DIY project that takes charge

Chris Northover PHOTO/FILE

Whatever age you are, it is not a bad thing to stretch yourself. To take on challenges that you know will require every bit of inventiveness and every organisational skill you possess; to tax your brain to just before breaking point.

Some people build their own houses; some start up their own businesses; some lose weight and others try to stop smoking.

I decided to build an electric car. I had done a lot of "shed work" before and I was very used to dealing with bureaucracy. What more did I need?

But why an electric car? I clearly got the timing wrong on this one - I thought that world events would have pushed up the price of petrol beyond three or four dollars a litre by now or at least made it hard to get.

Nevertheless, it is still better to pay a few cents per kilometre to run your car than, say, 24 cents every kilometre just for petrol. And that is just for fuel - running costs of a petrol vehicle can easily double that.

It took me about two years from initial "bright idea" to driving off in my own electric car. There were various times when my friends came round and found me close to despair; there was a lot of work to do; circuits and parts to design, and equipment to purchase.

My neighbour came over one afternoon and found me sick and depressed wondering how I was going to get the energy to weld up the battery trays in the boot. Next Saturday he was there with his welder.

I didn't even know if it would all work once I had got it together, such was the new and untried technology I was using. But it does go - and up to expectations. Except that I wish it would travel further on each charge.

But never mind, it goes further between charges than I would generally travel in a day. It can travel around town at the same speeds as other cars but up, say, Portal St hill it is down to 45/kmh. No one seems to mind.

Building such a beast is not for the faint-hearted - or the sane. There are other options available which can be bought brand new, but they are very expensive. For instance, the fantastic Tesla "S" electric car is likely to cost $120,000 to $160,000. A new Nissan Leaf would be $69,000, and a Holden Volt is $75,000. You can buy a near new Nissan Leaf import for $30,000, but it may be hard to get serviced.

All of the above cars are of the "plug-in", no-petrol, battery-only variety which are very cheap to operate. The Toyota Prius and the like are hybrids, which still use petrol only, just less of it.

My favourite option, if I was to do it all again ("Fat chance" say the domestic authorities) would be to start with a Toyota Prius or similar, modify it with more batteries, and make that into a "plug-in" car.

That would be useful, because it would also have a petrol engine for going on long trips - or to get up steep hills.

Until then, my mates are getting used to me turning up to see them, and asking if I can "plug in" to their power... just to ensure that I can get home.