At 34 miles a day, you're only saving about $90 per month (34 miles = approx 1 gal * 30 days * $3 = 90).

Sounds like an fun project though. If I had the extra bucks maybe I would try something like this too.

Looking forward to seeing more on the blog.

 

Now I just don't know where to put the engine, currently it's sitting on two tires, but still hoisted, since I don't want to mess anything up by laying it on it's side.

 

I think it would make more sense to do a semi-hybrid conversion. Maybe have a RWD setup with electric power which you can use in town and a FWD setup for the electric motor. Forget the expensive and complicated hybrid systems, just make it an either/or switch. That would be cool (and practical). You wouldn't need to be towed if you ran out of juice.

 

I too have a Scion xA that I aim to make electric. I've been searching the www for a conversion kit for an xA, without success. Have you found such a kit (one specifically made for Scion xA cars)?

 

Hi, To switch a car like Scion xB first generation to electric is not easy, but will be fun. The battery can be made with LiFePo4 lithium cells. Then to locate them in the doors, structural body , and other usual places. The Motor can be borrowed from old Tesla or Prius. Must have a custom made adaptor and mounting to existing transmission. Then, we need a charge controller to charge the battery from 110V. I heard that even the new Mercedes Electric Cars 2021, need to wait to be charged like 50 minutes for a full charge. Scion xB first generation have a nice large roof. Can accommodate like 2 or three flexible solar panels (like 300 watts or more). This can be charge on-the-go.
Give it or take it to switch to electricity only will take like 30 good working days. Any volunteers here?

Thank you.





Sure something like this or better...

 

You'd be better off making a Stanley Meyer conversion. Just don't tell anyone ;)

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I learned a lot by searching the www for "Stanley Meyer conversion". However, I was unable to find any web pages depicting vehicles that actually do run with water as the fuel. Have any such vehicles been made and proven to work before audiences?

 

@orwellfan7 Hi, Some vehicle works with water. Those are having a steam engine. The efficiency of an steam engine is rated between 45 to 55 %. The steam engine designs in the past 200 years were exhausting all the possibilities of shapes, material used, and engine forms to get the best working efficiency. A better engine is an electric engine. The electric engine can get an efficiency from 75 to 95% depending on the building technology and the material used. We not need to forget the law of physics of our planet (also, we have gravity force).
The pure water can be split in only Hydrogen and Oxygen. I say pure water, because out there the water is combined with others minerals. Like the water the people say taste great (that water is not pure). In the electric splitting process we get more quantity of Hydrogen than Oxygen (two H and one O). Hydrogen and Oxygen are nice elements that can burn. By using an engine that using Hydrogen as fuel, can make a "something" like a car to move.
The fuel efficiency of an engine is extremely important.

 

Thanks for your VERY interesting reply. When investigating "LiFePO4" batteries I found an amazing price difference between Wal-mart and a Chinese company (alibaba.com). The Walmart one is a single "Expert Power" brand of 12v battery, with just 10 Ah. At that web site, "LiFePO4" in the site search engine gives back a catalog listing for 3.2v 200 Ah LiFePO4, sold in packs of 4 for $47 each, just $188 for a 4-pack!! So, by paying to that site around 2.5 times the Wal-mart price one can get 20 times the amps it seems! (It's hard for me to imagine the advertised 200 Ah is for the individual batteries rather than for the total 4 pack.) Do you have any idea what's going on with such a huge price difference?

 

Well, something has to be burned to make the water become steam...I wouldn't call the water "fuel" for a steam engine. I was thinking more of electrolysis being used to separate molecules of water into H and O, which I'm sure would make fantastic (carbon-free!) fuel for an ICE. I did some web searches and got an amazing link to a youtube video of some guy showing off how he made a device that does vigorous (lots of bubbling!) electrolysis of water. I found it very inspiring...although the video would be SO much nicer if he showed how to make a steady flame with the output. (Instead, he showed a "boom" resulting from putting a lit match up to the end of a tube coming from the small aquarium with all the bubbling.)

 

@orwellfan7 Hi, The question is what engine / motor do you like to use in your "electric dream" car? If will be power by Hydrogen then you may need to design a engine that will burn Hydrogen. If your car will have an electric motor, then, you can use the Hydrogen engine to generate electricity (with an Alternator), then the energy stored in the battery will be ready to use by an electric motor. This can be a computer on wheels.

 

Depending upon cost of electricity, full-electric is not cost-effective. In S.F. Bay Area where power is costly, it comes out to same operating cost as 32mpg gasoline car. This is partially due to TWO conversion stages with ~80% efficiency. Better to use hybrid-drivetrain for only one 80% conversion loss.

One thing I really want to do is install U.S. 1st-gen Prius drivetrain to xB. Perhaps upgrading worn-out NimH batteries to more current LifePO4. Those Priuses really did get 60mpg. Next generation dropped to 50mpg with larger engine. Even so, either of these in xB will be most cost-effective in $/mile than full-electric conversion.

 

@DannoXYZ Hi, If you like to build a car that will work independent from the electric grid (for remote areas), producing your own electricity this is the ANSWER. By going cheap and using the water as a primary power source this idea will change all the car manufacturing industries.

The Prius, have the battery bank on the floor. To increase the battery bank (power), one must install extension battery cells in the other car body parts.
Tesla make the car body from Aluminum. Scion xB make the body parts from metal.
How to ask the question/? What is more heavy? one Lb. of Aluminum or one Lb. of metal?
How many body parts can be made with one Lb. of each material?

 

Well, more important is strength & stiffness-to-weight ratios of aluminium vs steel. In which case, you will find that they are actually very similar. Top-end racing bicycles and motorcycles end up with similar weight using aluminium or steel frame. That's because strength & stiffness-to-weight is similar for them. Tesla's not saving any weight using aluminium. To install Prius hydrid drivetrain, I would just cut out floor of xB and install Prius floor w/battery holders. Maybe convert it to do quick-change battery swaps.

Europeans are much further along with their charging infrastructure and electric cars than we are. I think there's some sort of corporate/government collusion going on with electric cars. I suppose due to oil companies losing out on trillions of dollars from transition to electric cars.

 

@DannonXYZ Hi, In Europe they have on majority of the large Gas stations chargers for electric cars. When you have a gas car the tank get fill-up in like 1-3 minutes. And you can start driving. For an Electric car one may need to wait up to 50 minute for a full charge. Then he can drive. The battery technology it is not smart as the sale-man(s) falsely tell to theirs customers. The electric cars in the past 70 years have many improvements. Still they are lying about the emission as an example. When one need to charge the electric car, that electric power come from a power plant. Looks like the electric car after all is not better for the planet. It is nicer, cleaner, and driving better for the driver.
Same sad story with the electric solar panels. After a solar panel ending his life, there is nobody that will recycle 100% the solar panel (that I know). In 2018 Germany start thinking on what to do with all the old garbage of solar panels accumulated from the past 45 years. Even China will not accept this type of recycling....

We need to get a new technology!

 

The electricity can come from many sources other than a power plant that burns oil and spews out greenhouse gases. Solar panels, wind turbines, geothermal-steam turbine, etc...can power up batteries. I doubt anyone is "lying". They surely merely imagine that their listeners know about these alternative ways to generate electricity.
And electric cars can be made with quick swap-out batteries, like our flashlights and other devices powered by electricity. Such battery changes I'm sure can become faster than gas refueling.

 

@orwellfan7 swapping the Prius car battery is expensive vs a gas car battery. Labor for Prius is $1,000. Labor for replacing the car battery in Scion Xb 2004 cost $20 (priceless!!).
To produce power from Solar panels first one must produce/fabricate the solar panel - that means more greenhouse gases produced.Then ground land loses.
Same, with other sources, like the wind turbine (here need to use concrete, other materials, and steel). Do not forget the wind turbine kill flying birds. The solar panels rise the temperature in their vicinity and again kill birds that will fly over the solar farms (this is happened ofter in deserts). Those are not very friendly.
The nuclear plants have now new technologies and lots of improvements in the past 10 years. Theirs efficiency is way much better than anything that the humans ways known to produce electricity (per square feet). Too sad that the legislators are not scientific knowledgeable people, just plain politicians.