My company in its effort to be green has installed a dual charging station
in two of our facilities and let electric car owners us them free of charge.
We have a brother/sister pair with a "Volt" each, one black (his) and white.
The two of them just rave about driving them. I am curious though if they
are effective for long distance use say NY to Florida. I am currently down
in Florida and ended up renting a 2011 Ford Focus. In mixed driving it is
still doing ~33mpg. Doing highway from the airport to moms house it was
doing almost 40mpg. Except for lots of tire noise from worn out tires, the
slipping transmission, and confusing controls at first I am almost beginning
to like it!

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Kim Brennan
Sent: Friday, September 14, 2012 10:23 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Electric conversions (Chevy Volt)

I recently replaced my main commuter car with a (leased) 2013 Chevy Volt.
I'm addicted to electric only (300+ all electric miles only on it since I
got it.)

I know, in the past, a few folk have done electric conversions (not
necessarily members of this list). And loaded up the van with lots of (lead
acid) batteries and got something like 16 miles per charge out the
conversions.

But times have changed. There are other battery choices and more choices in
electric motors. Did Otto(? or was it Detmar?) with his stretch ever get the
front wheels running in electric motor?