7 3/8 x 9 1/4 T echnical / Build Your Own Electric Vehicle / Leitman / 373-2 / Chapter 3
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Build Your Own Elec tric Vehicle either were doing something good, or you had come out with something better. Electric Vehicle Associates of Cleveland, Ohio, is the best example of the first type. While their Renault 12 conversion and ElectroVan project with Chloride were interesting diversions, they are best known for their Change of Pace wagons and sedans built on AMC Pacer platforms. The Change of Pace four-passenger sedan weighed in at around 3,990 lbs., and used 20 Globe-Union 6-volt lead-acid batteries driving a DC motor via an SCR chopper to achieve 55 mph and a 53-mile range. Jet Industries of Austin, Texas, once one of the largest and best of the independent EV manufacturers, was also the last to arrive on the scene. Jet’s most popular products were its ElectraVan 600 (based on a Subaru chassis) and 007 Coupe (based on a Dodge Omni chassis). It also offered larger eight-passenger vans and pickups. The 2,690-lb. ElectraVan 600 had a GE 20-hp or Prestolite 22-hp DC series motor, SCR controller, and 17 6-volt lead-acid batteries that could push it to 55 mph with a 100-mile range. Hundreds of ElectraVan 600s and 007 Coupes are prized possessions among Electric Auto Association members today, attesting to their outstanding quality and durability. Jet Industries, alas, is no more. Needless to say, industry association support of independent EV manufacturers—at its zenith during the previous wave—moved to its nadir during this one. There were no longer any independent electric vehicle manufacturers to support.
Individual Conversions Continue
Individuals assisted by more and better everything during the last wave now had to make do with more modest resource levels. But EV conversions by individuals continued throughout this wave, albeit at a slower pace. The best news of the 1980s was that the resources of the 1970s could still be found and used. During this wave, individual converters still enjoyed relating their conversion experiences at regular Electric Auto Association meetings; they still pushed the outside of the speed and distance envelope at rallies and events; and they still reported high degrees of satisfaction with what they had done.
Mid-1960s to 1990s This period marked a successively heightened awareness of problems with internal combustion vehicles. Smog problems of the mid-1960s made us aware we were polluting our environment and killing ourselves. Arab oil embargoes, shortages, and gluts of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s made us aware of our dependence on foreign oil. Nuclear and oil spill accidents of the 1970s and 1980s made us aware of the long-range consequences of our short-range energy decisions. The internal combustion engine and oil problems that started with a whimper in the mid-1960s turned into a groundswell of public opinion by the 1990s. The net result of new awareness in this period has been the reemergence of electric vehicles. When legislative action mandating zero emission vehicles in the 1990s forced rethinking of basic vehicle design, current technology applied to the EV concept emerged as the ideal solution.
Twilight of the Oil Gods
By the middle of the 1960s, many in government and industry around the globe became aware that something was very wrong with this picture. Although United States movement towards energy alternatives such as natural gas and nuclear fission (started decades earlier) was rapidly bringing new alternative capacity online, dependence on
