The Dream Shows up Again - Solar VW MicroBus!

The most persistent Mesquite Hugger DIY dream is to take an old van, convert it to electric power, and add solar power to the roof - a self-powered clean machine with the ability to haul a little stuff. The star of my dream is usually an old Econoline van or an old Greenbriar van. But's also been a Grumman postal truck, a Vespa Ape, a Cushman Truckster, a Subaru 360 van, a Crosley wagon and pretty much every other box-like vehicle out there. VW Microbuses have made the list on many occasions.

An email from Gear Junkie popped up this week and [BOOM] there it was - a solar-powered Microbus. Yep, they emailed me the dream.

Here's the video

The bus was built by Brett Belan from Oregon. And it's pretty standard for a converted EV, at least as long as you don't look up. When you do look up, you see a pretty hefty solar setup, over 1200 watts on a platform that tilts up to more efficiently catch some rays.

And when the panels are tilted up, it creates a great sleeping area, so Belan crafted a tent that attaches to the panels.

You can take it with you.

How's that for a room with a view?

You can learn more about the Belans' Bus here.

May you come into your own by following the sun!

Bonus electric bus (without the solar)

Electric Subaru 360 (Lane Motor Museum)

My Dream EV - My Wife's Nightmare

My greatest EV dream is a small, street-legal, electric truck. I'd happily settle for a small hybrid truck.

Apparently, my wife married a man with odd tastes. I used to drive a less shiny version of this:

Ford Econoline Pickup

And I think this is cooler than the Batmobile:

The '59 El Camino - so cool

And I have wanted one of these since I was 10 years old:



Subaru Brat

Do you see a pattern evolving here? But you may have noticed that I went through a radical conversion a few years back. The conversion has to do with finding ways to drastically reduce the damage we are doing to the planet that supports us. So now my dream vehicles burn little or no gas (or diesel or propane). I keep hoping Nissan will offer up a battery powered small truck...

El Leaf-amino? Ranchero Leafo? Leaf-Brat?

...or Toyota will pry out a Prius pickup, but it just doesn't seem to be happening. Sigh...

Prius Tote

So there I was browsing through Ebay this week when I saw a version of what I've been hoping for: a slug-bug electric truck!

The bed does seem a bit shallow.

It's definitely out of my price range.

It looks like it's a 96 volt, lead-acid battery setup and has about a 25-mile range. More  importantly, it's PDC - pretty dang cool! But I can hear my wife, "I don't get it. It can't decide if it's a car or a truck. It needs to be one or the other."

But love is blind - she told me a few weeks ago that she'd love me even if I brought home an old Ford Ranchero. Yep, she loves me!

If only it were electric. Sigh... (Find it here.)

May you haul your stuff greenly, funkily, and joyfully! (And may your baby love you, too!)

Fossil Free Friday Random: Electric Postal Trucks?!!!

Postal Truck as Solar Electric Surf Wagon(?)

 

They're like twins - right? (Find it here.)

It started, as many FFF posts do, with an ill-advised trip to Craigslist Land. That trip unearthed a $400 postal Jeep, which prompted a group email to my vehicle-mad-scientist buddies. (Me, I have wanted to build an electric rat-rod postal Jeep as one of my 400 dream projects.) One of them responded with an article stating the USPS will soon retire the Grumman LLV postal truck fleet. That made me dream of Econolines and VW Microbuses and KurbWatts and then I googled "custom Grumman LLV" and...well, it just kept going from there.

 

This one is cool - love the ladder

 

Looking good in red

 

In all my searching, I found another thing I really like - an infographic. I love infographics, and I like them even better when they make the case for electrification - bright colors, cool graphics, compelling statistics - what more could a Mesquite Hugger want? Be sure to check this one out!

See the whole infographic here

 

Where is all of this leading? Nowhere really - just another cul-de-sac on the road to electrification. But it does give a great run-down on the practical side of using electric vehicles for fleet operations. If you work for a company that has a local fleet, it's well worth the read. Heck, you may find a way to save lots of money AND create a healthier world!

 

May you enjoy the ride and may it be green!

What's Better than an EV Microbus? A Solar EV Microbus!

 

If you hang around Mesguite Hugger long enough, you're going to see an electric VW or four. VWs make great conversion candidates. They are light, plentiful, and their rear-mounted transaxles adapt easily to electric rebirth.

Green Car Reports posted 1966 Microbus today that has a lot of appeal for me. It's a green, self-fueling machine. The article is pretty skimpy on details, but it's nice to see that we get closer and closer. (The article does mention a slug-bug that's getting the same treatment.)

Classic 1966 VW Bus With Green Drivetrain: Solar-Powered Electric Motor

May you end up with clean, green transport that feeds itself.

In case you are an EV van fan too:

1957 Volkswagen Single Cab Pickup

1978 VW Westfalia

Voltabus!

A VW Microbus Hybrid, an Electric Slug-Bug, and a King Midget

Now that is what I call a "green" Bug!

Yes, I am a fan of older VWs. I have owned several and have wanted to own several others. I also like how easily VWs lend themselves to electric conversion. That leads us to the electric beetle. Yesterday I found myself with a copy of the most recent Costco Connection magazine in my hand and was intrigued by a classic car article. I flipped over to the article and was very happy to see a vintage Beetle that had not only been converted to electric, but had been converted to an impressive electric! Most electric VW conversions use golf cart batteries and have fairly unimpressive speed and/or range. This bad Beetle has a whole lot(!) of tiny 18650 batteries and is impressive in both speed and range. It delivers numbers more impressive than most new electric vehicles. The Costco article says 85 mph and a possible 200 mile range. I found a few other articles about the same car that list it as a more realistic sounding 85mph/100 miles. Either way, Nissan's Leaf and BMW's I3 have reason to be range-envious. Of course, they offer crazy extravagances like air conditioners and air bags that you never see in a vintage VW. Snagit, this thing is cool!

Here is an article/video in case you want to learn more: Green overdrive cruises the streets in an electrified $18,000 VW Bug

Another VW story that has been making the rounds this week is the re-discovery that VW engineers actually worked on a design for a hybrid VW bus in the late 1970s. In case you are into that sort of thing, here's the story from Jalopnik, which appears to be the story's initial re-surface place. Be sure to check out the great diagrams:
VW Could Have Made a Hybrid Beetle [Microbus] Over 30 Years Ago

For those of you who ponder alternate versions of history, it's nice to imagine a world where we truly pursued electric cars and solar panels after the big energy crisis in the 1970s. Hmmm... Hybrid microbuses....

This next vehicle is only tangentially related, but a King Midget was also featured in the Costco article. I love microcars but probably would not have included this one; however, there is a guy here in Lubbock who crusies around in a King Midget that looks identical to this one. Each time one of us sees it, my friends and I snap a pic and send it around to each other. It is as close as we get to a Nessie or Sasquatch sighting around here.

May your green vehicle inspire random acts of violence wherever you go. Pow! Slug-bug green - no hit backs!

The previous Mesquite Hugger Electric VW Posts:

10/21/2013 Electric Beetle Article - ElectroFahrvernugen
11/5/2013 Another Electric Beetle (VW)
1/30/2014 3 VW Microbuses: Old, New, and Electric
 2/6/2014 Vintage Electric Cars Small & Smaller OR Why I Should Be Banned from Ebay
3/3/2014 Gentlemen (and Ladies). Start Your Tivos! (VW and Citicar)
 3/4/2014 Getting Shocked by the Bug (VW)
3/31/2014 Break Out the Tie-Dye and 8-Tracks (VW)
 4/9/2014 It's been a while since MH posted an Electric VW...

Tiny Post: The perfect vehicle(s) for tiny house people?

Really, I saw a Lloyd Alter piece on TH that made me want to share my favorite print ad of all time with you: (With a little vaguely artistic license)

 It makes your [tiny] house look bigger.

The article is actually about a tribute ad that promotes bicycling and does so beautifully.

Chained to work.

May small, simple, and effective be your beauty.

The Lloyd Alter Treehugger article: Ad promoting cycling to work looks very familiar

It's been a while since MH posted an electric VW...

Well, like a week or so anyway.

This red electric Karman Ghia popped up on EVTrading Post recently. It actually looks like a decent deal on a converted EV, but my favorite part is reading the Q&A session from the local TV station posting: Defend-Your-Ride.

May you be able to defend your ride successfully!

Break Out the Tie-Dye and 8-Tracks

I could not resist! There's very little info, but here is a factory-built electric VW Microbus! Enjoy!

Volkswagen Shows Off Its 40-Year History of Electric Cars

May your bus run on electrons and grilled cheese!

IF you love food trucks and microbuses...

...this may be the story for me you!

Hot Dog - It's a VW!

May you have a phenomenal hot dog weekend!

3 VW Microbuses: Old, New, and Electric

I'm not even going to write about them. They're microbuses. Just love them from a distance!

The Last Type 2 (Gas 2)

The 2014 Microbus (LatesCar.com)

Ben Graves' Truly Awesome Microbus Conversion (EVAlbum.com)

May you have peace and keep on truckin'!

Bonus Link:

Build Your Own Nap-Time Microbus (Instructables)

Electric Beetle Article - ElectroFahrvergnügen

Slug Bug - Red! I drove a 1964 Beetle in college and I was always amazed at the amount of random violence I started just by driving around town. Friendly games of Slug Bug quickly turn into slugfests and people rolling around on the ground in pain looking for their teeth. Some days I cringed, some days I laughed, most days I just drove away as (feel free to laugh) quickly as possible.

The bug in this article may inspire a little less violence since people might not hear it coming or going.

I do not believe that everyone should own a vintage car; I don't believe that everyone should own an electric car (yet); and I especially don't believe that everyone should own a vintage electric car. If you can change the motor in your car, rewire your brother's-in-law trailer house, and your cell phone never goes dead BEFORE you plug it into the charger, you may be a good candidate to own this car. For the rest of us, the closest comparison I can think of is someone who is not quite cut out for cat ownership coming home from the mall pet store one day with a Bengal tiger cub.

So with that caveat thrown in, enjoy this article in the same way you might enjoy seeing a tiger in a zoo or a great white on Shark Week. Just fantasize about stealthily sneaking along inspiring wannabe Mike Tysons while emitting virtually no toxic gases and cruising right past all the gas stations. And if you decide to take the tiger by the tail....have fun!

Electric Slug Bug

Have a wonderful day and may your batteries never go completely dead!