Photos by Madoline Markham.
West Homewood resident Miles Jackson built a 1974 VW Beetle into an electric vehicle.
As the light turns green on Oxmoor Road, Miles Jackson presses the gas pedal on his 1974 Volkswagen Beetle. It makes about as much noise as a golf cart as it climbs to 38 miles per hour. Only then does Jackson change to second gear, the car emitting so little sound that the wheels seem noisy.
“I get a lot of looks, especially when I leave [drivers] standing at a traffic light,” he said of the reaction of those next to him on the road.
The VW looks a little different on the inside than it did in 1974. Instead of an engine, Jackson, a West Homewood resident since 1978, outfitted it with 16 6-volt golf cart batteries. And his gas bill? It runs about 3 cents a gallon.
“It’s like an electric golf cart that’s street legal,” he said. “And it rides like a VW.”
Together the batteries weigh 1,000 pounds, about a third of the weight of the car, and offer 96 volts with a total of 22,272 watts of power available.
Jackson first got the idea to build an electric vehicle several years ago when gas prices climbed close to $4 and he was filling up three trucks for his company plus his own pickup truck.
Ten years ago he started brainstorming and researching, first for an electrical bike, which he later decided would not be practical in the rain. When he retired five years ago, he bought an old, rusty car shell and started to work, drawing on inspiration from other vehicles he found online.
“I didn’t invent this; it’s my take on it,” he said.
Having run an electrical contracting business, Positive Electric, for 25 years, the wiring came naturally to him.
He took apart and rebuilt the body first, with help and parts from Jim Colly of Jim’s VW in Trussville. Adapting designs he found for a basic model, he outfitted the power with electric components he ordered from Electric Vehicles of America in New Hampshire.
Many man-hours and $14,000 ($10,000 spent on electrical work and $4,000 on the base vehicle) later, he completed the vehicle just after his 70th birthday in April.
Since then he’s logged about 500 miles around town. The vehicle runs about 25 miles before it needs to recharge, and Jackson watches the power gauge fastidiously when he drives. Some days, Jackson said, he will take it out in the morning, charge it for six hours in the middle of the day, and then drive later in the day.
He’s revved the engine it up to 60 mph and is trying to get it up to 70 mph. Fifty, he said, is comfortable.
“It surprises people how fast it goes,” he said.
Jackson also gets asked a lot of questions in parking lots, particularly at Lowe’s and his church, Edgewood Presbyterian. A few lucky family members and friends have gotten to ride in his passenger seat.
When someone asks about the car, he gives out his business card and is sure to share that he gives presentations and demonstrations at no charge. Using it as a vehicle for education was one of his primary aims when he started, and he’s outfitted the batteries with clear plastic covers so that people can see the insides as he explains them. So far he’s shown it to an amateur radio organization and at VW meets.
“Most people are scared to death of [learning about electricity],” he said.
Now that the VW project is complete (although he is still fine-tuning the suspension), he is busy with a bathroom renovation project for his wife of 40 years, Marilyn.
And he said they might replace her 1989 Honda with a Toyota Prius one day soon.
To contact Jackson, call 945-1769 or email elecvw@hotmail.com.
