MAYFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. – Andrew Angellotti spent nine months and about $6,000 to buy and transform his gasoline-powered, 1988 Mazda B2200 pickup into an electric vehicle. Now he’s doing the same with a 1992 Toyota Tercel.

And, by the way, he’s 17.

“I think alternative energy is very important in our future,” said Angellotti, who is home-schooled. “I just wanted to get the word out that electric vehicles are possible.”

Angellotti said he was 14 when got the idea to convert a vehicle after reading about it on the Internet. He started his project in August 2006 – using his own money to buy parts on eBay and over the Internet – and finished last May.

Out went the gasoline engine, the gas tank and exhaust. In went an electric motor, adapter plate connecting the motor and transmission, a control system, battery charger and 20 golf cart batteries (four are under the hood and 16 are in the pickup bed).

“This will go about 55 (mph) on a good day,” Angellotti said as he stood next to the red truck that features the words “Electric Vehicle” on the side.

The truck with about 65 horsepower can usually drive 40 miles – though a little less in the winter – before he needs to plug it into an outlet in the family garage for a recharge, Angellotti said.

And that’s more than enough juice to get him to and from his job at the Lapeer Community Center, where he is a lifeguard.

“I think I have about 2,500 or so miles on it as an electric,” said Angellotti, who plans to attend Purdue University in the fall to study aerospace engineering.

Inside the vehicle, which starts up instantaneously and runs quietly, there’s a radio with CD player and gauges to show the ampere and voltage levels. But there’s not much heat, just a small, 12-volt heater.

In the Tercel, Angellotti expects it’ll have up to 120 horsepower, with four batteries under the hood and nine to 10 in the trunk.

“I’m building it more for speed than range,” he said. “I think I’ll have it at least up to 80.”

He expects to wrap up the Tercel project – housed in a pole barn on his property – in a few months at a lower cost than the first conversion.

And his mom, Nancy Angellotti, said she wouldn’t mind driving the truck when he finishes the Tercel, if he’ll let her.

“He did not get a lot of help from anyone,” she said. “He really had to figure it out himself.”

Andrew Angellotti said he knows of a few electric vehicle conversions on the road in Michigan and perhaps a few thousand in the United States.

“I want to see people start wanting electric cars and I want the automakers to see that and start producing electric cars,” he said.

So far, he is a trendsetter, even among automakers.

Toyota plans to build a plug-in hybrid by 2010 and General Motors hopes to have the electric Chevrolet Volt to market by 2010.

“I give a lot of credit to a young person who’s capable of doing that, because it’s not a very easy thing to do,” said David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor.

CM END BURDEN

(Melissa Burden is a reporter for the Flint (Mich.) Journal. She can be contacted at mburden(at)flintjournal.com.)

2008-01-28-TEEN-HYBRIDS

AP-NY-01-28-08 1519EST