Electric transportation on the cheap

January 31, 2008 by admin | 0 comments

Fully electric transportation is still years off for the modern consumer. Sure, anyone can snag a Segway for about four thousand dollars on eBay, but as far as full sized cars go; don’t bet on it. The closest thing to an electric car right now is the Tesla roadster and that bad-boy will run you about $100,000 when it hits the market in a few months.

The next obvious alternative would be to buy a Hybrid, unless you’re geeky enough to try and build an electric vehicle yourself. Canadians Darin Cosgrove and Ivan Limburg decided to do just that with as little money as possible, the two created their Frankenstein of a vehicle out of a Geo modified with some gadgets from an electric forklift and golf cart. And get this, the whole project clocked in at $672 after the guys sold off spare parts such as the Geo’s engine and fuel tank.

Their EV is said to go up to 40 MPH with a range of around 15 miles, perfect for a suburban commute. The duo claims that both speed and distance could have been increased had they used newer batteries. As per their latest update, it seems that the “ForkenSwift” has been deemed street legal after inspection.