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 UBC student Ricky Gu is driving a revamped Bug named E-Beetle - fully converted to electric power - across Canada this summer. (Charles-Antoine Gagnon/QMI Agency) |
An old 1972 VW Beetle is expected to be the first electric-powered car to cross Canada from one end to the other when it arrives in Halifax on Friday.
The car, bought from an online classified site, was transformed by a group of engineering students from the University of British Columbia (UBC), who are now on a national tour with their creation.
Ricky Gu, one of the students and the driver of the revamped Bug named E-Beetle, was in Toronto on Tuesday. He and Colin Mastin, a electrical technician, left Vancouver on the Aug. 21. The pair plan to finish their 6,400-kilometres trek to the Atlantic coast on Friday, a 14-day trip.
It's been great so far. This car has been performing phenomenally, even beyond our expectations, said Gu, 21.
The E-Beetle can reach a top speed of 140 km/h. It can travel for 300 kilometres at 100 km/h with one charge before the lithium battery needs to be recharged.
Monte Gisborne, 47, a member of the Toronto chapter of the Electric Vehicle Society of Canada, met with Gu during his stop in Toronto. He had nothing but praise for the project.
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It's not a cake-walk, but it is a fun, incredible learning experience. We learn how to propel ourselves on this planet without creating emissions, said Gisborne, 47, who built his first electric car at age 34.
The students hope to enter the E-Beetle into the 2011 Zero Race a round-the-world race sponsored by the United Nations Environment Program that will seek to prove that electric cars are a viable, environmentally-responsible mode of transportation.