Who would have imagined that a 14-year-old boy will convert his grandpa’s 1972 Beetle into an electric one? After almost a year of building a fully operational electric vehicle, Ashton Stark is now waiting for a learner’s permit. “It is my grandpa’s 72 Super Beetle. I think he would love it and be incredibly proud of it.” he said.
He also said that the vehicle is very good for the environment because it does not use gas or oil. The 1972 Super Beetle is driven by a single cylindrical drive shaft connected to the original shaft of the Volkswagen’s transmission. The car is powered by nine separate 8 volt golf cart batteries, with four placed in the front and five in the rear.
This zero-emission electric car that churning out 72 volts can reach a top speed of 45 miles per hour and with just one single charge it can travel for 50 miles. “You could drive every day to and from work for less than 10 cents a day, and that would be if the batteries were dead when you came home. It would probably be more like two to three cents a day.” Noel Stark said.
According to Stark, the entire process costs around $4,000. In the future, he plans to build electric vehicles for others but until then he will collect data for efficiency, range and other elements of performance through an on-board computer port.
[Source: ArgusObserver]
