Pietro's Electric Fiat · 6 April 07

An update from our EV friend in Italy, Pietro Cambi.

Pietro, if you recall, is converting a Fiat 500 to an electric car. As of these photos (a week or so ago) he has taken the IC Motor out and put the new electric motor in. One of the photos below shows the pile of removed parts (look how SMALL that engine is!).

The really interesting thing about Pietro’s EV, beyond the miniscule size of the thing, is that he’s going to be putting Li-PO (Lithium Polymer) batteries in it. The 96 volt pack will provide roughly 100AH and he says it cost around $9k.

He also adds, “Truly amazin is still understament (2 c charge (200 Ampere, 98 V) and 8 c discharge as for one)”

Just to give you a sense of scale for the car, and the streets in Florence, check out his video:

And, for a sense of the service he is doing by retiring the old gas engine, check out this pre-conversion engine start.