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Alternative and Advanced Vehicles

Electric Vehicle Availability

All-electric vehicles (EVs) that can operate at highway speed have been announced by several original equipment manufacturers including Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, Miles Automotive, and Nissan. Currently Tesla Motors offers a custom order, highway capable, all-electric vehicle that has a range of 220 miles per charge. Conversion kits are also available to transform a conventional light-duty vehicle into one that runs on electricity.

More common are the neighborhood electric vehicles (NEVs) that are limited to operating on roads with speed limits of 35 miles per hour or less. They are popular in gated communities, campuses, and business parks and are used for maintenance, trash collection, and passenger transportation. For information on low-speed electric vehicles, use the Light-Duty Vehicle Search.

Electric Vehicle Conversions

The cost of converting a gasoline-powered vehicle to an electric vehicle can be high. Electric cars can run on either alternating current (AC) or direct current (DC). If the motor is an AC motor, it will probably be a three-phase AC motor running at 240 volts AC with a 300-volt battery pack. A DC motor may run on anything from 96 to 192 volts.

DC installations tend to be simpler and less expensive. For a typical DC system conversion, the cost will be $6,000 to $10,000 for parts, including a motor ($1,000 to $2,000), controller ($1,000 to $2,000), adapter plate ($500 to $1,000), and batteries ($1,000 to $2,000), plus $3,500 to $8,000 for labor. AC system conversion will cost $10,000 or more for parts and $2,000 or more for batteries for these higher-voltage systems. The cost of conversion can be partially offset by lower operating costs. See the discussion of operating costs under What is an Electric Vehicle? Because conversion to all-electric power does not require U.S. Environmental Protection Agency certification, conversions are often performed by amateur mechanics and high school and college automotive training facilities.

The most popular vehicles for electric conversion are vehicles with manual transmissions, including the Volkswagen Rabbit, Porsche 914, Honda Civic, Honda CRX, Ford Escort, and air-cooled Volkswagens. For more information about general alternative fuel vehicle conversions, go to the Conversions page.

Electric Fueling Station Locations

Find electric charging stations near you.