BY CAMILLA MORTENSEN
Battery Powered
Who built the electric truck?
S
cott Ankeny hasn’t made an elec-
tric car, but his electric pickup
truck can go 70 mph.
Ankeny, a mechanic at Wagon Works
in Eugene, got the instructions from a kit,
bought a used Toyota pickup and a lot (24
in all) of six volt golf cart batteries. He
uses his battery-powered truck to drive to
work in Eugene from Junction City and to
run errands.
But unlike many plug-in cars that are
small and almost toy-like in appearance,
Ankeny’s truck can carry a big load in the
pickup’s bed.
Hidden beneath the truck bed are 17 of
the batteries used to power the vehicle.
The rest are stashed beneath the hood.
They come to a total of 144 volts, a fact
that is labeled on the side of truck and
under the hood to alert rescuers in case of
an accident.
There’s no evidence to suggest electric
cars are more dangerous in an accident
than gasoline or diesel vehicles. According
to Electro Automotive, a maker of conver-
sion kits to create battery powered cars,
electric vehicles have a number of safety
measures designed to easily cut off the
current in case of an accident.
Ankeny’s truck also sports a sticker
made by his daughter proclaiming the
truck “sun-driven.” He purchased solar
panels to produce energy for
the truck.
Eugeneans may be famil-
iar with the concept of the
electric car from the 2006
documentary Who Killed the
Electric Car? (review at
www.eugeneweekly.com/
2006/08/17/movie1.html)
which examined General
Motors’ recall and destruc-
tion of its electric car, the EV1. Other
major automakers like Ford and Honda
also made, then terminated the use of,
electric cars.
GM is trying to make up for its electric
car faux pas by introducing the Chevy
Volt, a concept hybrid car that runs on a
combination of batteries and an engine
that runs on E85 ethanol. GM says the Volt
will go into production in 2010.
Rather than wait for automakers to start
going green, Ankeny decided to get a used
truck and build an electric auto of his own.
Ankeny’s battery electric vehicle is not
to be confused with hybrid cars such as the
Prius. Hybrid cars combine an internal
combustion engine, usually slightly small-
er than a regular gasoline engine, with a
rechargeable electric battery.
Driving a Prius has become a status
symbol for the environmentally conscious.
According to the New York Times, many
people choose to buy a Prius instead of
other makes of hybrid car because driving
a Prius makes a “green statement.”
A Prius has 90 percent less smog-form-
ing emissions than the average car.
Ankeny’s electric truck has no emissions
at all.
Ankeny replaced the Toyota’s engine
and exhaust system with batteries. Instead
of refueling at a gas station, he pulls up to
an electrical outlet. Since there’s no gas
engine, his truck runs silently. He installed
a green light on the dashboard so he would
know when the truck is turned on. Instead
of a gas tank, Ankeny has a meter that
shows how much charge he has left.
“The truck goes slower as the charge
gets lower,” he said.
His “retirement dream” is to mount
solar panels on the truck and “go camping
and fishing while the truck
charges up,” he said.
The drawback to the truck is
the limited distance it can be
driven. But for reducing pollu-
tion on short trips, its clean
power can only be beaten by a
bicycle. And you can’t throw a
couple hundred pounds of gar-
dening supplies on the back of
most bikes.
According to greenercars.com,
short trips while your engine is
cold create more air pollution
because it takes time for your
emissions-reducing catalytic con-
verter to heat up and start working. With no
emissions at all, this is not an issue for the
electric truck.
It takes about seven hours for the batter-
ies to fully recharge, and Ankeny expects to
be able to drive 80 miles a charge. That’s not
enough to drive to Portland, but it is plenty
of juice for his commute.
He has high hopes that newer lithium
ion batteries will solve the problem. They
take up less space, and Ankeny said an
electric car with them installed “can go
250 miles a charge.”
By using solar and wind powered
energy for his charges, Ankeny is able to
power his truck on clean energy, and
with zero emissions, he’s not creating air
pollution.
Ankeny does hope to build an electric
car someday soon. He just needs a car with
enough room for all those batteries. ew
JULY 19, 2007
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