First off, a little about myself...

What I am not: Treehugger, Scientist, Environmentalist, Communist or Wall-Mart Shopper :') Oh, and skinny too, i'm not skinny.

What I am: I.T. Guy by trade, Technology Geek, Jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none and a Garage Dweller - Knock on the garage door, front door will get no answer.

Nuff Said, Recently, reflecting on feeding the two HEMI's in my fleet (300C and RAM 1500 QC 4X4) to the tune of $160+ per week at the pump I thought would it not be cool to offset the insanity by getting and Electric Car? $5000 worth of gas would surely get me around for a looong time but that's not the point. The point is that I would be using less gas (which is a threefold win,win,win situation) I will explain that out later. Logic dictates that if in fact the gas prices keep high like they are then you can actually "SAVE" money by getting another vehicle, Tax and Insurance aside I figure i'm blowing $640 a month in gas. If I can knock that down too say $200 (wishful thinking) then I have $440 per month to play with, sweet deal huh? not so easy to do though. Simply speaking you could go out and get yourself a $200 to $250 per mo car payment and budget yourself $200 worth of gas per mo in it and IF you can pull it off you have not only got yourself a "free" car but saved yourself wear and tear on your two other main vehicles and burned a TON less gas (that's a win - win situation). How do we get there from here? Analyze I guess, I'm no gas shopper, I need it I stop and get it. I don't look at the price until after I usually put a half tank in and glance at the pumpski. I DO always look at the total though. Same with the 300C. It's about $160 every week and prob will be near $200 in the middle of summer. So, that in mind I bought the EV, all I had to do is buy it. No other costs or gas budget. Just make sure I keep the batts charged and don't push the range thing. If use it for my around town jaunts (Home Depot, 7-11, softball games and all the kids stuff) I most certainly can knock it down to $200 a month total for both cars on fuel. I'm sure of that. 90% of my driving is that. I don't drive long distances much at all which I guess that gives me a leg up on my goal.
 
I called Detroit Edison today, apparently, they offer a discount on electricity and will install a seperate meter for the dedicated circuit that I plug the EV into. I guess there's a cap at 10,000 people per year that they will fufill but the year is half way through and they have not even come close to filling all the request. prob by middle of next year it will be a struggle too get it installed.

Well, it's been about a month now of ownership and what a fun month it has been. I had no IDEA this thing would cause quite a stir (in a good way). Lot's of people asking about it and most say they either love it and think it's cute as all get out which I agree with. The only downturn and I really hate to generalize but it really bothers me is the smart ass teenage boys, I get allot of smartass shoutouts from them (boy's only) and it's too the point now that it really bothers me (for thier sake, it's sad too see). I had no idea so many would go out of thier way to make such rude comments. Having two girls (thank god!) my only exposure to the boys growing up nowadays is the one's on my neck of town and all are so nice I don't see where the others are coming from. It's a darn good thing I don't give a crap what anyone thinks or I might be really bothered by thier comments. I had a kid it the backseat on his parents car the other day lean out and say smiling "is it worth saving the gas to drive that??" I said it's not the point, the point is I dig the technology. I get that kids can be closed-minded and not see the big picture in things but to be outwardly rude is a total different catagory which, in my opnion is a direct reflection on thier parents. It's gotta come from somewhere. Maybe when I get the chrome rims and paint job thier views will change, if not who cares. I managed too put 300+ miles on her so far and no problems at all. I had a wire pull loose from the inverter which caused some intermittent drop outs on the gauges on accelleration. No biggie but bothersome. It's fixed now. Last weekend it got quite a workout going to the fireworks and all over town several times. My Dodge brakes had surface rust on them on the following monday!!  

Base vehicle at time of purchase -

Flybo Quiet XDV3000
8 X 6 Volt Cheap Chinese LA Traction Battery Pack
48 Volt, Curtis (or knockoff) 48 non programmable controller (Replaced with Logisys 700AMP)
top speed 40 mph
range 50 miles
acceleration 0-40 mph (depends on wind direction and if your living your life right)
400-12" Tires

(see upgrade page for more details)

email = trentoncoin@hotmail.com

This is my ride (before pimping)