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
WOW. this guy is awesome!
While this is a great feat, and the young man should get all the praises showered upon him…the car is not exactly a “highway-ready”. I’m sure with the advent of newer technologies, the lead-acid batteries can be replaced with lighter batteries, thus providing more speed, should the weight of the vehicle allow it. In the end, it should be noted that he did over a summer what the “Big 3″ REFUSE to do at all.
Great job Luke! At least this kid isn’t sitting around on his rump doing nothing. To me, it’s impressive to see a teen take some initiative and try something many would consider “outside the box.” Granted, his solution leaves areas for improvement, but at least he gave it a decent shot - probably more than many of you whiners have done or will ever do. Also, to hold the comments of the article’s author against this kid is a royal joke. To all of you with nothing but negative comments, get over yourselves - it’s attitudes like yours that impede innovation.
Luke, this is exceptional and highly noteworthy.This is the way to go in the 21st Century.Really we have heard several times that Ford,GM& Honda have developed such Electric cars but it would take up to 2010-2015 for them to become available.A lot of this was purely Politics,because of the impact it would have had on Companies within the Gasoline Industry.But certainly, do you all realise just how this would have caused Walmart,Publix and many other suppliers to roll back the Price of Grocery items which all sky-rocketed because of cost of gas?
Luke could be saving a lot of people tons of money, because from every gallon of fuel consumed, only 40% is really used to drive the vehicle while 60% actually goes to utter waste!Frightening,but it is true.
It is in light of situations like this,that we at EDC Gold, - that we talk so much about:-Mind-set changes and The New Paradigmn Shift or the really sophisticated ways in which people now make/save money via the internet whether online or offline.As against living Pay-Check to Pay-Check,working 40hours/week for 40 years and not sure if they can retire.But with Luke’s Electric car invention there will be less demand for gasoline in US,Canada, Brazil and Europe.People will be able to live their lives better with sufficient savings and time freedom to enjoy it!But this is also Prophecy because in the last days God promised that He will pour out his spirit upon all flesh… and that your children shall see visions.
Luke,this is highly commendable and is certainly noteworthy!This is the way to go for the 21st Century-as a few Dealers had been discussing with him.
Ford, Honda& GM had promised for a long time now to have these cars ready between 2010-2012.These had not been forthcoming.
That is why at EDC Gold we put people into positions with what is called a Mind-change so that they can change the way they use gasoline as well as make money whether online or offline
What about an air car that runs on air. it’s engine has only been around for 400 years.
Very impressive, but a video of the car in action may inspire other like minded adaptive individuals to make or create one of their own.
In response to Jeff. EVs could go 300 miles on a charge and travel at 70 mph with the new batteries. The problem is that stock holders in cars also hold major holdings in fuel companies. This is why they are pushing the hydrogen cell. They don’t want to loose the money to utility companies.
A teenager took the initiative to create an environmentally-friendly car?!? WOW! Can I trade my teenager for him???
dont hate rick