Restricting fossil fuels was exactly what sustainability advocates have been wanting for decades. But without the loss of life and pollution. Right on cue, the obvious alternative, electric vehicles, or EVs, are boosted further into consciousness. In opposition, the right-wing denialists rage against the dying of the ICE age.

Bellicose Barnaby’s incoherent about no electric trucks. Well, there are, but you haven't encouraged your constituency to buy them. Sadly for Michaelia Cash, Sydney’s awash with weekend-ruining utilities. And over in the Australian newspaper, ace ICE man John Connolly pronounced the death of EVs just one week before the war. Oops.

But EVs are the future, even if there are a few wrinkles. I know a little of which I speak. Advocating and making DIY versions. There are quite a lot of lessons. Here are a few thoughts from the garage.

This is my first homemade EV, converting a 1974 Mini into all-electric 16 years ago. Replacing the engine with a motor, direct drive into the gearbox – no need for a clutch. A simple process compared to mastering the controller – essential in managing the huge voltage gradually into the motor. Otherwise, your tyres quickly disintegrate to rims that dig up the road.

Lesson one: control is vital in mastering the motor.

In turn, that is easier than batteries. Originally, lead acid (heavy, hopeless); upgraded to Chinese lithium ferrous phosphate, or LiFePO₄. Expensive then as now, but doubling in quality every three to five years.

Lesson two: Batteries are everything in EVs. You can never have enough batteries, but you never have enough cash for the ones you want.

The mighty Mini at a garden show in Wahroonga, NSW, in 2011. Hosted by Simon Marnie from ABC 702, it was available for viewing, but not driving. No engine to rev, no fluffy dice to entice.

Lesson three: No-one understands an EV by looking. You drive and never look back.

Mini 1 became a donor vehicle to Mini 2, a minivan. Same age but time to be more radical with modifications. Double headlights and a new grill in the front, and a clear hydraulic-stayed rear hatch. The photovoltaic panel on the roof doesn't drive the car; it drives the secondary battery that runs the accessories: lights, wipers, radio, indicators, horn…. If that battery goes, the whole car stops. So, a solar backup ensures it is always charged.

Lesson four: The secondary battery is of primary importance. Not only does the battery do all these jobs, it starts the car. You can't turn on 440V instantaneously; it needs a controlled start, which is what the secondary battery does first.

Next was a Mercedes-Benz 200B, seen here on display at the Sydney Olympic sheds in 2019. A display of hand-built DIY EVs by the AEVA, the Australian Electric Vehicle Association. This one didn’t last long, despite once driving Robert Llewellyn, former neurotic service mechanoid Kryten in Red Dwarf, now EV advocate nonpareil and founder of Everything Electric.

Lesson five: the more complicated the car, the harder the DIY conversion to EV. Cars with safety systems, ABS, and EMS, all depending on the motor, are hard to convert. No longer motor mechanics, all electronic engineers. The simpler the car, the simpler the conversion

Switching back to an earlier vehicle: 1974 Kombi. Converted before Volkswagen launched its EV Kombi. You notice the car is lowered? It's been chopped and channelled – a hot rod process that cuts and restitches the body (if you have a brilliant panel beater). And lowered over its channels onto Porsche wheels.

Lesson six: Wind is the enemy of all cars, particularly EVs, which burn kWh pushing too much air. All this fun we had with Mr Kombi was to reduce the windage.

Other Kombi innovations: the raised roof is cut from within the metal, not a heavy fibreglass add-on. Because the motor is only the size of the former gearbox, a drawer sits at the rear where the engine used to be.

Lesson Seven: Whilst the motor is small, the batteries are not. And heavy too. Hence, the developments in EVs are all concentrated on batteries.

Lastly, the current project. Which has been in the works for almost 10 years. A Peugeot 205, the original hatchback bandit (along with the VW Golf). Painted the corporate Ducati yellow. But too powerful for roadwork.

Lesson Eight: Electric vehicles are the way of the future. If backyard enthusiasts can create vehicles that go just as well in city traffic as any ICE car, running off a 240-volt GPO, the LNP should never have killed the car industry.

Next week. How Tesla got some of this absolutely spot on, and some hopelessly wrong

Cross-Sections are Friday musings from Tone Wheeler, formerly of Tone on Tuesday. Amateurs draw plans; professionals draw sections – never at cross-purposes.

Tone Wheeler

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