User:Hpev

I've always been into cars ~ especially muscle cars and other fast cars. I also have been interested in alternative fuels for a long time so this was sort of an inner conflict. I used to think that hydrogen powered internal combustion engines would be the way to go. Then while attending college at the University of Washington, I had to do give an un-biased informative speech on alternative fuel choices for a public speaking course. Because of this course I researched all of the main alternative fuels out there including; hydrogen, CNG, LPG, electricity, bio-diesel, veggie oil, ethanol, methanol and even reformulated gasoline. After being forced present an equal number of pros and cons for each fuel some clearly stood out more than others.

I personally had narrowed it down to electricity or hydrogen as seeming to offer the fewest emissions. Upon doing more research on hydrogen and hydrogen fuel cells it was obvious that there were a lot of major hurdles still to overcome before they could be a viable solution. After coming to some SEVA meetings and seeing videos on-line of EVs like the AC Propulsion T-zero and local home-built electric cars trouncing even Ferraris and Dodge Vipers at the drag strip, I was hooked on EVs!

The utter simplicity of a pure electric drivetrain, the immediate torque and fact that EVs have no tailpipe really intrigued me! This was also a solution which was already here and in fact had been around for many years. I decided I wanted to build a high performance all-electric commuter/dragster vehicle. I began this as my senior project in college. After college me and some other engineers I met there have continued to test and improve upon our original plan.

When my father was looking to get a new SUV, I convinced him to buy a 1998 GM factory built NiMH S-10 electric. Our family loved it so much that we soon got a second one. These S-10E trucks use the same advanced AC drive system as the original EV1 and are very powerful and easy to use. They also have working A/C, defrost, heat, anti-lock brakes, airbags, stereo, and regenerative braking. I have learned a lot from these trucks and we now have put over 20,000 electric miles on them.

I haven't completed as many conversions as some of the other SEVA members but I have alot of factual knowledge about the various OEM factory built EVs, their batteries, charging options and their history. I also can give advice to new people interested in purchasing an EV or converting their own, since I have done a great deal of research in these areas.

Between driving our S-10s and continuing to build the electric dragster-commuter, I am also currently working on building up a public EV charging infrastructure for Washington State.