Eco blog

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Green Genius: Texas Teenager Crafts his Own Electric Car for $10,000

Texas teenager Lucas Laborde will be driving to school in an all-electric car that he built all by himself. No, we are not kidding when we say that he will drive to school in it as the guy is still only 17 years old. While most teens would spend the summer away doing far more attractive and far less productive stuff, Lucas spent it converting his gas-guzzling old car into an all-electric vehicle with no emissions. So how many hundreds of thousands of dollars did he spend on it? Lucas just spent around $ 10,000 in making the revamp!

Now if that does not put the top firms of the auto world to shame, then I really do not know what would. Here is a 17-year old boy spending just 150 hours with an old car and an electric engine bought from eBay to create his own electric vehicle at $10,000 and Chrysler Peapod GEM goes around speaking how good it is! The car build by Lucas has a top speed of 45 mph and a range of 40 miles. Comparing it to the Peapod GEM once again- GEM’s Top Speed- 25 mph and range on single charge-35-40 miles. Now maybe Chrysler will understand why we dislike their small cars so much.

Lucas spent $5000 for the batteries and $5700 for the compatible parts and the integration. So, the vehicle is not perfect and the heavy batteries have already done a bit of distorting to the car. But, if a teenage boy can do so much, it is time the big boys pull their act together. Via

Labels: chrysler, Electric cars, Lucas Laborde, Texas Teenager

posted by Hadson @ 9:25 PM