Good News: VERY Affordable Electric Cars

Okay, so you're wanting to make the move to electric, but you're not quite there on the money. I hear you! But there's more hope than most people know. With government and state EV incentives for new EVs, a public that's still pretty hesitant on going electric, and a lot of electric cars coming off of two and three year leases, there are lots of really good deals on used electric cars!

This Leaf is from Ebay too!

Before we go there, though, let's talk about the state of electric cars here in the states. Americans know very little about electric cars, their availability, and how far they've come in the last seven years or so. But don't take my word for it, check out this article from Car and Driver. The good news about these articles (for you) is that the lack of electric car awareness contributes to a lack of demand for electric cars, which also keeps the price down. So, there are bargains to be had.

I know, Talk is cheap, Mesquite Hugger. Put up or shut up!

Well, here they are - a sampling of inexpensive, late-model, and (mostly) low-mileage fully-electric cars on Ebay this week. Since this is a Lubbock-based blog, I did a few of the searches based on location. You may find some better deals closer to your locale.

All four are less than 400 miles from Lubbock!

The consistently best deals to be found are the Fiat 500e's and the Nissan Leafs. Me, I'd prefer the Leaf based on the longer history, the larger number of dealers with EV experience, and the vastly greater cargo and passenger space. But I have to admit, the little Fiats are pretty tempting if you're in the market for cuter than a bug on a rug.

Less than 350 miles from Lubbock

Keep in mind when you're looking at electric car ownership that maintenance costs and fuel costs on EV's are a great deal lower than on fossil-fuel cars. A low-priced car that is extremely inexpensive to operate - now that is truly a bargain and can do very nice things for your personal budget.

Still close to Lubbock - and cheap!

Most of the cars in this post have at least 80 miles of range, which is a lot more than most of us drive per day. For multi-car families they make a great deal of sense. And they're really great if you are interested in doing less damage to the planet. (But not as great as a bike or an electric bike.)

The least expensive electric BMW on Ebay

The BMW i3 is a very impressive car - BMW put a great deal of thought and engineering into building a car extremely well-suited to electric power.

The least expensive Ford Focus Electric on Ebay

It's not rare to find the electric Focus considerably cheaper on the Austin and Dallas Cragslist ads. They generally stay in line with Leaf prices.

The only Mitsubishi MiEV on Ebay

By most accounts, the MiEV is not the greatest of electric cars, but there's something about the funky little machine that keeps me curious. (But not at $8,600)

Smart Leaf Smart

The least expensive Tesla on Ebay.

So, there you have it. a random sampling of electric cars on Ebay this week. All of these are fully electric. If you've been leaning more toward Plug-in hybrids, they are out there too, but they tend to be a little more expensive. Search for the Ford C-Max Energi and Fusion Energi, the Chevy Volt, and Toyota Prius if you are curious.

May you find planet-friendly solutions much more accessible than you ever dreamed, and may you drive (or pedal) cleanly.

PS. If you want to know a little more about all-electric, hybrid, and plug-in hybrids, be sure to check out this Mesquite Hugger post from 2015.

Fossil Free Friday: Hope for a Vintage E-Vespa Kit

Vintage. Retro. Classic. Old school.

It's a rough thing sometimes to be a reformed gashead.

Old cars, trucks, motorcycles, they still turn my head.

 

Oh, the choices - but I prefer all those on the left!

 

But that whole gasoline thing messes it all up. Yes, cool vintage vehicles still turn my head, but if it burns gas, I don't want it.

No room for negotiation on this one.

 

For me, there is no vehicle more enjoyable than a vintage scooter, I am especially fond of old Vespas. But there's that whole messy gas-and-2-stroke-oil-destroying-our-ability-to-live-and-breathe issue thing that ruins the whole thing.

 

Here and there I run across news of someone who is working to create a green upgrade for old scooters (and the people who love them). Keith (good friend and accomplished Vespa restorer) shared one such venture with me earlier this week, and I am smitten!

 

Unlike almost all Vespa electric conversions I have seen, this one does not use a hub motor in a redesigned swingarm - this one uses the original swingarm, transmission, and clutch. The top-end of the engine is replaced with a specially designed brushless motor conversion. Ah, the best of both worlds. More power, no emissions, and you still get to chunk through those original gears! Sweetness!

 

ScooterLab UK - Stoffi FlowEr Power Vespa Interview (Video included)

 



Here are my two favorite quotes from the video:

 

"The guy who is doing this [at CRANK-e], he is a freak, and he's doing it perfect!"

"There will be, for the future, a kit." (!!!!!!!!!) 

 

Stoffi's Garage is an Austrian Vespa shop known for their high-quality work and components. I am excited to see them working on green alternatives for vintage eco-dorks like me! The electric motor setup is from an Austrian company called CRANK e. It is a very cool design. They refer to it as an electric crankshaft.

 

May your inner eco-dork be granted its greenest wish!

 

PS. The video also mentions a kit for the Vespa Ape (3-wheeled pickup), the large-frame Vespa, and the Lambretta. Whoohoolio!!!

Fossil Free Friday: Electric Cars Exist - Really!

No fooling!

 

 

The actual car I drove this week. Really! This is no April Fools joke. It does not burn gas!

Earlier this week, I went to do a little presentation about electric cars at a local event. My friend Matt graciously let me borrow his Nissan Leaf. (It's such a pleasure to drive a Leaf - thanks, Matt!)

For me (on a selfish side) taking the Leaf killed my presentation. No one saw my powerpoint slides. No one scanned my QR code to see the big page o' links I put together just for the presentation. I put in a whole lot of work for nothing.

But the Leaf made my point much better than the presentation ever could have.

You see, electric cars thrill me. Every Nissan Leaf, Chevy Volt, Ford Energi, BMW i3, i8, or Tesla I spot makes my heart leap. Mostly, I just see Leafs and Volts. I get this endorphin/adrenaline surge each time I see any of them - yes, I am fully aware that I am an eco-dork. (Maybe I need a t-shirt!) I live and breathe electric vehicles. And I thought that everyone knew about them.

No one in Lubbock knows that electric cars exist.

 

I put a lot of work into this sucker!

But a funny thing happened when I was showing off the Leaf. No one quite knew what it was. When I explained why there was no tailpipe, I got a lot of crazy looks. My favorite question was this: "How does this compare to my friend's [Toyota] Prius?" It took a few sentences to get across the idea that they are not the same animal. Yes, they both use some electric stuff, but only the Leaf burns NO GAS.

No gas tank.
No tailpipe.
No oil to change.
No gas stations where you suck in harmful vapors.
No noise pollution.
Fewer moving parts to wear out.
And you can charge it up in the privacy of your own garage - very cheaply!

 

Lubbock people just weren't ready for it.

I took 8 people for rides in it. They were stunned at the quiet. They were stunned at the quick. They were stunned at the roominess. They were stunned that riding in it was a normal car experience. (To be fair, four of these people who rode in the Leaf knew it was electric - my wife and three guys who put up with my electric obsession over coffee every morning. Thanks for coming, Grizz, Knippa, and Cptn Kirk!)

Look Ma! No gas!

 

May you tell one person today that electric cars are real and can help us heal our world. (If you need help explaining, try starting here.)

 

PS. Yesterday. we finally got to see the Tesla Model 3 and learn details - a huge day in electric car history.

 

Dang, that thing is cool! (Green Car Reports article)

An Electric Vehicle I am Even More Excited about! (Big Rig!) UPDATED

[Well, Snagit all to Midland! If it sounds too good to be true... Steve Hanley on Gas2 printed a follow-up story today that shows this story is probably a falsehood. I apologize for relaying the info without further research. Hold onto the dream, y'all! Oakridge Battery Breakthrough Appears to Be Vaporware]

 

Today's electric truck news is even bigger than this!

Yesterday I posted about the Morgan EV3, which is a work of art and a dream come true and lots of stuff like that. Unfortunately, it's also a rich man's toy that will get driven once in a great while and will make very little positive environmental impact. (But it is nice to dream.)

So let's head in the other direction. Maybe something hyper practical that can make a huge positive impact...

How about a big, electric, made-in-the-USA truck that can haul 80,000 pounds and has a 400 mile range? Yep, that'd do it.

Freedom Trucking of Minnesota is working with Oakridge Global Energy Solutions of Florida to create just such a truck. Freedom hopes to run these trucks  from Minneapolis to Chicago daily beginning later this year. This is huge! Replacing big truck diesel-powered miles with electron-powered miles could drastically reduce our carbon release. If the trucking company embraces solar charging, the impact could be even greater.

For you locals, this truck could run from Lubbock to Dallas with battery power to spare. Just two of those trips could have more positive impact on the environment than a full year of me riding a bike to work while leaving the car at home. Huge, I tell you! I am ready to see cash for clunkers on big rigs! We could have us a convoy of mean, clean, and green!

If you want to learn more, check out this article from Steve Hanley on Gas 2.

May this convoy get started and may we all breathe easier!

Personal Carbon Reduction: Electric Car Very Basic Orientation

I rode to work in a diesel hybrid this morning. And it was a pretty luxurious ride (in comparison with the bicycle I rode Monday-Wednesday). At this point, you are probably thinking to yourself Where did the Mesquite Hugger come up with a diesel hybrid? Well, it's not mine. It belongs to Citibus. And it's a beast! But hey, how many of you can say you rode in a diesel hybrid lately? Or any kind of hybrid lately? How much does the average person even know about hybrids or other big-battery assisted cars? Let's talk about these cars.

This morning's chariot

 

(If you know all about this stuff, just move along. I just meet a lot of people who have not yet learned the differences and express surprise when you mention the difference between a Volt and a Leaf.)

Let's start with the simplest - the battery-electric vehicle.

 

The BEV is the simple one here. If you crave simplicity, this is the car for you. These cars require extremely low maintenance because there are so few moving parts. They are also the greenest and most efficient of the bunch. They also keep you out of gas stations - you can fill up at home.

 

Many detractors make noise about getting power from dirty coal-powered utility companies (which is a legitimate complaint to a very small degree) but two things make this option much greener than most anything else. First, the pollution from extracting, transporting, and burning coal is still less than the same process for extracting, transporting, distributing, and dispensing of petroleum products like gas and diesel. Second, we are seeing impressive growth in the amount of renewable energy being offered by utility companies. As the electric power being offered gets cleaner, so does the environmental friendliness of your vehicle.

 

If that's not good enough for you, however, there is another option that can make your BEV extremely clean - go solar at home. If you combine home solar power with an electric car, you will have an extremely low carbon footprint (and a much better return on both investments.)

 

The weakness of the BEV comes in two parts: range and charge time. You need to do a little math and answer a few questions before you commit to a BEV. How many miles do you plan to drive per day? How often do you take road trips? BEV's are especially good for two-car families. A friend and his wife just traded in an SUV on a Nissan Leaf. They have found an overall savings of $600 per month when they factor in fuel, payments, and insurance; and his wife has found the Leaf to be a much more enjoyable drive. Do the math and see how it works out for you.

 

By the way, battery life (and replacement cost) has been a big worry for early BEV buyers, but that is turning out to be much less of an issue than was feared.

 

Common and (somewhat) readily available BEVs are the Nissan Leaf, the Kia Soul EV, the BMW i3, all Teslas, and the Mitsubishi MiEV.

 

Others that are less readily available include the Fiat 500e, the Ford Focus EV, and the Chevrolet Spark EV. These cars have only been offered in restricted numbers and places and are often referred to as compliance cars.

 

---------------------------------------------------------

 

Next, the Hybrid. Environmentally speaking, the hybrid is a big step up from conventional gas-motored cars. And the same is true for their efficiency. Many hybrid models consistently maintain average fuel economy in the mid-40's (mpg). The Toyota Prius regularly delivers averages in the 50's.

 

 

There are many models of hybrid out there. Be sure to do a little research before buying one - not all hybrids are created equal. Be sure to learn the difference between a serial hybrid and a parallel hybrid. (I am a bigger fan of the serial models.)  My wife really wants the Kia Optima Hybrid. I keep wishing that Toyota would create a small hybrid pickup or that Ford would send me a C-Max for Christmas.

 

Some of the more common hybrids out there include the Toyotas - three Priuses, the Camry, the Highlander, and the Avalon; the Hondas - Accords, Civics, CR-Z's, and Insights; the Ford Fusion and C-Max; the Kia Optima; and the Hyundai Sonata. BMW and Lexus also offer hybrid models.

 

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The PHEV: it's complicated, but probably worth it.

 

So you can't decide between the BEV and the hybrid? You should probably check this category out. Ideally I would like for our household to have a BEV and a PHEV.

 

 

Essentially, the PHEV acts as a BEV for a certain distance and then turns into a hybrid when you travel beyond the battery-only range. For instance, if your PHEV has a battery-only range of 40 miles but you take a trip of 60 miles, at the forty-mile mark your gas engine will kick on and keep you going until you reach your destination (or run out of gas).

 

There are lots of accounts out there of PHEV owners who end up driving their cars for months at a time without filling up. Your results may vary.

 

The most commonly seen PHEV in my part of the world is the Chevy Volt. The Volt has very high customer satisfaction and reliability ratings. It also offers much more impressive battery-only range than most competitors. There seems to be news of more PHEV's hitting the market all the time. After the Volt, Fords and Mitsubishis seem to be the more common ones. The BMW i3 can also become a PHEV if you order it with the optional range-extending engine. Porsche and BMW also offer some higher-end PHEV's.

 

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I hope this helps. Which one is right for you? Which one would you enjoy the most? What would your dream ride(s) be? May the answers come to you and be the right ones. As for me, I may have found my dream ride:

 

 

PS. Did anyone notice that I made it all the way through that article without mentioning my desire for a Citicar?

 

Living the dream!



 

 

 



More ElectroPigeon Progress!!!

It's been a great Saturday morning! An hour of coffee/writing/blogging followed by two hours of shop time - I feel quite wealthy today!

ElectroPigeon 1 is now a frame and fork. I was excited to learn that both Pigeons are rare birds - they both have front brakes!!!! (You probably have to be me to be that excited about it.)

The EVT 168 came out of storage...

...and went on a drastic diet.

 

All that so that we could get to this - a 10" brushless hub motor (48 volt), a disc brake, and a swingarm. This will be motivation and stopping for the pigeon.

Just in case you were wondering, this used to be the Pigeon's motivation - a 4-stroke 4.5 horsepower motor.

There is a little welding to done, but the EVT swingarm fits in pretty nicely - definitely better than expected. And, using a hub motor definitely leaves a lot of space for the batteries and controller. It also helps to keep the center of gravity low.

The original front inner tube - it's red rubber! A Yokohama - made in japan!

May your projects flourish!

Vintage Electric Car in Mister Rogers' 'hood!

Blogging for me is one step closer to a 25-year dream that I have clung to - the PBS life. I have watched guys like Rick Steves (travels in Europe with an all access pass), John Viehman (mountain biking the Great Divide, kayaking rapids, and sea kayaking with orcas), and Bob Phillips (driving around Texas talking to crazy interesting people) navigate lives that any overactive brain would kill for on the PBS or [plug in your favorite adventure travel channel] sponsor budget. And these guys have one thing in common - they are boring guys living exciting adventures. I want to live the PBS life!

Today, I found another example of the PBS-life adventure in a very unlikely locale - Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. Green Car Reports featured an episode of MRN where Mr. Rogers visited an electric car factory, Electric Vehicle Industries, and was allowed a test drive. From the accents, I'm thinking the cars were built in Massachusetts or thereabouts. The episode aired in 1981. I found myself on youtube right away. Oh, the envy! (I tried to tour the Zero Motorcycle factory once, but I never had much luck communicating with them. Life has been much less frustrating since I sold my Zero.)

Mr. Rogers Electric Vehicle and Divorce (complete episode from youtube)

The vehicles in the show were powered by 16 lead-acid batteries (96 volts) driving a GE motor coupled with a front-wheel-drive transaxle. Very ugly-cool machine. Ironically, the episode deals with divorce, electric cars, and excessive airplane fuel consumption. If I brought this particular car home, my wife might consider jumping on a plane and filing for divorce. (Just kidding - my wife is entirely too supportive of my ugly electric car obsession.) Mr. Rogers even talks about how cool an electric airplane would be.

May your neighborhood be filled with people who care enough to drive electric!

Minipost: A Tale of Two Vans

It was the best of vans. It was the worst of vans. That blue beast-box is my last van - a 1961 Ford Econoline. I miss it a great deal - in theory.

In reality, it handled terribly, had poor brakes, smelled always of gas and exhaust, was hard to see out of, was incredibly hot/cold/noisy inside, and it liked to overheat. I bought it for myself on my 40th birthday. I kept and drove it for five years. It now lives in Paris - Paris, Texas that is.

I had grand plans for the EconoBox. I wanted to two-tone it in torquoise and white. And I wanted to convert it to electric. It had lots of virtues as an electric donor, especially if I built it for town speeds and not for highway travel. It was light, simple, and had lots of room for batteries. And it had a roof that could accommodate a fair amount of solar power. No more than I drive, it could have been a self-powered machine.

And it was a really great way to meet people - everyone loved that thing. And everyone had a story or a dream that somehow involved a similar van. It could have been a great electric vehicle ambassador!

But I have come to a harsh reality over the last few years - I am a blogger, not a do-er, so I sold the van to a Paris guy who had dreamed of owning one for 20 years.

All of that was just to say that I really like funky electric vans.

Luke's 1980 Jet Electravan

On evalbum.com today I saw an Electravan that is pretty cool and that I would love to drive and all that good stuff, but the reason I wanted to share it with you is to offer you the same chuckle I had when reading its seating capacity:

5 people or 15 clowns. I just built a 
seatback to make the battery box into a 
back seat. Apparently this was a 
factory option. Had 3 skinny people 
back there yesterday and they said it 
was fine. 3 skinnies can squeeze 
across the front too, but it is trouble 
for shifting/emergency brake. With a 
smaller battery box it could be 
configured for 3 rows of seats for 
small people. Which would be 
hilarious.

The moral of this story - maybe funky electric van drivers are just as much fun as funky electric vans.

May your green transportation fill you and others with mirth - that would definitely explain electric car designs such as the Leaf and MiEV.

Ps. That van has the same size tires as my Vespa - it is tiny!

Ready for a new Tesla with a super-low carbon footprint?

Finally, a Tesla for the masses!

Check out this Gas2 article for further details: Gas2: New Tesla Announcement

May we all be this lean and green, and may you have a wonderful day!

Stealthified Vintage Ram!

Nothing new here:
I love vintage vehicles.
I love electric vehicles.
I love vintage electric vehicles.

Apparently, many of you do too.

{{Warning - Blogger Chases-a-Rabbit Paragraph}}
Mesquite Hugger is my first attempt at blogging. One thing that was a nice surprise for me as a beginning blogger was being able to look at basic stats on visitors to the blog. I can see how many page views there are each day, where people are finding the blog, which country the readers are located in, and other basic info like that. (Someone from Réunion read an entry recently. I had to look the country up and read the Wiki. Now I want to go there! MH also has a surprising number of vsits from the Ukraine. Who knew?)

A surprise runaway post lately is one I wrote back in April. There was little interest in it when I posted it, but it has developed a second life lately. It has had 30 views in the last month, which is really heavy traffic for this little ol' blog from Lubbock. It deals with vintage scooter, moped, and minibike EV conversions that I have admired. The rat rod bikes and bike trailers also get more views than the average posts, as do posts about electric VWs.

So, today when I ran across a Gas 2 post about a Kentucky man who  converted his '39 Dodge Pickup to be an electric with range and speed capabilities very similar to a Nissan Leaf. I knew you would be as excited to learn more about it as I was. Snagit, this thing is cool!!!

Why is Lexington man's 1939 Dodge pickup so quiet? Its secret may surprise you

Pickups from this era are great candidates for conversion - light weight, sturdy frames, easy access for working, inherent coolness and inherent function. Plus, it's hard to beat a Ram hood ornament!

May your recycled green transportation be this cool too!

Another Modern Vintage Electric Scooter Is Born - Cezeta!!!

My favorite way to get around, bar none, is to ride a vintage scooter. For me, a scooter combines the joy of riding a motorcycle with the aesthetics of cruising in an old car. And there is a dash of humor that brings it all together.

My favorite album cover of all time!

The obsession: If you want the opportunity to hear me talk for hours with hardly a breath taken, ask me about some old scooter or other - consider yourself warned. I purchased my first Vespa about twenty-five years ago, and it has been an obsession since. One my first conversations with my wife happened when she asked about my Vespa t-shirt. Our wedding invitation featured us on a Vespa, and some of our best times together are still spent riding a scooter...

The conflict: I ran into an ethical problem a while back. I started realizing just how badly we fans of internal combustion engines have been damaging our chances (as a planet) of continuing to live and breathe. And most vintage scooters are surprisingly heavy polluters. Since most of them get great gas mileage, you would think they would have a light footprint, but the old two-stroke motor design creates vastly worse emissions than most modern vehicles. For example, my 1980 Vespa emits much more greenhouse gas per mile than a modern Cadillac Escalade or even the old Plymouth Road Runner I drove to high school. Old scooters are extremely bad for the environment.

A solution: Several years back, I came up with the (ahem) perfect solution. I put an electric motor into a vintage Vespa. And it came out great. Reliable, quick, reasonable range, and a blast to ride. But I did miscalculate a bit. It will run 28mph. And 28mph is not a realistic speed for getting around town where I live. It's too fast on a bicycle and way too slow for something that mixes with SUVs and such. (Also, my design work on the scooter left me without a place to park my size 12 feet while riding.)

So, I have two great Vespas in the garage, neither of which gets ridden much.

A dream solution: I mentioned Vespas, but I love most vintage scooters. For years I have kept my eye out for a good deal on a motorless Silver Pigeon or an Allstate Jetsweep/Cushman Road King because they both look like great electric conversion candidates - and so I could be cool like Bo Diddley. (See photo above.) Both of these scooters would provide more room for batteries and for access. And your second draft is usually a little better than your first, right?

A Silver Pigeon - so cool!

A Euro Turn-key Solution: Why am I telling you all of this? Because there was a thread on Endless-Sphere.com this morning that got me all excited. Yet another oddball Vintage Euro Scooter has been re-born as an electric. And, of course, I want one. I present to you the Cezeta 506 Electric! (Follow all of the links - cool stuff!)

Check out the Cezeta!

Another Euro Turn-key Solution: And, in case you want to see another modern electric vintage scooter that has been around a few years now, here is the e-Schwalbe: (You may want to translate this page.)

May the electric wind scooterize your hair!

Lubbock Electric Drivers - Get Together?

National Drive Electric Week is coming up - September 15-21. If you go to that first link and look at the map, you will notice a big honking gap in the map over West Texas and all of New Mexico. We are an EV wasteland.

Motorcycles:
I did ride the electric motorcycle to work this morning. I have never seen another street-legal, electric motorcycle in town, but I hear rumors that there is another Zero lurking about.

Bicycles:
Once in a great while, I see someone riding an electric bicycle, maybe two per month. (And I look closely for those.)

Cars:
I see more and more Leafs and Volts, but they are still rare enough for me to notice them. I occasionally see a Ford PHEV - the Fusion or the C-Max. There was a Wheego on Craigslist a little while back, but I never actually saw it. And there's the guy with the really cool electric Opel GT I saw cruising on Milwaukee Avenue once.

1973 Electric Opel GT

Overall, though, for a population center of more than 300,000 people, Lubbock has very few electric vehicles on the streets. And the only "public" charging station that I am aware of is at the local Nissan dealer.

So, when I read of electric vehicle get-togethers, I think, "How much gasoline would I have to burn to take my EV to an EV rally?" Hmm...It feels like some purpose is being defeated on that one.

So how about it?
Electric Riders/Drivers, does anyone want to get together in September to swap stories and admire clean green machines? Nissan, Ford, or Chevy dealers, would you like to invite us over for a cup of coffee and a no-pressure test drive? Or, more realistically, Keith, would you like to borrow your wife's electric bicycle and meet up for a cool beverage some evening?

May the EV revolution be lead by you, and may it be televised!

AutoblogGreen NDEV Story

Seriously - watch The IT Crowd already!

Walter Mitty-ism, the Electric Mazda, and the TZero (Part 1)

Sure, I really enjoyed the Ben Stiller movie, but I am thinking James Thurber short story here.

A Little Help for Stifling Your Inner Mitty

I suffer a lot of Mitty-ism these days. Some tiny little trigger sends my brain off on a tangent, and it's hard to get back on track. More often than not, my episodes deal with building things, with starting or finishing projects. Most of my close friends these days seem to suffer the same. When we find three or more together at a table, these construction fantasies dominate the conversation and we discuss how to make that happen for the dreamer du jour and the best ways to go about it.

(Picture this truck sitting silently, covered in dust)

The electric Mazda: a few years ago I found myself with more money and optimism than brains. I brought home someone else's half-finished project, a Mazda pickup that was half-converted to electric propulsion. The guy who sold it to me was a nice guy who did great work and bought quality components. He abandoned the project when he bought a Nissan Leaf. He sold it to me at a loss, and seemed happy to see it go.

I have done nothing with it. Zero, Zed, Zilch.

But I have Mittyed the tar out of that little truck. I have steadily upgraded it from 48 to 72 to 96 to 120 to 144 volts. I have built it with big heavy free batteries. I have soldered thousands of laptop batteries together for it. I have bought used Leaf and Volt batteries. I have plopped down the cold hard cash (from selling other projects) for some phenomenal battery packs that would make range anxiety nonexistent. I have built my own controller, bought a new controller, traded for a used controller. Ditto for the battery charger.

I'd like for it to become my main transport, so I have extended its range by building it as a serial hybrid. I have added a pusher trailer, a generator trailer (solar, gas, or veggie-oil powered), and a camper top with lots of solar panels. I have even built a solar carport for it at the house.

May I write part 2 soon, and may your inner Mitty bring you to a productive place.

A new twist in green scootering - hemp!

(Thanks to Keith, MH's most dedicated reader, for sharing this)

I know the development did not go this way, but I picture a couple of Dutch guys sitting around with a pile of scooter parts, a pile of hemp fiber, and a vat of glue. "Dude, Demetrius, like, what are we gonna do with all this stuff?" "I don't know Ibrahim, but maybe we need get out and see the world. If only we had a scootmobiel..."

Hemp and flax fiber body panels

Enjoy the article for yourself at Wired.com.

May you scoot in renewable silence and joy!