Engineer Fayez Anan (left) with a Peugeot he converted to run on electricity instead of expensive gasoline. (Mohammed Salem/Reuters)
In Gaza, electric cars offer a way around Israel’s blockade
Palestinian engineers say it only costs $1.50 per fill-up. Israel is also going electric with hundreds of charging stations to be installed nationwide.
By Rafael D. Frankel | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor / July 10, 2008 edition
GAZA CITY, Gaza
While gas prices of $4 per gallon may feel steep to Americans, Palestinian drivers in the Gaza Strip have faced highs of $50 per gallon.
“The people here cannot afford that kind of money, especially now,” says Waseem Khazendar, who along with Fayaz Anan has tackled the problem by building an electric car. Their prototype – a Peugeot that runs for 110 miles on a single charge from a standard electrical outlet – costs just $1.50 a charge, Mr. Anan says. “We are trying to help everyone here get through a difficult period.”
A year-long economic blockade by Israel has created shortages of everything from gasoline to food in Gaza.
Anan’s and Mr. Khazendar’s electric car is a 1994 Peugeot 205 without a standard gas engine. It’s been converted to run on 34 standard lead-acid car batteries. At 15 horsepower, it travels at speeds of up to 60 m.p.h., and produces no emissions. “In Gaza [a 25-mile-long, 7.5-mile-wide strip], it is very sufficient,” Anan says.
More than 400 people in Gaza have lined up to have their cars converted for the fee of $2,500, he says. But due to the blockade, the duo only have enough material to convert another 30 or 40 cars, Anan says.
If a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel, which began June 20, holds, Israel says it will gradually allow in the kinds of additional materials that Anan says would drop the price of the conversion to $1,700.
But US experts say they are baffled by how the two are converting cars at that price. “With the cheapest components I can imagine, it would cost around three times as much over here,” says Ron Gremban, lead engineer at CalCars.org, a Palo Alto, Calif. nonprofit group promoting plug-in hybrid electric vehicle technology.
Khazendar and Anan are electrical engineers and dream of turning their little operation into a multimillion dollar business. Khazendar has talked with an Israeli firm that specializes in intellectual property law with the aim of obtaining a patent for their alternating current engine.
Anan says that he is happy to work with Israelis – for business.
“Why not? It’s no problem for me and my partners. It is business, it is not policy. Policy is one thing and business is something else.”
Electric cars are also moving into Israel with the Silicon Valley-based firm, Better Place, which recently announced plans to develop the world’s first electric car infrastructure there.
An Israeli subsidiary of Better Place is pouring more than $100 million into building thousands of electric car charging stations around the country, says Ziva Patir, who is in charge of standardization and compliance for the firm.
By the end of 2008, there should be hundreds of charging stations operational in Israel, and half a million charging stations operating by no later than 2015, Ms. Patir says.
“This is the biggest-ever trial that will be done in clean technology. We believe that cars running on oil will be in museums within 20 years,” she says.
So far, Better Place has teamed up with Nissan-Renault to build electric cars that will run on the Israeli grid, but the company is hoping other car manufacturers will also take part in the project.
Israel, Patir says, is “a good test case because we don’t drive long distances and … [Israelis] don’t drive to other countries.”
Asked about teaming up with Anan and Khazendar, Patir says she could not speak to company policy, but personally, “I believe that business creates peace, and any peace project is good for everybody.”
Back in Gaza City, leaning up against his proud invention, Anan seemed to agree: “Maybe we, Israelis and Palestinians, can save the world together.”
Comments
2. wnyoldguy | 07.11.08
The comment by Ron Gremban, lead engineer at CalCars.org, a Palo Alto, Calif. nonprofit group promoting plug-in hybrid electric vehicle technology is typical of a not-invented-here tunnel-vision environment. The parts were probably purchased on the black market after being stolen or were recycled second-hand parts from salvage. There is no “overhead” from bureaucratic structure, benefits, complex rules and regulations, etc. Anybody that takes issue with the electric vehicle conversions will not have the option to litigate and will likely be run out of town, be brutalized or shot - or just “disappear”. The vehicles do not have to conform to U.S. vehicle safety requirements, etc., they just have to work. The residents of Gaza are being innovative in working with the few resources available just like the prisoners in our jails who manage to always make something from virtually nothing (just ask a corrections officer). In both situations they have no choice.
3. Jerry McIntire | 07.11.08
Give the Palestinians a bigger break please, wnyoldguy. You say, ” Anybody that takes issue with the electric vehicle conversions will not have the option to litigate and will likely be run out of town, be brutalized or shot - or just ‘disappear.’” Why would anyone there think of litigating against a successful conversion business? Why would they be run out of town or shot? There is no need for these aspersions on the Palestinians– or the Israelis who de facto govern there, if that’s who you’re criticizing.
There is a company in the U.S. that is converting cars to full battery electric mode for $2500. They do not have the range that the Palestinian engineer claims for his, but you’re probably right about his costs being lower because of the use of salvaged materials (probably the motor and the batteries, which can be rejuvenated. Even the controller can be a simple, used part). It can and is being done here for that price, and the results are safe and insurable. True highway speeds and batter range are just a bit more expensive. The criticism of large manufacturers stands, though the new-car consumer also has quite a hunger for conveniences and power beyond any basic needs, and that drives the cost up.
4. Jerry McIntire | 07.11.08
To add some more information: the motor installed in the prototype was used. One of the partners is the largest seller of industrial electric motors in Gaza. The stumbling block to filling their first 400 orders is permission from Israel to import new motors for this application, new and better batteries, and a business license from Palestinian officials. Seems there are more similarities than differences here between Palestine and the U.S.
5. Matt Woolery | 07.11.08
I think this is an amazing example of how people with nothing can turn garbage into liberty; one that the broadcast media will virtually ignore because it’s Palestinians doing it. Public Enlightenment … yeah, right.
I would sure like to be wrong this time.
Thanks, CS Monitor
6. Bobby Hass | 07.11.08
I was thrilled to read this article. I am on the precepice of buying an electric car or buying a used car that can be converted. I only go from home to work for 90% of my driving so I am a great candidate for this vehicle. And, I feel there are thousands just like me. If we only had a firm like Waseem Khazendar and Fayaz Anan’s here in California. 110 miles on a single charge is fantastic. I only go 30 miles back and forth daily. If there are those who want to continue or must use a gas hog, let ‘em. I want an electric car so I can laugh at the owner of the gas hog at the gas station as I drive by. Of course, there will be times when I will need my gas hog. But, once a month is better than daily. I know we can’t knock our dependence on oil down to some ridiculous number. But, wouldn’t electric cars help us achieve a 25% reduction? That would be fabulous. And, it can be done within the next 5 years with electric car conversion. I feel the market is here now!!
7. m.mouldi Baississi | 07.11.08
This is just great invention …for more green-clean planet :our planet the mother earth.
A lot of immoral-criminal companys who start to use food to make oil will be just a ruine -bankrupt in few years i am sure of it.
I KNOW it seems crazy but i really have the solution for the electric car…no need for gas or what ever…
I hope soon it will be in the market and every where!
Not only cars but much more …
This is NOT a joke or pretention it is a fact!
8. Sandy Boyd | 07.11.08
I have a small truck; seems as if that should be a cinch to convert.
Can anyone tell me where to get a conversion kit?
I’m ready to go; my mechanic says they can do it for me.
9. Wilson | 07.11.08
Sandy - There are a bunch of sites that supply kits - http://evamerica.com/ is one. I’m currently converting a 1984 Mazda. It’s going to cost $6,500 plus batteries + conversion cost. It would be great to be able to do a conversion for $2,000…..
Not likely that a lead-acid battery pack supply enough energy to 100 miles, 60 miles is about the top range.
10. Proloy Bagchi | 07.13.08
I have always been a supporter of electric cars. They may not be entirely carbon-free, being charged by (maybe)”dirty” power, but they are at least clean and they obviate the need to use the now steeply-priced oil which is on the verge of ruining the world economic order
It is gratifying to see that in India even the government of Delhi is now promoting an indegenous electric car. The car in question, Reva, has been around for some years but no one paid attention to it. It made waves in London but the local entrepreneurs or the government agencies took no notice of it. But the 2008 “oil shock” changed all that and that’s what is its flip side. Perhaps, we are now heading for a cleaner world
11. Prof N. Kaptein | 07.14.08
This is an excellent idea, but I’m worried about long distance trips if this has to be prolonged to other countries. I also wonder if the new vehicle models will be easily and cheaply converted.
12. Jerry McIntire | 07.14.08
Prof. Kaptein,
There are a dozen or so manufacturers poised to bring battery-electric vehicles to market in the U.S. and Europe over the next two years. Some are priced around $20,000 or less, many over that amount. These include large companies like BMW and Daimler, Nissan and Mitsubishi, not to mention the advent of mass-produced plug-in hybrids from Toyota and Chevrolet. Conversions will be less and less needed in a few years, but I believe their numbers will increase as the new vehicles will be so expensive.
The inexpensive conversion kits are available from http://www.e-volks.com and an $11,000 conversion service is available in Kansas from http://www.ev-blue.com There are several more businesses doing conversions and offering kits. The Electric Auto Association, an enthusiast group, has a good website with links to EV resources.
15. alirahman | 08.11.08
The irony is that if the Palestinians inventors solicited money from Arab billionaires, the billionaires would turn them down.
But, the arabs billionaires would happily pay 10 times the price for the same invention from an European or American company that licensed the invention from an Israeli firm that bought the rights of the Palestinian inventors!!(And there is a very high probability that the Israeli firm will rip off both the Palestinians and the American company)
1. Elsie Dunlop | 07.10.08
Why are our engineers stalling and “Cannot do the job” without tons of money, government grants etc. when ingenious people from other countries just “do the job”?