Can I make my Austin FX4 Black Cab an electric car?
So I’m still buzzing on Thin Mints here at Girl Scout Cookie Ground Zero, waiting to see if my daughter is going to wake up again vomiting. I know I love her as she’s the only person I’ve continued to hug her even when she’s barfing on me. This has happened twice this year so far, only once on a long haul flight. And I got to thinking.
The taxi is a big old heavy car, and it’s built like a diesel tank. In the coming week I’m going to find out exactly how heavy the engine and gearbox are as I remove them from their supports to jiggle them around. Surely there’s enough room to add a stack of batteries and a big electric motor and make an all electric vehicle. That could theoretically hold six people. Aka a mini-van.
I read this article on how to build your own Chevy Volt, which describes some different parts you could slap into a regular four seater car and make a cheaper EV than the lease-happy Chevy muppets. And then I remembered that weight is the enemy of efficiency, and that the whole concept was bananas. Smaller, faster cheaper, less people for personal transport. Bigger, slower, more people for public transport.
So maybe the LandBearShark is a better idea.