I’ve never owned a car. Kate did for a few years as a teenager, but gave it up when she went to college. Ordinarily we get around by the most pollution-free method available: walking. We walk to the store, work, movies, and just for the fun of it. On occasion we’ll catch a bus and once in a great while we’ve rented a car to take a vacation.
Recently, however, we’ve been wanting a car for several reasons. Many of them tied to homesteading. It didn’t seem likely that we’d be able to easily do the things we want without a vehicle. Transporting animals, tools, feed, etc., it starts to be more than we can comfortably do walking. Plus we want to be a bit further out of town because otherwise they don’t let you keep animals — at least not the scale we want.
But with a car comes more pollution and expense. Over at Path to Freedom they have been brewing biodiesel. That sounded like a good possibility. Then I read about Mother Earth News: An Amazing 75-MPG Hybrid Electric Car — back in 1979. A search turned up several follow-up articles as well. Basically they were talking about an electric car with an onboard gasoline or diesel engine and generator. I don’t really want to use gasoline but a diesel engine opens up the possibility of biodiesel or SVO. I started to get excited about the idea.
Then it occurred to me, why not supplement this system with solar panels. When I read Solo I was thrilled that he had solar panels. Of course his were rigid and I was interested in the flexible thin-film panels (which at the end of the book Perrin mentions the Solectria vehicles using the same idea). I need to do more research but it seems like most conversions don’t include solar panels. I’m not sure why at this point. There is a cost, of course, but I think it might be worthwhile.
After reading those articles and a bunch of others I also looked at several websites covering the conversion process. I started thinking more seriously about doing a conversion. Why not? We’re planning to build an off-grid house which is both more expensive and complicated. It seems to me that working on our transportation would be a good first step.
So the plan, as it stands now, is to convert a gas-powered vehicle into a hybrid biodiesel/SVO solar electric vehicle with regenerative braking. We’ve managed without a vehicle for a long time and even if the range were as limited as Solo (I hope to do better) it would still expand our range a great deal. In fact, as a hybrid it shouldn’t have a limit to the range. Although that may not be entirely accurate. The generator might, for example, be able to keep the vehicle going if the batteries were drained but perhaps not at freeway speeds.
Before this can happen there are a number of obstacles. The first is knowledge. I’ve read a bunch of articles and websites but I need more detailed information now. To that end I’ve ordered the three books in the side-bar. Once they arrive I’ll begin studying. If we’re still in the apartment when I start we’ll need to rent a garage. There’s a car auction nearby where I can pick up a donor vehicle inexpensively. There will also be tools that we need to purchase (investment for the future) and other skills to learn. Like welding.
As I work on this project I’ll update the blog. It’ll take time but we’ll get there.
