Hank [BS/MSEE,
MSM $$$, Ph.D. Mgmt] teaches 
Next Tuesday and Thursday my ENTR200 classes are going to learn first hand about what it takes to turn a “normal” VW into a electric/battery-powered vehicle. At noon, in MJIS 1001 on Tuesday, we will have a presentation by Michael D. Kane, Ph.D., Department of Computer and Information Technology, Lead Genomic Scientist, Bindley Bioscience Center, Purdue University, on the conversion he has recently accomplished and entrepreneurship topics in general. On Thursday at noon, he will be bringing his converted 1973 VW to the MJIS building for a “show.” MJIS 1001 is a large classroom, and readers of this blog are invited - except Jim S. 
D&D Motor Systems, Inc provides just about all the parts, for about $4,000, needed to make the conversion. See link for details. Of course, the majority of these “homebrew” conversions are very limited in range due to available battery (lead-acid) technology. Many companies are working on this, including Firefly. China is well on the way toward development of LI-based car batteries, and in fact used electric-powered vehicles during the recent Olympic Games they hosted.
I’m certain many of you will have detailed questions and may be skeptical as to the practicality of such effort. Keep an open mind - you might learn something useful for future applications. Hank
PS: Today Honda is bring back their Insight name and announcing a new Honda Hybrid due out in April 09 for less than $20,000. They are going after the Prius market where Toyota has had little direct competition. Interesting the way SEO is working; when I did a Google on Prius this morning, the first entry up was the Honda link above.
Being able to convert a ICE car to an Electric engine is pretty cool. Hopefully with the development of the Li-ion batteries, the cars will be able to go a lot farther. While keeping an open mind, it looks like you have to sacrifice a little bit of trunk space. I’m sure its not bad since VW’s don’t have any trunk space anyway. Honda’s car is really impressive, and for less than $20,000 that’s not half bad. It looks better than the Prius as well, which is more of a “lunchbox”.
Well fine then Hank! I was going to show up, but now I think I wont make the 800 mile trip!
For four grand that is not a horrible idea, if you have an extra car sitting around why not? It doesn’t go very far at all, but you would probably be able to make a trip or two into town saving a little on gas.
As far as the honda, thats the first car I could look at and actually consider, particularly for under 20k, unfortunately I don’t have even the 18.5 that it will cost… I guess we will see in a year or so…
http://www.leftlanenews.com/honda-insight.html
Jim
I’m excited to see how this works in person. I think the concept is really cool and if it proves to be successful the idea of converting cars to electric could be a big hit especially in this economy. The only thing VW’s already get spectacular gas mileage, I want to see somebody make one of these kits for a Dodge Ram.
I am looking forward to the Honda Hybrid, but I am even more interested in the way SEO is working with google. I remember when I used to have a website, I tried so hard building back links and trying to rank higher in the search result.
a little odd….(I just did a google search on Prius and the first link I got was Toyota Prius Hybrid website.)
The Honda Hybrid will definitely be cool, there are so many new cars and technology being developed into cars recently with the green era. We are learning so much and using it into our newer technology.
It is amazing that we are finally getting the technology to run a car completely on batteries. It might not have a long range that it can drive, but in a campus atmosphere you do not even need one. I drive 3 miles to park at Ross Ade everyday. This would be perfect for a kid like me. Hopefully the new Insight is a little better looking then the one from a few years back. Those things were ugly!!
I think it’s great that Honda is introducing their new hybrid car. Maybe this competition will drive the automobile industry towards developing newer technologies at a cheaper price. I find it quite refreshing to know that here at Purdue one of our Professors is applying these new technologies at a relatively low price, but yet is still creating an effective car.
Its great that we are going to be able to see green power first hand next week. Its awesome that someone right here on campus is pursuing the idea of a hybrid car. Toyota better watch out with honda reveling its new version of a hybrid. I believe Honda will prove to be stiff competition to Toyota. As for the American big three they are still well behind the foreign auto makers and I am not sure if they will ever catch up seeing that the competition will never slow down.
I belive that the presention next week will be very insightful on a practicle level, as well as explaining the technologies being devoloped be companies such as honda and toyata.
I think the new Honda Hybrid looks pretty sharp. And for less than $20,000 thats not too bad! I am looking forward to hearing about how Dr. Kane turned his VW into an electric/battery-powered car. That shall be very interesting!
I am terribly sad that I will not be able to make it to these presentations next week. I think it would be very interesting to learn how to transform a car like that. I also think that it is great that Honda is coming out with a hybrid. I think that it will be great to give Toyota a little healthy competition. It seems competition brings out the best in everyone.
Its really cool that a professor at our college has converted an ICE engine into an electric one. It would be great to drive a VW Electric! But does it have the same engine specs like the power, top speed etc?
Its great that Honda is coming up with hybrid car and that too at a cheap price! Toyota and Honda are doing great!
Im looking forward to the presentation of thursday…its gonna be an interestin one!
I am all for the idea of hybrid cars or in this sense, taking a car that one likes and converting it into one. Lets be honest here, our economy is in shambles and gas at $4 a gallon definitely isn’t helping. Just like in class today with the Edson presentation, I feel like the American car companies have way too many of the wrong cars at the wrong time. I personally wouldn’t be able to afford $100 everytime I had to fill up my car. I currently own a Honda Civic, and I refuse to buy another American made car until the companies decide to do something to help out their consumer!!
Less than $20,000 is good and very close to the price of Prius. Prius and new Honda hybrid looks extremely similar but the Honda hybrid looks better. But Toyota prius is bigger. the Honda insight is said to have very good mileages. I rather have the Honda insight just because it looks cooler. But anyways the VW thing sounds very interesting.
I’m very excited to attend the presentation by Michael D. Kane, Ph.D. This is a man who is on the right track to establishing a cost-effective, electric car conversion that is available here in the U.S. This is exactly what we need to stimulate the U.S. market on NICE cars. As technology increases, the prices of production of these electric engines are declining as seen in the large scale markets run by Toyota, Honda, etc. With these companies reaching out to the everyday consumer (you and I), the overall market value of NICE cars will be more appealing. Who wouldn’t want a more economical car at a cheaper price; especially in today’s world?
I’m really looking forward to seeing the car next Thursday, unfortunately I’ve got a conflict on Tues. Just from a quick google of the new Insight, it looks like they’re leaning towards creating a more ‘normal’ car than even the Prius. I can’t wait for the next generations of hybrids to continue coming out, the day someone comes out with a miata-esque car (a cheap Tesla!) that gets 60mpg I’ll be sold. Driving a hybrid doesn’t have to be inherently boring!
Honda’s new car will definitely change the automobile industry because more and more hybrid cars will decrease in price considering in the past hybrid cars were also a significant more amount of money than regular cars. We can only wait and see if Honda will change the automobile industry.
wow Purdue roCks…!! Our professor is the one who designed a better electric car and now he is selling his kits fr very reasonable price..,,dats awesome.. I wish I could be part of his venture…,,
And Honda is really taking good steps at right time.. I think we are going to get some really good cars that works on the most advanced technology soon…
I hope this energy crisis end up and we look for new non-renewable resources as we humans have to think something innovative…
It sounds like to me that Honda is going to be producing the right vehicle at the right time! Since our economy isn’t currently in the best shape this economical car will be a success! It will also be very insightful to get to learn about these technologies on a more personal basis!
Can’t wait to see the NICE car presentation. It’ll be really interesting. It’s about time hybrids became affordable. Like you said in class today, wrong products, wrong time. This should have come along much earlier.
The prius is a beast.
… Well i posted this morning but I guess its being filtered or something…
Anyway, I think this is pretty cool, for 4G its not too bad. You could probably save a bunch if you sourced the components your self (Motor, Batteries, Motor Controller). But if you have an extra car laying around that you don’t use any more, why not? It doesn’t go very far (Lead Acid batteries will do that) but it will do some basic things for you around town if you don’t live too far away.
I said some other stuff too, so hopefully that post comes back…
Jim
From ICE to NICE will be nice. This will be a good thing to do to rusting cars. An entrepreneur could take junk cars and rebuild them with NICE engines. Imagine driving an ‘82 Honda with new dash, new seats, and a new battery engine.
I’m pumped for these classes next week. In response to the Honda Hybrid, it is the right car at the right time with an awesome price. However, I do not find the styles of hybrids at all attractive.
well usually attractive cars are for looks…but that’s just my opinion because with the technology we have now and the technology to come things can change at any moment.
I think it is going to lead in a good direction to see more hybrids. This can only progress the technology, until hopefully we are no longer dependant on fuel. Maybe if the companies keep pushing eachother for the newest and most efficient type of hybrid we will reach that goal.
im pretty excited to learn about this and how he does it/how it works. i think it will be very interesting to learn about it especially since its something that is rare and not done by many people
I can’t believe that we have finally found a way to run a car soley on batteries. With this economy converting cars to electric would be just what we need. The concept itself is genious.
I think this is a really cool idea, and the presentation on tuesday and thursday is going to be awesome. I wish I didn’t have class at 12 so I could go!
I think the idea is great. I am sure the presentation will be very interesting, unfortunately I have class at 12. I am however very interested in the Honda hybrid. I LOVE HONDAS!!
I think this is all really cool and extremely relevant to the present day. It is extremely important now days to find more efficient ways of using energy and what not and this portrays it perfectly.
This is a good idea. We need to find other alternative sources to producing energies and running vehicles because the population isn’t slowing down and is ever growing. The earth is taking a strain and sooner enough, it’ll affect us in the worse ways.