Create an Electric Vehicle from Scratch: Step-by-Step Guide, 3rd Edition

AvidSciFiReader: I had high hopes for this book. The author included lots of formulas, charts and graphs which were quite helpful from a design perspective and his advice on streamlining and air flow was insightful. However, I was left with a desire to see something more like a Chilton’s handbook or Motor’s Manual with detailed descriptions.
Also I would have liked to have seen more real world examples of EVs that have been built by their owners.
Unfortunately the author did not truly address the fragile nature of the existing U.S. power grid and the impact of EVs upon the grid; nor did he fully acknowledge the environmental impact of the mining process for the lithium and minerals required for the current generation of batteries.

United States on Oct 17, 2023

Paul Dore: Very literal needs more picture examples

United Kingdom on May 02, 2020

andygetch: I bought this book after I purchased my first electric car in order to understand it better. Lot's of detail about the workings of electric vehicles and some instructions. The reason for four stars is the author spent IMHO too many pages on the benefits of electric vehicles, and did not seem to update with the times by the third edition in 2013. Modification of old internal combustion engine vehicles is likely to continue to be a thing for the foreseeable future, so this book does provide a solid introduction to what a potential restorer would be in for.

United States on Jun 22, 2019

Amazon Kunde: Der Titel des Buches klingt vielversprechend, aber das Werk liest sich sehr zäh. Viele Fakten, wie z.B. die Kriterien für die Auswahl eines für einen Umbau zu einem Elektrofahrzeug geeigneten Basisfahrzeugs werden z.B. mehrfach wiederholt. Die beschriebene Technik ist grösstenteils veraltet - beispielsweise wird mit vielen Details die Ansteuerung von DC-Motoren erläutert, während heutzutage aber hauptsächlich Asynchronmaschinen verbaut werden, u.a. wegen der besseren Rekuperationsmöglichkeiten.
Es werden auch einige kommerziell erhältliche Elektroautos beschrieben, allerdings auf dem Stand von ca. 2012.

Germany on Sep 20, 2018

Amazon Customer: book has a good contain of knowledge with out of studying material and satisfactory delivery by Amazon.
All over book's material good.

India on Mar 25, 2018

Amazon Customer: If you are looking for a strictly technical book that describes kerb loading, anti dive chassis design, circuitry, motor systems etc then there some of that in this book. Useful in that it has links to various sites that supply new ev kit from motors and controllers to batteries. However it delves a bit much, for me, into the history of the electric car, the green initiatives and examles of current ev units from the main car makers. I don't need persuading that electric is a good idea and so much of the first two thirds of this is dedicated to argument for and counter argument that essentially means nothing to me. About a quarter of the book is actually useful to me, as a long time self build car enthusiast.

If you want a history and reasoning for ev cars as well as some tech info then it's well written and full of info and i would class it as worth the money.. Some very useful math and a load of charts. The kindle version has live net links to other sites for info and suppliers. I have read it twice now and on my third currently.

Loses one star as i wanted a more heavily technical publication which i suspect would in fact not be as large a book overall.

United Kingdom on Nov 16, 2015

Alistair Godfrey: I liked the book as it covered many aspects of E.V. conversion that I wanted to know in great detail, however for the average reader it was a little wordy and could be hard to understand. It also was a little long for my liking and only had American units (i.e. imperial) whereas in Britain we tend to use metric units, so unless you are familiar with American units then it might prove to be a challenge to understand. despite these downfalls if you are dedicated to converting to electric this should be a worthwhile read if read in short concise bits. Also I would say that the book is very well split up in to convenient chapters making it easy to navigate through the book.

United Kingdom on Dec 06, 2014

Mr.E: About halfway through the book I wanted to stop reading because it became so repetitious, it was really beating me over the head with factoids about how good electric vehicles are, I know they are, that's why I bought the book, you don't need to sell me on the idea of electric cars anymore. You could have 1 chapter explaining the social, economic, environmental benefits of electric car ownership and then never say it again, ever, seriously:-)

The Tesla stuff was all over the place too, consolidate that or use that as a fixed reference for the various topics like types of battery's, here's what Tesla uses, types of transmissions, here's what Tesla uses...

I pushed through and was rewarded with the last half which was much more direct and explained actually building an electric vehicle. The AC vs DC information was well handled as well as how to handle the transmission in a electric conversion project, for those sections alone I would recommend this book.

United States on Jul 14, 2013

Stalker: The book appeared a great asset of information about EVs either new built or conversion. However the information is more general and if you want to get it more specific this book is not in much help. I personally was skimming the information and did not read it thoroughly, as about 95% of informaiton is very common taken from the Internet. Instead of drawings there are just pictures which are great, but they are not in much help.
I consider this book more as a good motivator and some kind of starting point in aquiaring information for EVs enthusiasts. Definitely is will occupy the easy to reach place on my bookshelf and wouldn't be covered by dust. In general I would recommend it to all hobbyist and EV curious people.

United States on May 14, 2013

Thomas Boyd: I bought both "Build Your Own Electric Vehicle" and "The Electric Vehicle Conversion Handbook" at the same time. Both books are well done, and will help someone considering building an electric vehicle decide if the really want to proceed. Both spend a lot of time introducing the concepts involved, and "Build Your Own Electric Vehicle" has some advanced information.

However, I was hoping for something a bit more detailed from both books. However, I realize it's hard to keep these books current on such a rapidly-changing topic. A couple of the companies referenced have since gone out of business.

United States on Mar 04, 2013