E-car makes waves at race

It didn't set any speed records, but for the first time in 50 years, an electric vehicle competed in the Knox Mountain Hill Climb.

The long weekend event is the longest running hill climb in North America.

UBC engineering students redesigned a 1984 Formula Ford 2000 race car to run on battery power.

Driver Mike Marich says the team was just happy they finished a run up the hill at all.

“No matter how much you prepare for it, you are never 100 per cent sure everything is going to go perfectly well, especially with a big engineering experiment.”

The car's first run was slower than anticipated, but Marich managed to place 48th overall with a time of 2:17.098.

“Twice we didn’t make it, as there was some experimentation going on,” laughs Marich. “ They were rearranging the batteries to try something, but it didn’t quite work out. They used lithium polymer batteries, and they store a large amount of energy, but you have to be very careful in how you draw the energy out of them. They are very sensitive and there is a very complicated computer system called a battery management system that keeps track of everything – and it wasn’t happy."

The vehicle was donated by a professor, and donations and materials for the project totalled about $45,000.

“That is really a shoestring budget for the university, as they enter competitions with teams against other universities such as the super mileage team, and Formula Society for Automotive Engineers," says Marich.

The electric car handles really well, he says, despite have less power than the original gas engine.

“It is a very safe vehicle, which is great for doing a hill climb where things can go a little sideways, but they gave me a very drivable and safe car to go up there with.”

The vehicle garnered lots of attention at the race from other drivers, many of whom were interested in campaigning their own electric vehicles.