Necessity Breeds Electric Car Innovation on the Gaza Strip
When gas costs $50 per gallon, creative solutions seem to spring forth.
The Christian Science Monitor (CSM) has reported on two business partners in Gaza who have converted a 1994 Peugeot 205 into an electric car capable of going 110 miles on a single charge using 34 standard lead-acid car batteries.
After more than a year of being blockaded by the Isreali government, Gazans find themselves facing out-of-sight prices for fuel.
Instead of letting that get the better of them, civil engineers Waseem Khazendar and Fayaz Anan claim to have developed an electric motor that is different than other electric motors and allows for improved efficiency.
The converted Peugeot has 15 horsepower and can travel at a top speed of 60 mph. To most Americans this may seem underpowered, but on the 25 mile long and 7 mile wide Gaza strip this amount of power and speed is more than satisfactory — and in reality, it’s probably more than satisfactory for most Americans too.
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The business pair say that they already have a few thousand orders to convert gas cars into electric cars, but due to the blockade they only have enough supplies to convert 30-40 more vehicles.
The conversion purportedly costs a mere $2,500 dollars to accomplish. As reported by the CSM, US experts are baffled as to how the conversion could be done for so little money and that using even the cheapest parts available in the US it would cost 3 times as much to do the conversion here.
Kahzendar and Anan are in the process of trying to patent their invention and hope to work together with Israelis to create a multimillion dollar business.
A quote in the CSM from an Israeli businessman after considering the possibility of working with the Gazans sums it up nicely: “I believe that business creates peace, and any peace project is good for everybody.”
Read the original article and watch a short narrated slide show
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- Horrific Images of Gaza
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Image Credit: CIA World Fact Book
Gosh that really puts things into perspective for all those who think that gas getting too expensive. This is how expensive it could get if we don’t find alternatives to our oil addiction. Clearly electric vehicles are the autos of the future.
Necessity Breeds Electric Car Innovation on the Gaza Strip | nerdd.net…
\r\nWhen gas costs $50 per gallon, creative solutions seem to spring forth.\r\nThe converted Peugeot…
“US experts are baffled as to how the conversion could be done for so little money and that using even the cheapest parts available in the US it would cost 3 times as much to do the conversion here.”
Then I guess that they aren’t really so expert than. Or maybe they’re just wearing blinders.
Anything that lets my cruise by ripoff gas stations works fine for me.
JT
http://www.FireMe.To/udi
So who do we need to lob mortars at to get all our oil cut off in the united states? Hmmmm, I’ve got it! What we really need is a harsh occupation army to teach us how to make do without oil. That’ll teach us!
Lets hope they dont get blown up along with 32 US interests in the middle east if Isreal or the US attacks Iran’s nuclear facilities…
I can see oil going back to $50-&75 a barrel with great ideas like this taking off. I hope they take off.
Figures a jew would want to patent it and as much money as they can!
Keep Up the great work. Now mate your creation to solar and wind regeneration power to truly make this a car for the masses.
Here’s another one - geothermal. To me it’s a no brainer:
Hot Dry Rock, Hot Fractured Rock or Enhanced Geothermal Systems - whatever you want to call it - is the obvious answer to global warming and the future of global energy supply. It’s hot down there no matter where you are on the planet - in fact there’s more energy than mankind could ever consume! And it’s available 24/7 - not only during the day or when it happens to be windy, and it produces no CO2.
Take a look at this: http://geothermal.sharenow.com
Don’t forget, tho, in America HP is everything, and 15 HP seems like nothing. But for an electric motor, 15 HP could achieve Performance that would easily match a gasser with more than twice that HP.