ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 22, 1996 TAG: 9602220070
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: EXTRA EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TOM MOATES SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES
If you noticed a Chevy S-10 truck plugged in beside the ice cooler at Wade's grocery in Blacksburg during the recent blizzard, you were witnessing the future.
The truck wasn't plugged in to warm up - it was plugged in to charge up.
Bryan Walsh, the owner of Moonlight Solar, an alternative-energy company in Christiansburg, engineered and built the truck last summer as a means of promoting the vehicle conversions his company can provide.
"We converted a truck," Walsh said, "to show people that electric vehicles aren't just tiny compacts with bicycle tires."
Able to carry 600 pounds in its regular-sized bed, the vehicle looks no different from a normal small truck. Inside the cab, only an extra gauge or two on the dash give it away.
Under the hood, however, the difference is obvious. In place of the usual jumble of oily, smelly engine parts, vacuum hoses and wires, are one electric motor the size of a large mailbox, a few wires running among small boxes that resemble car audio amplifiers, and a few batteries. And the whole compartment is clean.
"It does everything we wanted it to and more," Walsh said, "and it drives more like a fine car than a truck."
Regina Hanlon, Walsh's girlfriend, drives the truck regularly. "It has better traction than my car,'' she said, ``so I've been driving the truck to work during these snow storms.''
Extra battery storage in the rear creates better weight distribution than is found in conventional small trucks.
In a trip around town, the truck leaped forward from stoplights and pulled up hills without bogging down.
The truck makes no sound at all while stopped, and it's hard to hear the slight hum of the motor over the sound of wind moving around the cab while clipping along at 45 mph.
"We have tested the truck up to 75," Walsh said, "and it does great."
The truck is limited to a 50-mile range per full charge, but Walsh doesn't see this as a drawback.
"This is a commuter and local-usage vehicle," he explains. "It has a specific purpose and, besides being less expensive to operate, it reduces air, water, and noise pollution substantially. Also, a small car rather than a truck would have about a 100-mile range for the same charge."
Zinc-air batteries, currently in use in Germany, soon will be available in this area. They allow three times the charge for the same weight as the lead-acid type now in the truck. That alone will increase the range to 150 miles.
Also, in mountainous areas like this one, regenerative braking systems (included in the cost of the conversions) add 15 percent more mileage per charge by making electricity when braking downhill. All conveniences, including air conditioning, can be put on an electric conversion vehicle.
Walsh said charging stations along interstate routes and other roads are on the way. They will be able to fill a battery bank of the size found in the truck in five or 10 minutes, thereby making long-distance travel simple and convenient.
The Moonlight Solar truck can plug into any regular outlet for charging. It takes four hours to fully charge the truck. It's easily accomplished each night at Walsh's home at a cost of 75 cents for a full 50-mile charge. The same 50-mile trip would cost about $3 in a gas-powered vehicle.
Walsh says overall operating costs of high-quality electric conversion vehicles are one-tenth to one-sixth of those of gasoline vehicles, because of low maintenance costs as well as fuel savings.
"The only maintenance needed on this truck," he says, "are tires, brakes, batteries and two $25 brushes for the motor every 80,000 miles."
General Motors' two passenger electric car, the EV-1, becomes available to the public in a matter of months and will cost around $35,000.
"Moonlight Solar can convert a four-passenger car that charges in the same time as the GM two seater, goes the same distance on a charge, for half the cost," Walsh said. He said the company can convert any vehicle including four-wheel drives, work trucks, even school buses.
The job takes four to six weeks and includes several built-in extras including theft protection. The average passenger-vehicle conversion costs between $8,000 and $10,000.
"It's about the cost of a small car," Walsh likes to point out.
LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. Bryan Walsh (above) put solar panels on the hood ofby CNBhis Chevy S-10 truck to charge the battery that runs the control
system; besides the decals, the panels provide the main clue that
this vehicle is different. color
2. Under the hood (left) are a mailbox-sized motor and four of the
car's 20 main batteries. color
3. ALAN KIM/Staff< Tucked under the pickup truck's bed, which has
been modified to swing up for easy access, are 16 of the the
vehicle's 20 six-volt batteries. It has a range of 50 miles on a
charge. color
4. KIM/Staff Bryan Walsh is further modifying his electric truck so
that the charging cable will retract behind the lid that covers the
gas cap. color