doing, so he gave us a bunch of used batteries he had just replaced in his own EV,” says Cosgrove.
But the second hand lead has a downside: they probably could have doubled the distance the car could go on a charge if they had bought new.
The Metro’s small 48 volt battery pack is a major clue as to how they were able to keep costs so low: Cosgrove and Limburg built the car with ridiculously modest specs. With just eight 6 volt batteries and a motor controller from a golf cart, it’s an understatement to say the electric Metro doesn’t go very fast or very far.
But they say it does just fine as a neighbourhood runabout on the quiet streets of their small city. And by aiming low, they were able to avoid the pricier components and extra batteries needed for a more powerful, highway capable EV.
Their forklift motor driven Metro passed inspection and went on the road a few months ago. Since then it has gone more than 650 kilometers (400 miles) without using a drop of gas… or oil (hey - it was a 16 year old Geo engine after all).
Cosgrove reports a top speed of 65 km/h (40 mph), a range of 15 to 25 km (9 to 15 miles) on a charge, and says it costs about 3 cents per km (4.8 cents per mile) to run on renewably sourced, clean electricity. (For comparison, Limburg figures his gasoline powered compact pickup truck costs 12 cents per km to drive.)
While it’s fair to say the electric Metro’s performance won’t cause any worry over at Tesla Motors, you can also be sure its builders aren’t losing much sleep about car payments either.
More information about the $672 electric Metro:
- -> Read the detailed conversion journal and see more photos at Ecomodder forum
- -> Get all the technical specs from the car’s EV Album entry
- -> See it on YouTube: motor test #1 and #2; first electric test drive; “it’s legal & on the road!”
More sweet posts from EcoModder:
32 responses so far ↓
1 16 year-old builds electric pickup truck | Ecomodder.com Fuel Economy Blog // Jan 30, 2008 at 5:42 pm
[…] - - > Two Canadian friends build a $672 street legal electric car […]
2 New Invention: A 16 Years-Old Builds Electric Pickup Truck // Jan 30, 2008 at 6:50 pm
[…] Two Canadian friends build a $672 street legal electric car […]
3 peakster // Jan 31, 2008 at 3:19 pm
The Forkenswift never ceases to amaze me. Mostly because it’s accomplished what so many experienced automakers have deemed not possible in the real world. That and it looks to be in such great shape!
4 Electric transportation on the cheap // Jan 31, 2008 at 4:55 pm
[…] ForkenSwift [EcoModder] You Might Also Like: […]
5 theNEWF // Jan 31, 2008 at 5:35 pm
Story added…
Your story was featured in theNEWF! Here is the link to vote it up and promote it: http://thenewf.com/OddsEnds/Two-Canadian-friends-build-a-672-street-legal-electric-car…
6 The Battery Vehicle Society » Blog Archive » $672 Electric Car // Feb 1, 2008 at 1:16 am
[…] over at http://ecomodder.com published a story about two Canadians in Ontario who have build “a ridiculously inexpensive, home-built, street-legal electric car“. They created a 48-Volt system from donated and very cheap parts. To date, though, they […]
7 1hen2ducks // Feb 3, 2008 at 8:51 am
My smelly SUV costs 7.5 cents per km. driven.
8 GREENIRVANA » Two Canadian Friends Build $672 Electric Car // Feb 3, 2008 at 12:33 pm
[…] of used batteries? You get a ridiculously inexpensive, home-built, street-legal electric car.”read more | digg […]
9 John Andrews // Feb 3, 2008 at 9:07 pm
With no gasoline engine there is no hot water or hot exhaust to provide heating for comfort. I suppose that this vehicle will not be used for transportation in the winter. Or not very far needless to say.
10 The $672 Electric car » Developages - Development and Technology Blog // Feb 4, 2008 at 4:05 am
[…] You might have though making your own electric car would be an expensive project. However, with a little ingenuity and a LOT of luck, you can make a fairly inexpensive, street legal, electric car. Of course this car involved several “donated” items, like the batteries, but it seems like this can be done for a reasonable amount of money. - Link […]
11 The $672 Electric car // Feb 4, 2008 at 6:48 am
[…] You might have though making your own electric car would be an expensive project. However, with a little ingenuity and a LOT of luck, you can make a fairly inexpensive, street legal, electric car. Of course this car involved several “donated” items, like the batteries, but it seems like this can be done for a reasonable amount of money. - Link […]
12 Прочитано.ру » Blog Archive » Канадцы ÑделалР// Feb 5, 2008 at 10:15 pm
[…] По мотивам A $672 electric car […]
13 Bilal // Feb 6, 2008 at 11:54 am
I would love to do this to my beater for the summer months!
14 Hillary Short // Feb 6, 2008 at 1:53 pm
This kind of a project is very inspiring to get started.
I do think that it is possible to make an even chaper car if you buy the parts from the car recycling centers.
15 Two Canadian boys build a $672 street legal electric car! | Bilal Jaffery | Marketing, Optimization & Sales Strategies for Web 2.0 // Feb 7, 2008 at 1:25 pm
[…] Check out the article at Ecomodder.com […]
16 Two Canadian Friends Build $672 Electric Car « green wheels // Feb 13, 2008 at 4:20 pm
[…] read more | digg story No Comments so far Leave a comment RSS feed for comments on this post. Leave a comment Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong> […]
17 » Two Canadian Friends Build $672 Electric Car Driving Blog | New, Modified and Old Cars | Tuning and Custom Cars: // Feb 18, 2008 at 11:30 am
[…] Find out more about this story…Â […]
18 drift // Feb 28, 2008 at 8:17 pm
You can bet some one some where will put a stop on it. I have a friend who is a top notch mechanic and could do basically the same. Every time he gets a hold of some junk vehicles the law comes and gets them. I have been told that I can’t even buy a 96 truck to match mine from a junk yard just to keep for car parts -http://autobiz101.vox.com/- Some sort of business county bylaw. Laws like these local towns and county or just medieval. I wouldn’t mind doing that myself. That car makes a lot of sense.
19 PM // Mar 13, 2008 at 12:56 pm
What a great thing they did by building that. Im so glad the technology is spreading, because EVs are truly superior. A new EV made by Zap will do 0-60 in 4.8 seconds!
20 Green Wheels » Blog Archive » Two Canadian Friends Build $672 Electric Car // Mar 17, 2008 at 2:45 am
[…] read more | digg story Comments (0) […]
21 BEVERLY SAASTAMOINEN // Mar 19, 2008 at 6:24 am
WHERE CAN I BUY ONE OF THESE CARS?
LET ME KNOW. YOU SHOULD MASS PRODUCE.
YOU GUYS ARE BRILLANT.
THANKS,
BEV
22 NewWays » Green/Clean Technology » A $672 Electric Car // Mar 28, 2008 at 6:12 am
[…] This article idea from Ecomodder. […]
23 mbrio // Apr 17, 2008 at 7:17 am
I have an ‘81 CJ5 Jeep that I would like to make electric or, more probably, hybrid. The only problem is that I don’t know much about these things. Is there any information you can give me about a place to start mining information about these technologies and how to do it? Thanks so much, in advance!
24 ForkenCycle: dirt cheap, DIY electric motorcycle made from forklift parts | Ecomodder.com Fuel Economy Blog // Apr 24, 2008 at 1:09 pm
[…] latest example of using a worn out forklift to build a cheap road going EV. EG. there’s this $672 electric car, and also this 1996 Metro conversion in progress. I have a feeling we’ll see more […]
25 Matt // Apr 29, 2008 at 8:49 pm
what was the rpm of the forklift pump?
26 Vegthreads » Blog Archive » Where Are All The Electric Cars? // May 15, 2008 at 9:32 am
[…] death of the electric automobile. The thing is there are already a lot of electric cars out there. These two Canadians built one for a measly $672 dollars using an old electric motor from a fork lift. A simple search […]
27 john newman // May 20, 2008 at 9:21 pm
I recall some time ago Mother Earth had an article about a guy in the USA who built a VW electric car.’
He used a starter moter fron an old jet fighter and adapted it directly to the bell housing.lead acid was his battery of choice and if my memory is correct the Beetle could accelerate well and it had a good turn of speed (100km/hr)
So check out the old editions of Mother Earth
28 canadian electric car // Jun 6, 2008 at 7:34 pm
[…] […]
29 Hotcars // Jun 8, 2008 at 4:54 pm
I would say that is a cheap electric car. I would like to try and build one myself but want one that goes 55 to 65 miles hour atleast.
Great article and shows how someone can really build thier own electric car and not pay that much money. Now why can’t the auto makers make ones that do not cost a fortune.
30 A $672 electric car, built by two DIYers « MrGreen.Biz // Jun 13, 2008 at 9:11 pm
[…] June 14, 2008 in Mr Green Archive January 30th, 2008 by Benjamin Jones · 29 Comments […]
31 Mike // Jul 3, 2008 at 9:40 pm
I don’t get it. What’s with the bank of batteries? We have electrical systems in cars that give 12 volts initially, upped to 10’s of 1000’s of volts with the coil, and an AC alternator that will give more than 200 amps and DIY’ers want to use a bank of DC batteries. It just can’t be rocket science to run an AC electic motor for each wheel with the existing electrical system. At any rate if you want to use DC , remember any DC motor can be used as a motor OR a generator. It just depends on which end of the motor you supply the electricity.
32 Jerry // Jul 6, 2008 at 6:33 pm
“Now why can’t the auto makers make ones that do not cost a fortune.”
They can, though it’s not worth their time, business and capitalism is about profit and greed, not people and ideas.
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