Home Built Electric Cars

Driving force behind electric vehicles

Erik Fairbairn has made an odd career choice. After setting up a club for petrolheads to rent out supercars such as Ferraris and Lamborghinis, the youthful entrepreneur has founded Britain's fastest-growing supplier of charging points for electric cars.

Fairbairn, aged just 34 and chief executive of Pod Point, says the UK is uniquely placed to lead the world in green technology and expects company turnover to increase twelve-fold this year to £6m as more electric vehicles (EVs) are launched on the market.

But how did he go from promoting the use of, say, a Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 (top speed 202mph, 552 horse power), to a G-Wiz (top speed 50mph, 17hp)?

He says: "To look at it another way, it was about sharing a particular asset. If people are going to use a supercar, it's better that there's one between 10. But as an entrepreneur, it's about where the market is. Green is at the forefront of thinking and that really steers what an entrepreneur has to do."

Not surprisingly, he's extremely upbeat about the future for green cars and is encouraged by a new government subsidy of up to £5,000 to help people buy an EV. "We're currently seeing a massive change," he says.

Pointing to the recent launch of Nissan's Leaf – made in Sunderland – and of EVs from Renault, Peugeot Citroen, Ford and Mitsubishi, he expects to deliver up to 10,000 Pod Points for homes and 2,500 parking-meter style street units this year. The buyer of a Leaf will get a home-charging unit free.

There is still great scepticism about EVs, however, with the Financial Times this week dismissing them as driven only by the "smug and the famous", an accusation that riles Fairbairn. "We're right at the beginning of EVs. I think it's unwise to bash an industry that has only just got started."

Fairbairn, a mechanical engineer who began his working life with Ford, already exports a fifth of Pod Point's output to Denmark and is in talks to sell products to Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain from its manufacturing base in Basildon. He plans to become European leader in this field and has cemented deals with Tesco, Ikea and Sainsbury's at home, with "green" electricity supplied by the ethical energy company Ecotricity.

London has about 2,500 EVs on its streets – more than almost any other city in the world apart from Oslo. Fairbairn expects to see 10,000 on British streets within 12 months and numbers to double each year to just under 300,000 by 2020.

Make Your Own Electric Car | GREEN VEHICLE

With the talk about all electric cars and hybrid cars, have you been thinking about your own home built electric car?

I am sure that if you are like me you at least dreamed about such an animal sitting in your garage. It does however, seem like those “things”, electric powered vehicles, are about the ugliest, smallest, most inconvenient, looking car a guy or gal could be caught in. To say that, all electric cars, are in this category though, would also be an inaccurate statement. Certainly, electric car manufacturers, have a thought on this, and could change the looks of their electric powered vehicles to something that we could all be proud to own. I am sure they will in the next few years.

Then there is the price to consider on these new cars. For most of us, they are priced way out of our range. The $35,000 to $50,000 ones are just to much, especially in these times. There are a few coming down below that now, around $15,000.

If that price is still out of range for you and you still want to join the electric car club, you could consider your very own homemade electric car. You would need some time, you would need some knowledge or expertise, you would need some type of shop with basic tools, but most of all, as with anything worth getting, you would need some desire, and as always, you would need some of the green stuff (money) to go green, however much less than a new electric car. We call these the 5 “you would need some’s” to end up with your home built electric car.

Lets start with “you would need some” time. First you will need to decide which car or pickup you want to convert to electric. By the way, out here in Kansas we call a pickup, a pickup, not a pickup truck. A pickup by my definition is a small less than 1 ton rated vehicle for light hauling purposes. A truck is used for hauling heavy payloads that require more suspension and capacity. I hope that is not confusing for you. Anyway, all electric cars have a certain amount of weight to carry in the batteries and electric motor, and other components. The more batteries equals more distance between charges. That is why small pickups work the best for, electric conversions. If you shop around, you can find a small, used pickup with a “bad” engine and replace the engine with the electric motor. This will definitely save you lots of money.

Have you ever heard this before? “We can have that engine out in 1 hour”. I have heard it, but never said it. Because, it just never seems to work that way. 4 hours later the engine is hanging from the shop hoist dripping oil, antifreeze, and greasy dirt. Yep, it is out though.

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