A group of people in Riihimäki, Finland have started an open source project  for turning internal combustion engine (ICE) cars into electric cars. Their reasoning is, that new electric cars are so ridiculously expensive because the car industry hasn't been able to make a decision to move into mass production of electric cars, that it is, in fact less expensive to take a new  ICE car and fit in an electric engine instead. They call this making the car Zero Emission Vehivle (ZEV). They operate in Finland and in Finnish, but you can find a summary page in english here.

This is how it's done: First, they collect 500 customers who are willing to buy a ZEV. Then, a group of professionals from different fields (engineers, electronics experts, marketing people etc.) form an open community and start developing the concept. Everything is shared and openly discussed. The project kicked off a year ago on February 7, 2008. In ten days they had already 300 orders from individuals, and on the 11th day a Norvegian company ordered another 300.

They started to make the prototype on a Toyota Corolla, turning it into eCorolla. A blogpost from August writes about hassle and confusion in an open project, with a lot of people being excited and enthusiastic bringing in new ideas and viewpoints, but only a few people actually developing the prototype. A later blog from December is ecouraging, all new components have been 3D modeled, batteries fitted under the hood, and they were just waiting for the engine to arrive. The latest entry is from Feb 13 when they are already guessing if the wheels are running the following week.

The project is already generating new start-up companies around the idea, and more are forming. People are contributing, driving long hours to the shop to work on the project, others are asking for advise on conversion technology for prototyping the same idea on gas etc.

                                                                                          



  
I remembered this project when I saw the new Honda Hybrid, which they say does "not" look like Toyota Prius. Really?






I wonder if I could join the community and have someone work on the "Big Cat" that is currently blocking my driveway. She is a beauty but non-functioning beautiful objects could come in more handy size.