It's not that it can't be done. It's pointless.
Where will the seven passengers sit?

True, you sure can fit a lot of batteries in
there, and you will need to , in order to
overcome the weight of the vehicle and the
batteries.

And all those extra batteries will add weight.

Paul is right- the small car platform is the only
way to go.
Lighter in weight, generally a 1-2 person car.

A Vanagon with all those batteries needed to
overcome it's own weight and the weight of the
batteries will be only a two person vehicle.

Most people give up on the electric Vanagon. I
have never seen one.
I've seen electric Golfs, Rabbit's, Hondas, etc.

I've given up on using my Vanagon as a daily
driver and will soon be driving the 87 Jetta that
gets 35 mpg.

City busses run on electricity but only by using
overhead supply wires and a caternary.

If city busses had their own batteries, they
would be too heavy, which is why they use the
external power supply,  like subways.

Robert
1982 Westfalia

--- Mark Thoma <mpthoma2003@YAHOO.COM> wrote:

> Absolutely right on!  As a daily commuter the
> van would be fine.  The cost to 'fuel' it with
> electricity would be low (I've heard estimates
> that put the cost per mile  for an EV
> equivalent with $1.00 per gallon gasoline),
> compared to the $4.69 (and climbing) I'm now
> paying for diesel, but the cost to convert
> would be prohibitive...and it would be cheaper
> and a lot less hassle to begin converting waste
> vegetable oil to run in my TD.
>  But as a relatively well known radio (ex TV)
> personality in the city where I live a lot of
> people know I drive the van and an EV van would
> draw attention to what's possible. If this
> revolution is going to happen people need to be
> aware what's out there now and not listen to
> that same old crap from Washington/Detroit that
> the timetable for meaningful change is decades
> and not months or years long.
> Granted the van would have only about a 60-80
> (more than enough for my daily needs) mile
> range on current lead acid technology but that
> would increase as Lithium Ion technology gets
> better and I eventually change over to the
> lighter/longer life/higher capacity Lithium
> Ions.  And it would be cheaper and a lot less
> hassle to begin converting waste vegetable oil
> to run in my TD.
>
> Mike <mbucchino@CHARTER.NET> wrote: Why would
> the COST to convert any vehicle to electric, be
> any different,
> based on how good it's original gas mileage is?
>  Sounds like a load of crap
> to me.  What is your personal experience
> regarding this?  None, I'll
> bet..........
>    The weight of ANY vehicle converted to
> electric will be heavy, but the
> power used to propel that vehicle down the road
> will be the same.  The range
> may be shorter in a heavier vehicle, all else
> the same.  The areodynamics
> don't even come into play until you exceed
> certain speeds.  Shorter trips
> and slower speeds will suit this fine, it just
> depends on how a person
> intends to use this van.
>   We're not trying to locate the optimum
> vehicle to convert, we're trying to
> consider the actual concept when applied to our
> beloved vans.  The brakes,
> suspension and subsequent handling on our van
> is more able to deal with the
> added weight, than the cheap, weak crap on some
> small econobox.  Think about
> it.
>
>   There's always millions of people willing to
> say 'it can't be done'.  I
> want to hear that one person say, "Yes, we can
> do that!'........which one
> are you?
>
> Mike B.
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Paul Guzyk"
>
> To:
> Sent: Saturday, May 24, 2008 9:49 AM
> Subject: Re: Diesel schmiesel...i'm thinking of
> going electric
>
>
> >A Vanagon is one of the worst platforms for
> converting to an EV.
> > Too heavy, no aerodynamics. A repeatable
> range of 100 miles it will
> > cost you more than $8000.
> >
> > If you want an EV, get something small and
> light, like a Suzuki
> > Swift.    Generally if it is good on gas it
> will be good on electric.
> > If it is crappy on gas it will be expensive
> to convert to electric.
>