DIY EV CHAT
There’s an incredible, global community that has sprung up around the desire to convert old cars to electric. People who love recycling and people who are doing it for performance. People who want to save money, and people doing it just for the fun of the engineering challenge. I set out to meet an interview some of them, and then give them a forum for discussion, with DIY EV Chat.
Janosch Oppermann and the electric taxi
What happens DIY spirit and open source tech becomes a business? Janosch Oppermann and Alex Howard are converting London taxis into EVs, offering us all cleaner and quieter cities - and potentially a more profitable business for the driver. I talk to Janosch about his conversion journey, the pitfalls of the taxi business, and what it's like taking this tech to market.
Janosch and Alex's business, Clipper Automotive, is doing a small funding round as we recorded. If you like the sound their business and would like to invest, get in touch at https://www.clipper.cab/contact
Fiachra Cooke and the Leaf-powered Audi 8e
In this episode of DIY EV Chat I speak to Fiachra Cooke about his Nissan Leaf-powered Audi 8e. Fiachra has a history of VW and Audi-based projects, and when he stumbled across Damien Maguire's videos he immediately knew he wanted to make an electric Avant (estate). Find out how he did it, and what he's working on now as his whole career has changed to focus on EV conversions.
You can find Fiachra online on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/user/Scampi6000) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/fiachracooke). And check out his new employer AVA, making some absolutely gorgeous electrified classics: https://www.studioava.com/.
Check out some of the newspaper articles on Fiachra's car too:
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/underground-green-army-preaches-to-the-converters-7wbzgpcn2
Finally, have to give another shout out to Damien Maguire, the gateway drug for so many DIY EVers. Check out his videos here: https://www.youtube.com/c/Evbmw. If you have questions, ask them to the community over on OpenInverter: https://openinverter.org/forum/
Paul Compton and the 100mph electric Scirocco
In this episode of DIY EV chat I speak to stalwart of the EV conversion scene, Paul Compton, a man with an incredible car history and some fantastic projects underway. We talk about EV racing in the US (check out the YouTube clip below), taking on other people's dodgy conversions, and his upcoming Lotus projects. And we cover the restoration of his ground-breaking electric VW/Karmann Scirocco.
Jamie Jones and the Bugplug
In this first episode of DIY EV Chat, I speak to Jamie Jones about his adventures in EV conversion, from his son's bike to his electric Beetle, the Bugplug. How did he get started? What were the biggest challenges? And the greatest rewards? Listen and find out.
If you're interested in finding out more about Jamie's BugPlug, check out his YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/c/JamieJones1985. You can also find his GitHub repositories for various bits of code and parts here: https://github.com/jamiejones85
Jamie and I are both hugely indebted to the OpenInverter community and particularly Johannes Hübner and Damien Maguire.