A Step-by-Step Guide to Building a Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle from the Ground Up Written by clean energy guru and electric vehicle expert Seth Leitman, this hands-on guide gives you the latest technical information and easy-to-follow instructions for building a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV). Build Your Own Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle puts you in the driver's seat when it comes to hitting the road in a reliable, economical, and environmentally friendly ride. Inside, you'll find complete details on the hybrid powertrain and all the required components, including the motor, battery, and chassis. The book covers the plug-in hybrids currently on the market as well as hybrid conversion companies, conversion kits, and related resources. Pictures, diagrams, charts, and graphs illustrate each step along the way. With this how-to guide on hand, you'll be behind the wheel of your own plug-in hybrid electric automobile in no time! Build Your Own Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle covers: - Energy savings and environmental benefits
- PHEV background
- Drivetrain components and design
- Chassis selection
- DC and AC motor types
- Batteries and chargers
- The conversion process
- Licensing and insurance
- Safety, maintenance, troubleshooting, and warranties
- Clubs and associations
- Additional resources
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 A lot of good information, but some fluff too |
| Review Date: August 21, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Edward Durney, San Francisco |
If you have read Build Your Own Electric Vehicle by Seth Leitman and Bob Brant, this book will seem like an old friend. Written by Seth Leitman alone this time, Build Your Own Plug-In Hybrid not only has the same rather folksy style as the earlier book, but it borrows a lot of the same text. Quite a lot -- about 50%, by my rough estimation.
Even with the repetition, the 50% that is new offers a lot. Seth Leitman knows what he is talking about, and has gathered information from a variety of sources, including from his own experience making a plug-in hybrid with lead-acid batteries in a Prius. Much of this information is hard to find elsewhere.
I'm not a particular fan of Seth Leitman's style. He calls out a lot of people by name to call their work and contributions "great" (a word that is clearly a favorite of his). Many of the pictures in the book are snapshots, a little poorly printed, that have these people in them. Some of the wording seems a bit corny from time to time as well.
Finally, unlike Build Your Own Electric Vehicle, this book does not really tell you how to build your own plug-in hybrid. The actual building, the book suggests, should be left to experts. This book tells more about what kits are available, and how to plan and participate in the conversion. That's helpful, but the title of the book suggests it will deliver more, and may be a bit misleading.
Despite these flaws, I recommend the book. As with Build Your Own Electric Vehicle, this book could be a lot better. There is plenty of room for improvement. But there is no other book out there that competes with it. For now, at least, it stands alone. And if its parent book is any indication, this book too may well stand out for quite a long time. |
Real Title - 'Hybrid Vehicle Overview Mishmash'
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| Review Date: September 11, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Expat of, Dalkey, Ireland |
This is _not_ a how to build your own hybrid vehicle book. As such it should not be put aside lightly, but rather hurled forcefully into the circular file forthwith, for its deceptive title alone.
Yes it is (mildly) interesting if a thin overview of hybrids is your goal. But it has little useful information on building any hybrid, let alone your own, and many many pages of useless 'filler'; there are lots of photographs of pcb circuit boards followed by photographs of alternate pcb circuit boards, all of no use to anyone. They serve to give the book a spurious 'this is a technical book' appearance, in typical TAB style. Wrong! It is in no way a technical book. More like a cross between a comic and a bunch of random -- and useless -- pictures of bits of hardware from some hybrid. Also in typical TAB style.
Unhappy? Moi? Don't call your book 'Build Your Own Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle', if it is nothing of the sort. Before you waste _your_ money, find a copy in a book store and make your own mind up. Dollars to doughnuts you'll agree.
By comparison, as an overview of hybrids, Hybrid Vehicles: and the Future of Personal Transportation by Allen Fuhs was endlessly fascinating. Extraordinarily broad in its coverage, it ranged from peak oil to the differences in suitable electric motors; it is filled with lots of practical nuts-and-bolts calculations that will appeal to the armchair-engineer who enjoys interpreting numbers and juggling costs, pay-offs, and alternatives in range, fuel consumption and weights. Because of Big Oil disinformation efforts -- see EV web sites and discussions hijacked by AI-generated posts of encyclopedic substance and length -- I don't accept the criticism of other reviewers as necessarily valid.
Big Oil disinformation? Surely you jest? Wally Rippel - WKTEC - "There is a $100T (T as in Trillion) worth of business still to be done (in oil in the ground). You bet there is disinformation. And a lot more besides. Got Peter Dale Scott? |
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