Of all the cars he could have picked to convert, why did Leitschuh choose the mongrel offspring of a Chevrolet Caprice and a pickup truck? Simple. He needs to haul stuff. Besides, why not convert an El Camino?
“The Civic would have a bit more range,” he said. “But which would you rather drive?”
That question answered, Leitschuh, an electronics controls engineer and owner of TDL Electronics, got to work. The project went pretty quickly, taking about 200 hours of his time over the course of six weeks. He got some help with donations from QuickCable and some hired hands to help with welding and fabrication. The tab came to roughly $30,000, which included the cost of the car and a transmission rebuild. The lion’s share of the bill went to the 46 lithium-ferrite phosphate batteries that cost him $18,000. They’re located over the front and rear axles. Because Leitschuh yanked the engine, radiator and other archaic equipment, the weight penalty for the batteries is just 750 pounds. Total output is 33 kilowatt-hours.
Awesome.