Texas Teen Builds His Own Electric Car on $10,000 Budget
This fall, Texas teenager Lucas Laborde will be driving to school in an electric car he built himself. The 17 year old spent last summer converting a conventional gas-powered car to run on batteries. Total cost? Around $10,000.
Luke’s EV is based on a kit car, known as a Bradley GT II, which his father bought on eBay for just $5000 splashing out a further $5700 on electric conversion parts and batteries. The rest was left up to Luke’s ingenuity and technical know-how.
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After 150 hours of work, Luke had hooked up eight 80-pound lead-acid batteries in the space left after removing the fuel tank, as well as several other ‘creative locations.’ He finished up with an EV capable of travelling 40 miles between charges, a top speed of 45mph, (more than enough for the local school run), and heaps of low-end torque. As Luke told reporters, “it has a lot of power.”
The car isn’t without a few ‘quirks’ though; the weight of the batteries has caused the fiberglas body to twist slightly, meaning that the gull-wing doors don’t completely close. However, by using his own initiative, and making use of widely available existing components, Luke Laborde has put many global car companies to shame by creating a working, highway-ready EV, in far less time and on a much lower budget.
Image Credit - Steve Striharsky at bradleygt2.com
put car companies to shame I don’t think so. the doors don’t even close, it only goes 45 mph, can’t drive on the highway. saturn had a electric car back in late ninties. That car won’t even pass saftey inspection in most areas.
By the way wakeup79 it’s called supply and demand there was no demand for the electric car until recently. IF you think car companies wouldn’t sell a profitable product your a moron. Saturn got rid of there electric car because they had problem with a few catching fire when being charged hence were forced to recall all of them for saftey reasons. I should know I worked for them back then.
Most high school students do not have $10,000, even if they work all through their high school career. This would not have been possible without parental contribution and consultation. Kudos to Luke Sr.
> How many people actually commute more than 35 miles each way?
How many people can afford a car that is only useful for commuting? Better yet, how much can most people pay for a car that is only useful for commuting?
The answer is “not as many as you might think”.
If you’re currently commuting/short-tripping 15k miles/year (which is a lot) in a vehicle that gets 15 mpg and gas is $4/g, you’re spending $4k on gas/year. A commute-only vehicle that costs $20k takes 4 years to pay for itself (ignoring its license and registration).
However, if you’re currently getting 30 mpg, that $20k commute/short-trip car takes 8 years to pay for itself.
The point is that if your regular ride gets good mileage or you don’t do a lot of commuting/short-tripping (15k is a lot), a commute-only vehicle can’t pay for itself with gas savings unless it doesn’t cost very much.
> Lead Acid batteries do not respond well to being fully discharged…. Fail
Marine deep-cycle batteries do and they’re more readily recyclable and much cheaper than the exotics.
Exotic batteries are cool, but if you’re trying to pay for the car with gas savings, they’re way too expensive per amp-hour.
Glad to see people building things, always, but give me a break on the-putting-car-companies-to-shame because of his lower cost budget. If the kid had to pay for medical benefits, an hourly Union wage, general liability/product liability insurance, etc. etc., he’d triple his car cost.
Kudos to Luke Laborde. We need a paradigm shift about cars. Why not have a pair of cars. One optimized for local commuting: slower, lightweight and electric powered with a 100 mile range. The other optimized for long distance highway travel: gas powered and streamlined like a jet. Heck, most people could probably just rent a highway optimized car occasionaly.
Luke,
Nicely done. Ignore the naysayers. Apparently those who can’t DO, CRITICIZE.
The experience (and joy) of doing something on your own is very valuable.
Thanks
John C. Briggs
He did not create a “highway ready” EV if top speed is only 45 MPH.
Also, as opposed to major car manufacturers, if it breaks down, he eats the cost of fixing it, not the company. If he gets into an accident, he and his insurance company eat the costs, and he can’t sue anyone but himself for his creation.
Kudos for the creation, but something cobbled togehter in the backyard, does not make a commercial viable vehicle.
Good work!
While it’s true that current electric vehicles don’t offer a range that would work for some drivers, it does offer the range and performance that would suit most peoples daily commute.
I built my electric car for about $5000. Right now I have a range of about 25 miles (I live only 8 from where I work) and have a top speed of about 50mph (highest speed limit between home and work is 55). I built it with the intention of just going back and forth to work and stopping at the grocery store. I have to think that the big automakers could tap their resources and make an all electric car with about 100 mile range and top speed about 80 - and do it for a reasonable price. They have plenty of engineers, windtunnels and proving grounds, I don’t believe that they cannot make this happen.
You can see my project at http://www.ZeroGasoline.com
what a load of bollacks