Got some funny looks at Corley services at the weekend

[moggy]

On the way back from Bug Jam I stopped off for some juice at Corley Services on the M6. I had some guy in a diesel BMW come over and tell me I can't park there 'cos it's for electric cars. He had a surprise when I showed him my back end



I think I need glasses though, as I'm struggling to read the instructions on the charger like some old man

[Bootsy]

Love to read more about the car and some pics of what's in there

[moggy]

Love to read more about the car and some pics of what's in there

Best place to find out more is on our https://www.facebook.com/electricclassiccars page. But in short this one is about 100 mile range, 0-60 in about 8 seconds, runs on LiFePo batteries, regenerative breaking (i.e. charges the batteries back up when coasting and/or breaking), CSP discs on the front and bigger anti roll bar, it has 2 modes switchable by a little switch on the dash (eco mode and power mode). It's a blast to drive and quite frankly has become addictive, I simply can't bring myself to drive a car that burns dead dinosaur juice anymore, the electric bug is simply way more fun in every way. I know that sounds weird for a major petrol head such as I but it's a fact and there it is I'm converted to electric and I'm not going back Weight distribution has moved forward now as well so it's one of the best handling bugs I've ever driven, more like a 914 feel to it now.

Here's some pics of the red beetle:







I'm now working on my next project, a 1303 with 200 mile range and 0-60 in 5 seconds, which will be used as our daily driver - should be fun. Just call me Moggy Musk

[yoda]

Looking very cool Moggy, must meet for that cup of tea next time we are up your way for a drive. Loving the bug ....... let me know when you do a souped up version, would love to have a car like that for city driving!

[Bootsy]

Very impressive work

[orkneydave]

Very impressive! I have seen a couple of 914s on the internet with similar conversions and am considering the same for when I rebuild my MGB.

[Burma-Shave]

Awesome, nice work and a nice niche to get into. I'd love to convert my 2CV one day.

Hope you told the BMW driver to take a hike and take his polyaromatic hydrocarbons, particulates and nitrogen dioxide with him..

[Tosh]

Awesome!

[Magnum]

That is awesome and looks brilliantly engineered! Can I ask a question I've been too scared to ask until now?

Is the overall/nett impact of an electric car genuinely better than a petrol car (forget diesel....you just have to live in London and catch a bus to realize that's evil)...

After all, the electricity is produced by mining coal, shipping this far distances and then burning. Alternatively drilling oil, extracting/fracking for gas or mining uranium. This electricity is then transmitted across a grid network which loses electricity through inefficiencies (transmission losses in wires, through transformers etc).

I guess I'm not factoring in renewable energy but this is just fractions at the moment?

Honest question and ready to learn!

REgards

[moggy]

Always plenty of tea and biscuits for all who venture into the deepest darkest depths of mid-wales here Yoda. I usually build these cars to customer specifications so let me know if you're serious and I'll build you what you want/need . Most of these cars end up in London and get used as cool city cars. Anything aircooled is good for me or Imp, Fiat 500, Volvo P1800, etc The red beetle will be available for sale end of August, as I usually put 1000 miles of daily driving on the clock and 2 months of ownership before I'm comfortable to let them go to a new owner.

Magnus - Best article I've read on your question is here: http://shrinkthatfootprint.com/electric-cars-green

Personally my electric cars are mostly charged up from the solar panels on my workshop roof rather from grid electric.

[911hillclimber]

And that last sentence is crucial imho, the VERY best way to deal with an electric car esp if you can store daytime solar energy and dump it into the car overnight even if you loose 30%, sure is a good reserve to get every day.

Impressed.

Hope the BMW driver was too.

[Timo]

Hats off Moggy, that's really cool and looks really nicely done too.

We were also at Bug Jam and extremely impressed by the black electric powered drag beetle, such amazing power off the line! and constant delivery, think it did a 1/4 mile in 8.5 seconds from memory - pretty dam impressive!

Never thought I would go back to a beetle but this has got me thinking.

[smallspeed]

Great looking car I'd really love to go electric moving forward, esp as we have free 3ph charging at work!

I asked the exact same question several times and never got an answer until I spoke with someone at AMG during the press event for the electric SLS - the engineer reckoned on mixed source electricity as found in mainland Europe, it was around 5g CO2 / KM which is pretty hard to beat with petrol or diesel!

[Tosh]

After watching too much Binky..am wondering if a mini could be converted.

[keith fellowes]

Excellent work there Moggy.
My wife wants that red Beetle! Her question, do they do them in automatic!!!!!

Regards
Keith