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
Lasts 40 miles before recharging? Guess no weekend getaways for him! In that car at least… Gotta add some solar chargers possibly? When his dad is done paying off his maxed out credit cards I’m sure he’ll get some solar panels too.
Anyone who is bashing this kid after building that car himself sucks. Even if he “Could’ve done this” or even if you think “Seeing how the parts are readily availble it doesn’t seem too difficult” ask yourself this. Could I have done this at 17 years old? Answer no way. Otherwise we would’ve read about you a long time ago. Way to go kid. Don’t let these douchebag nay-sayers get you down.
Greetings,
I think this is great. I want one.
Just to clarify something on behalf of this kid: the body design is a “kit car” manufactured by a company called Bradley. The kit is designed for gas engine, usually Volkswagen, MG, or any other small gas engine. The bradley kit is not EV by design, so the gearing and engine and the rest of the car besides the body is something the kid built.
Rob S
Wisconsin
I’m all for advancing the automobile, but some here seem to think that they are equipped to judge the auto industry based on a severely flawed documentary (”Who Killed the Electric Car”). Folks, if you don’t know anything about cars, learn about Detroit and its history, about government regulation for cars, and economics. There’s some wonderful things going on right now around the world when it comes to cars, but it’s a very complicated industry that needs educated comments from the masses.
That being said, kudos to the kid for finding a solution to his needs - that’s how it’s supposed to work, right?
An answer to ChuckL about having an on-board generator running at a constant speed to charge the batteries: Mother Earth News had an article (and plans) for a
85mpg hybrid car 30 years ago using that principal, using three 12-V batteries for a storage “flywheel”.
The powers that be try to make everything complicated,
that’s why we’re offered $30,000 ‘hybrids’ that are so complicated that not many working folks want one.
Well done kid! Hope there are more people like you and the world will be a better place to live in. Such a very creative and innovative mind.
Awesome. GM should learn from this.
Mr. LaBorde is our future. Thank God.
Great job! You and others like you have proven that an automobile can be home built that achieves the same mileage on batteries as the chevy volt that is scheduled to roll off of the assembly line in 2010. GM should be embarrased to learn that a high school student has achieved what is taking 600 engineers and 50 designers along with support staff to do. I realize that more than just building an electric car is involved. However, there is not one thing that is unique about the Volt. Letourneau corp. has been building engine driven generators powering heavy equipment for years. DC motors have been around for years. They have simply put the two together. GM is “Reinventing the Wheel” at our expense. They are requesting Govt. loans to continue doing business as usual to build an automobile that will cost around $30,000.00 while claiming this price is below the manufacturing cost. Rick Wagoner should be fired along with the majority of GM engineers.A new CEO along with new engineering graduates should be hired that do not fit the GM mold or in other words “People who do not possess the GM mentality” and charge them with designing and building a true electric automobile that the American people can be proud of. There is atart up company in California “Tesla Motor Car Co.” that has designed and built an automobile that will travel 200 miles on a single charge. After billions of dollars have been spent by GM developing their Volt, it will travel a grand total of 40 miles on a single charge and GM wonders why they are no longer the number 1 automobile manufacturer. This is an embarrasment to American ingenuity; we can do better than that! Join me and revolt against the Volt!
we have already a electric car called “Reva” in Bangalore India