Ben Nelson - A true green warrior

You don’t need fancy degrees to achieve your dreams. And when the dreams revolve around being environmentally friendly, who better than the self-employed video producer of Oconomowoc – Ben Nelson to illustrate it! Ben, with his zeal to follow his gut logic up to its logical application developed himself an electric car from a simple economy car.

diy plug in hybrid vehicle

A self described average guy, who couldn’t afford $24,000 for a modest car and usually ended up driving jalopies, Ben in 2008 purchased for himself at $500 a ’96 Geo Metro, a car with just a manual steering and windows and with no radio antenna that could go up or down – basically a rudimentary model as per today’s automobile literati. Call it a whim or frustration, Nelson then set out to turn this economy car electric. A rookie at car designing, Ben jump-started his dream by collecting as much literature on it as possible. He also found some people to guide him in his pursuit.

Next, Ben ripped out his car’s gas tank, radiator, engine and exhaust system and sold it for about $50 in a bid to partly fund himself. He then purchased an electric motor usually used to power warehouse forklifts as well as brushes used for current conduction in the assembly, at a garage sale for $50 each. Batteries for electric cars usually are the costliest, but Nelson managed to get himself six locally used batteries at $12 each for powering his car. Additionally he also put in a vacuum system to increase the car’s braking efficiency. In order that the batteries do not discharge while driving, Ben added a propane generator to the battery pack for its continuous charging. With this final set of assembly, the car could be driven for small errands covering 20 miles at speeds of up to 45 mph. This conversion cost Ben just $1,300, with the only drawback being that of the car getting cold in winter.

Ben’s creativity does not stop here. He’s added an electric motor to a bicycle, thereby giving it speeds of 20mph; has made electric a gas-powered motorcycle in addition to setting up a system to flush his toilets from the recycled water of his washing machine. Ben’s attempts and subsequent successes show that it’s okay to try and fail as long as we dream big and do not let go the zeal to break out of the cocoon.

Picture Gallery

DIY Geo Metro plug-in Hybrid

Via: The Daily Page