Mini-me with an extension cord, please!

By Dan Estabrook - October 21, 2008 The UK will deliver the first all-electric Mini Cooper to the U.S. at the Los Angeles Auto Show on November 19.  Following its debut in the freeway capital of the world, BMW will make about 500 of the "Mini E" available to selected corporate and private customers in New York, New Jersey and California. The company will lease the cars in a one-year agreement, at the end of which BMW will ship the cars back to the factory for testing to refine the electric technology.  While the cars are small to begin with (although at 5'8" I fit into one perfectly), the tight backseat is gone from the Mini E to accomodate a bulky lithium-ion battery pack with a maximum capacity of 35 kilowatt-hours.  The battery technology was developed by U.S. electric car startup Tesla Motors. You can read more about the Mini E here. Can't get your hands on the Mini E and want to go electric? You can follow the example of Texas teenager Lucas Laborde who spent only $10,000 to convert his gas-powered car to one that runs on batteries.

Luke’s EV is based on a kit car, known as a Bradley GT II, which his father bought on eBay for just $5000 splashing out a further $5700 on electric conversion parts and batteries. The rest was left up to Luke’s ingenuity and technical know-how.

After 150 hours of work, Luke had hooked up eight 80-pound lead-acid batteries in the space left after removing the fuel tank, as well as several other ‘creative locations.’ He finished up with an EV capable of travelling 40 miles between charges, a top speed of 45mph, (more than enough for the local school run), and heaps of low-end torque. As Luke told reporters, “it has a lot of power.”

The car does have some issues: the batteries weigh too much, causing the fiberglass chassis to torque. I do give kudos to Laborde for showing up many of our so-called "green" car companies with an affordable alternative vehicle.  That's quite a summer project! Read more about the Texas teenager here. Via Bloomberg.com and Gas 2.0