Electric Car Conversions in Calgary

I had a comment from a while back that I missed and I want to apologize for my tardiness.

I did do a little research into electric car conversions happening in Calgary and there are not very many. It seems people will send the car away to be converted. There is a fellow in Calgary who has converted an older Saturn car to electric and a Kawasaki motorcycle. Neat story and has lots of pictures and links for the do-it-your-self type of person.

On the note of fuel economy in gas vehicles, my wife and I did some testing with our two vehicles. We were starting to become appalled that our newer vehicle, a 2007 Dodge Caliber, was not getting its advertised mileage rating on the highway. Well I was anyway, Stephanie thought it was doing fine.

I remembered a few years ago it was recommended in an auto magazine that to reduce fuel mileage you just have to drive a little slower. We put it to the test. On the highway our Caliber can get about 34-35MPG (Imperial Gallons) traveling at 100-110km/h. We slowed our speed down to 90km/h and we were able to get 38-39MPG on several separate trips to different locations.

I was intrigued and tried it with the Saturn SL1 we have. Driving fairly aggressively and at typical highway speeds I was getting varied mileage, an average of about 36-38MPG. I tried driving at 90km/h on a couple highway trips and I was able to get several tanks of fuel higher than 40MPG, one wa 45MPG!

The downside to driving slower, other than having to leave and extra 5 or 10 minutes earlier for a 100km trip, is that you have to be sure you are not becoming a hazard to other drivers. The Queen Elizabeth II highway here in Alberta is getting very busy and people drive fairly quickly (not uncommon for people to average 120-125km/h) and so be careful you don't block too much traffic.

Well I hope the commentator on my previous electric car post finds this post and hopefully it helps a fair bit.