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You Can Build a 1,500 MPGe Plug-in Electric Vehicle for Under $2,000

Beat that Tesla! The electric vehicle here won’t actually offer the comfort of a normal passenger car, but it can be built for under 2 grand and achieve over 1,500 mpge. Don’t believe it? A team of students did it, actually.
The Apotheosis Budget EV 1 photo
Photo: Tiverton High School
Two high school students from the Tiverton High School and their teacher managed to built another single seater electric vehicle for just $1,500, which achieves a staggering 1,552 mpge thanks to solar panels.

We say “another electric vehicle” because the same guys built a low-budget EV earlier last year, which was called The Endurance. That one costed only $1,000 to build and achieved 425 mpge.

The Endurance was made in about 600 hours using PVC pipes donated to the school and the team also received a $565 anonymous donation to acquire a brushless DC motor, the batteries, wheels and other accessories.

Weighting in at only 110 lb (50 kg) without a driver, the Endurance was able to reach 18 mph (29 km/h) and go for around 24 miles (38 km).

Back to the second project

The team’s new contraption is called The Apotheosis and uses an even lighter structure, three wheels instead of four, better batteries and a solar panel roof which aids a lot with battery recharging along with regenerative braking.

Now, the second iteration of their concept is able to achieve the staggering 1,552 mpg equivalent. This also meant that the range got extended to just over 50 miles (80 km).

A 50 mile range vehicle made by high school senior student and their teacher for only $1,584! Out of PVC! How’s that for your average graduating project?

We haven’t found a video with the team’s latest EV, but to make yourself an idea of how it works, you can check out this video of their first one, the Endurance.

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