Hello, My Name Is: Daniel Busby

Name: Daniel Busby
Occupation: engineer at Syyn Labs, an L.A.-based engineering-artist collective
Birthplace: Richfield, UT
Current hometown: Pasadena, CA

You’ve said “if you can use a flashlight, you can convert a car” – is that fair? It may not be rocket science, but you are a physicist.

That’s probably a bit of an overstatement to say it’s that easy. It’s not hard, but it’s also not trivial. There are a lot of people who have converted their cars who have no electrical engineering background. The real key is being inquisitive. Ask a lot questions and don’t give up.

You have an electric Triumph Spitfire. Did you have the car before you converted it?

I didn’t have the car before the conversion. I decided to convert a car and set out looking the best car for that. I had a desire for a small British sports car, so I started looking at those. Not all cars are created equal as far as candidates for conversions, so when I found how well the Triumph Spitfire converted, I was set. The one I found was a pile of rust, but at 500 bucks, I thought, “that’s perfect.”

What is it about the Spitfire that makes it so good for a conversion?

It’s really simple and it doesn’t have a lot of things that make conversion complicated. For example, it doesn’t have power steering or power brakes. I don’t need to have a vacuum system – once you take out the engine, most people have to put in a vacuum pump just to supply the brakes. My car is so small and light, I don’t need a vacuum system. It has a nice big hood so you can put a lot of batteries in it. And it also has a nice frame underneath, so it’s easy to attach the batteries and it can hold the weight, even though it’s a light car. It’s a very common conversion.

What other cars are popular for conversions?

There are quite a number of Rav4s from the early-2000s. They are very sought after; when they go on sale, they usually go for $30,000 because they make such good electric vehicles.

How long did it take you to get the Spitfire in working order?

I bought the car in June, 2008 and had it on the road by May, 2009, but it wasn’t painted until October. That’s when it started looking beautiful.

That’s almost a year of work – was the car in really bad shape?

The Spitfire needed a lot of body work. Everything needed to be rebuilt, the brakes, the steering, the shocks, the suspension. Everything rubber was completely rotted. I spent most of the time replacing everything and doing the body work – that took up a lot of the time.

Did you do everything yourself?

I had a friend help me; he knew what he was doing. But he was just there to show me how to do it. I had to do it myself. I even put down the primer for the paint. It was a lot of work, but it was fun. Part of the point was to learn how to do all this stuff so I could take that knowledge into other projects.

What kind of batteries do you use?

I just got new batteries, these are lithium batteries, and they’re much better. The batteries have always been the weak link as far as electric cars, but lithium batteries are better batteries, so at least the weak link isn’t as weak.

These batteries cost a little over $7,000. They’ll last me about a decade, so compared to gas, I’m still coming up ahead – I’m not subject to gas price inflation and whatever problems may arise due to political instability. The difference is that I have to prepay.

How long do the batteries last?

It depends on how discharged the batteries are. Having converted to lithium, I expect my range to be 70 miles, give or take. If I use all 70 miles, it will take me – with my charger and my batteries – it will take me about seven hours to charge back up. So, overnight. But the bulk of the charging happens at the beginning, it just takes longer because toward the end of a charge, there is a final balancing that takes a lot longer. The way a battery works is: as you’re putting current into it, the voltage rises and there is a hard limit you don’t want to surpass. This limit depends on the batteries, and with lithium, it can be fatal to the battery if you overcharge it. The simplified version is this: first the charger dumps as much current as it can, but once it gets to the voltage line, it starts dialing back the current until the voltage is where it needs to be and the current is zero and that’s when you’re done charging.

Are there enough charging stations in town for you to get around comfortably?

There is a great website called EV Charger News that really helps. They go through and detail where all the chargers are. It uses Google to map the stations, so it has all the features of Google Maps. You can also click on stations and see people’s comments: they’ll let you know if it’s great or if some chargers are broken so you always know the status of stations. The community here in L.A. keeps that site updated pretty well. It’s a great community: if you’re an electric car driver and you register with the site, you get a list of private charging stations at people’s homes in case you’re ever in real trouble and need a charge.

What’s your favorite thing about driving an electric car?

I really like not having to use gas to get around, but my favorite thing is the silence. It’s so peaceful. It’s like comparing a sailboat to a motorboat. There was a time I was dating a girl, I took her out in the car and then I let her drive. She drove around the block, then turned to me and said: “you’re really sexy right now.” I think part of it was that I had made it myself, but it was also the first electric vehicle. We call it the “EV grin.”

And the least favorite thing?

Range anxiety – being always worried about getting stranded somewhere. You get used to it really fast. You learn your limits, you learn what you can do and it’s not so bad. But it does come up, so in the beginning, I had another car that isn’t electric and I would use it when I wanted to go somewhere that was far. But I don’t have it anymore. Now the Spitfire is the only car I have and it’s great.

What’s the number one piece of advice you’d give to someone who was considering converting to electric?

Find someone who has converted their car and pick their brain. You can do this in person or you can do it online. There are so many great tricks, but also a lot of places to go wrong. Find someone to help. There are also all sorts of clubs and great resources online. People will send in photos and ask the dumbest questions, but they always get answers. People want to help, they painstakingly write long posts to get others through the process. It’s an amazing community. So the answer: find someone to help you. There are plenty of people who are willing.