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Full EV Conversion FAQ's

Is an EV right for my lifestyle? Will it fit my needs?

Ed Begley Jr. said in the Who Killed the Electric Car? documentary, "What the detractors and critics of electric vehicles have been saying for years, is true. The electric vehicle is not for everybody; given the limited range it can only meet the needs of 90% of the population." So it is very likely that you are the perfect candidate to be an EV owner.

Generations before us never had the amount of options we have today for vehicle. Twenty years ago you bought a car and if you needed to go to the dump or take extra gear to the summer cabin or go camping a couple times a year you hooked on a trailer. Today people try to list every possible scenario that they can think of where they might have a special situation and buy a vehicle that can meet this special need. (i.e. to put the boat in the water once in the spring and take it out once in the fall, to have extra room so when Grandma and Grandpa visit once a year they can all ride in the same car, to go camping or skiing six times in the summer, to drive to Spokane to visit family over the holidays.) So they might buy an 8 or 12 cylinder pickup truck, a van or a SUV to meet 1% or 5% of their needs, then for the other 95% or 99% of the time they use it to commute to work or drive their two kids to school. Look around on the highway on the way to work or stand outside a school and count the amount of vans and SUV's that only one or two kids get out of. It's become commonplace.

So rather than first looking at your 1% or 5% needs, look first at your 95% or 99% needs. What type of vehicle could you get to satisfy the majority of your needs? So how do you get to Spokane for the holidays? Easy, rent a car for the weekend. There are companies out there today that make this a very easy option for you. Enterprise will come and pick you up at your house and take you home. Or join Zipcar and you can reserve a car, van, pickup or hybrid online and pick it up in your neighborhood. Just drive your EV to the Zipcar parking spot and off your go in the vehicle of your choice. Now that's easy. Other options are to start a "share community" with your neighbors in order to share rakes, lawn mowers, ladders, power tools and yes even cars. How often do you really have more than 4 or 5 people in your van? So keep one for your street for soccer games or field trips, but now everyone on your block can be driving an EV and have that van for the "just in case I need one".

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So why haven't car companies moved towards electric cars sooner? Why am I just hearing about this now?

There is not one answer to this question. The best way to answer that is for you to rent the documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car?" at your local video store or buy it at Sony Classics. Warning: You will laugh, you will cry, you will finally understand, you will get really mad, so mad that hopefully you will stand up and take action.

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Doesn't powering cars with electricity just move the carbon emissions from the tail pipe to the power plant?

It depends on where you live. If you live in Seattle Washington the answer is basically, "No". The latest posting on Seattle City Light's web site shows that just about 99% of the electricity that we use is from non-carbon producing sources.

If you live in the Eastern part of the US, the answer is more like, "sort of, but it's not as bad". If you add up all the carbon that is produced from the oil well to the tail pipe (carbon produced to pump or extract oil from the ground, ship it to the refinery, refine the oil into gasoline, transport it to your local gas station and then burn it in your engine) it adds up to be more than what it takes to extract coal from the ground, ship it to the power plant and then burn it.

As "dirty" states move towards cleaner energy for the grid, it will only get better, but by burning gas in your car you don't have any options of making it better.

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I know converting my car makes environmental sense, but does it make financial sense too?

Yes. Keep in mind that electric vehicles require almost no maintenance. Though gasoline cars may seem cheaper, the reality is you are constantly shelling out money to maintain it and fill it with gas. EVs, on the other hand, require no oil changes, no new spark plugs, no oil gaskets, no timing belt replacement, etc. EVs use a lot fewer parts than gasoline cars and fewer parts equal less parts to replace. The lifetime of an electric motor is also much longer than that of an Internal Combustion Engine.

The bottom line is that the savings you will realize will more than offset the cost of the conversion. The more you drive the faster you will recoup your costs and the lower the gas mileage you have been getting with your current vehicle the faster you will recoup your costs.

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Does converting my car to fully electric qualify for any tax credits?

Yes, you can claim 10% of the cost of the conversion on tax form 8910.

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How far can I drive from home?

EVs are best used for regular trips that do not exceed 60-80 miles. Most people do not drive more than 40 miles per day, so charging their EVs overnight provides all the charge they will need until driving it the next day.

But as more and more charging stations become available you could extend your range by topping off your batteries when you are out and about. Today there are multiple places to charge while shopping or parking. Some are advertised (fifth floor of the parking garage at SeaTac Airport, many park & ride locations, Downtown Seattle Library, etc. Many charging locations are not advertised, but EV owners have asked stores like Home Depot, Safeway and other stores if they can plug into an outside outlet that has been there for years. Most stores are happy to spend the 20 or 30 cents in electricity in order for you to shop in their store. They still make out pretty well. See Seattle Electric Vehicle Association for map of charging stations currently available.

There are plans for 2500 charging stations to be installed in the Puget Sound area around Seattle Washington in 2010 (Oregon, California, Arizona and Tennessee also slated for charging stations via this $100M federal grant), but most people won't need them, nor will you run out of battery power if they purchase the right amount of batteries for their commute.

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What do I do if I run out of battery energy before I get home?

How often do you run out of gas in your car? I hope your answer to this question is "never". So why don't you ever run out of gas? It's because you know approximately how far you can go on a tank of gas and you know where all the gas stations are in your area. You simply make sure that you have enough gas in your car to never be stranded between gas stations. So the same is true for EVs. The trick is to never put yourself in a situation where you do run out of battery power either between charging stations or from home.

The fear of running out of power is not really an issue because of how you fill up an EV vs. a gas car. If you're like most people you don't have a gas pump at your house. You drive around each day and your gas level gets lower and lower until one day you look at the gas gauge and "Oh No!" you only have a gallon or less left before you're out of gas! This could happen to you any day at any time, even when you just left the house and you need to be at work in ten minutes.

With an EV you will fill up every day, so when you leave the house you most likely will always have a "full tank". When you leave you know you will drive around 40 miles, you have a 60 or 80 mile range, so no problem. Even if you run some unexpected errands, you're covered.

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Here is what you can do. Click on Google.com, click on "Get Directions" and type in your home address. Next think about all the places you go in a typical day, (1. Drop off the kids at school, 2. then downtown to work, 3. then to office sports team game, 4. then to the grocery and 5. then back home). On the Google Maps site click the "Add Destination" as many times as you need to enter in the addresses of each stop in the order you drive to them.

In the end it will tell you how many miles you drive round trip. So if its 40 miles, then a 60 or 80 mile EV will more than satisfy the majority of your needs, so no need to worry about running out of "juice" and being stranded on the road.

So do you really need a car that goes 150 miles on a charge? Not if you are only diving between 10 and 60 miles a day. All you would really be doing is dragging around (and paying extra for) batteries that you don't need.

So when you look at our pricing please know that if you see a car listed at 80 mile range and you only want 50, it will cost you less because there will be less batteries needed. Call us for a quote.

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What is the cost to convert a vehicle?

Conversions are typically in the range of $15,000 to $35,000, $22K to $32K. See our pricing sheet for some sample conversions. We use Lithium-Ion batteries for all our conversions unless we are doing a custom job and will quote this separately. Our cost for the conversion includes parts and labor which are both covered with a two year warranty.

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Can I drive to Spokane from Seattle in an EV?

Yes, but it might take you a while. But don't make this the deciding factor between getting an EV or not. See Is an EV right for my lifestyle? Will it fit my needs?

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What if I forget to plug in my car at night?

Odds are you will learn quite quickly (just as you did with your cell phone) that when you park it, you plug it. It's really convenient to always have a "full tank" in the morning.

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Are batteries harmful to our environment? Can they catch on fire?

No, there are no toxins in the batteries we are using and they do not catch on fire. There are other Lithium-Ion batteries that are of a different chemistry that have caused laptops to catch on fire in the past, but understandably we don't use those.

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Do your Electric Vehicles come with regenerative braking?

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How often will I need to get my electric motor repaired?

We estimate that you will need to change the brushes in the motor every 500,000 miles.

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Can you put solar panels on the roof to charge the battery?

Yes, though it is not very helpful. A typical solar panel on a passenger vehicle would provide energy equivalent to 5 minutes of charging, but add another $4,000 to the cost of the conversion.

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What are the safety concerns?

None that we can think of. It's actually a safer car now that the gas tank has been removed, so no engine fires or gas tanks exploding. All the safety features like ABS and air bags work the same way because they have not been touched at all. If there are any safety restrictions with your vehicle we will discuss these with you before placing an order.

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If you remove the radiator, how is the vehicle heated in the winter?

Since we remove the radiator we install a special smaller heating chamber that pumps warm fluid through your existing heater and blower system, so in essence making it work just as is does currently (except no more radiator leaks to deal with).

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How long does it take to charge?

If you asked an EV owner, they would say, "About ten seconds. About five seconds to plug it in when I get home and five more to unplug it before I leave for the day."

The long answer is that charge times depends on four factors, what is the charging voltage (110V or 220V) and current (15A, 20A, 30A, 50A), how big your battery pack is and how full (or low depending on how you look at it) your batteries are before you begin charging. We like to talk in terms of miles per hour of charge. For 110V 15A it's about 3-5 miles/hr of charging; 220V 20A it's 5-8 miles/hr of charging; 220V 30A it's 8-12 miles/hr of charging; 220V 50A it's 12-18 miles/hr of charging. There is an additional charge for all 220V type chargers.

The other short answer is, overnight.

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How long do the batteries last before I need to replace them and how much do they cost to replace?

If your conversion has lead acid batteries, these batteries are well proven to last many years, but have a low cycle life. You can expect them to last 5 -10 years or around 8,000 miles, whichever comes first. On the other hand Lithium-Ion batteries have only been available for a few years for electric vehicles so there is no life tests to prove how long they will last, but most manufacturers believe it is on the scale of 5-10 years as well or 162,000 miles. In most cases you will not have a choice as to which battery you can use in your vehicle because it is typically dictated by the payload capacity of the vehicle and the range (miles per charge) that you need.

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Do I need a special plug or cord to charge at 220V?

Yes, we recommend installing a 30amp 220 outlet (dryer style plug) in your garage or near where you will be parking the vehicle. This outlet should be on it's own circuit breaker. Pacific EV will provide a custom 220V power cord that will plug into the 220V plug on one end and plug into a one foot jumper cord on the other end. The jumper cord will then plug into the vehicle at the same plug as the 110V cord plugs in.

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Can I still charge via a standard 110V outlet if I have a 220V charger?

Yes. The charger will automatically sense if you are charging with 110V or 220V, so you don't have to do anything other than plug it in.

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What is the maximum length of extension cord you would recommend for charging my vehicle?

For both 110V and 220V we would recommend not exceeding 50 feet.

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How much does it cost in electricity to operate?

The short answer is between $.02 and $.04 per mile.

The long answer is that in the Puget Sound area in Washington we have two tiers of pricing, Tier I is a little less than $.04/KWh and Tier II is about $.08/KWh. So if it would average $.07 KWh it would cost you about $1.20 to "fill up" your 50 mile Subaru or $2.10 for your 60 mile light truck/SUV or $1.68 to fill up your 80 mile Mini Cooper. Remember this is not what it will cost you every time you charge up, it's only the cost when the batteries are fully depleted, which they will never be.

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Is an EV fun to drive?

Yes for two reasons. If you want to spin the tires and take off like a jackrabbit, yes you can do this. If this is what you are after you should pick a Mini Cooper or something fun to convert. But being able to drive around without burning gas is a very freeing, exciting, uplifting experience that you get when driving an EV at any speed.

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