Backstory: From gas-powered to electric auto in 36 hours flat
We ride along as entrepreneur Greg Abbott turns a 1978 Triumph Spitfire into a completely clean, zero-emissions electric vehicle. Part 1 of two.
from the March 19, 2007 edition
Page 3 of 4
Gadget's car odyssey began when he set out to build a go-cart at age 15. He quickly realized that he could get his driver's permit in six months, so instead he decided to build a car. His mother drove him to a metal shop. A few months later, he produced a vehicle that worked – and drove 10,000 miles through 24 states after getting his license. Impressively, the car got 52 miles to the gallon – in 1977.
Despite this success, his career path into the automobile business would not be linear.
First, he would spend 30 years as a contractor, a butler, a metal fabricator, and dancer. In 2004, while working on a Discovery television show, Gadget converted a BMW motorcycle to electric. It sparked his interest to convert a car – one of his favorites, a Triumph Spitfire.
He found the principles easy but the work arduous because the relays, cables, controller, and converters all came from different manufacturers. He saw a business opportunity.
He created "the box" and began Left Coast Conversions (now, Left Coast Electric), believing that the time was right for a resurgence in the electric car. That's right, a resurgence. Little known and largely forgotten, there was a time when the electric car in America was king.
According to Mr. Black, electric cars have been around for 175 years if you count the crude carriages made by Scotsman Robert Davidson and American Thomas Davenport in the mid-1830s. By the late 19th century, they were taking off in Europe, and in 1899 a Belgian electric car claimed the world land speed record at 65.8 m.p.h.
In the US, electric, steam, and gas all vied for dominance in the nascent automobile industry. For two years, 1899 and 1900, electric cars outsold all others – a notable achievement even if the number of sales was fewer than 2,000 a year.
Their time at the top was short-lived, though. Several events brought them down, including the discovery of oil in Texas, the building of roadways that demanded greater range, advances in combustion engines, and patent lawsuits – the most famous of which was won by Henry Ford in 1911.
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