Kiwi modified RAV4 into electric car powered by windmill - 3NEWS New Zealand

I saw this aired on 3NEWS and seldom have I seen anything more awesome. If you are in NZ, you can watch the newsclip here. I have typed up the words from the news clip below:

Announcer: “Welcome back. Volatile petrol prices and road taxes, they’re a worry of the past for one Otago man. Hagen Bruggemann has converted his petrol fueled RAV4 into an electric car. As Dave Gooseling explains, even the electricity is free.”

Waitati, Otago
Dave Gooseling: “It takes a bit of grunt to get up Hagen Bruggemann’s driveway, but putting the foot down doesn’t guzzle the gas, this SUV is powered by a 3-blade windmill.”Hagen Bruggemann: “Buying a hybrid car is not quite my style, and we can make…the same thing…powered by sun and wind…sort of like an electric car I guess.


Gooseling: “Every second night he reverses his car into the garage, popping the fuel cap and plugging it in for an overnight charge. He can drive a good 150km before running out of juice, something he tries to avoid. “

Bruggemann: “But what we can do obviously we’ve got to regenerate and so if somebody tells me a way I can actually charge them the batteries up again, aways(?) time ee.”

Gooseling: “He spent two years converting his petrol RAV4 into an electric car. Things look very different under the bonnet, a Scott drive, developed in Hamilton, converts power from a bank of lithium ion batteries to drive the motor, which is hidden under the car.

“It cost around 20,000 dollars to fit out the vehicle, but the running costs of driving the car each day work out to about $3 per 100 km. And Bruggemann says his windmill often makes more electricity than the car can use. Some goes to power his home, with excess pumped back into the national grid, earning him a rebate.

Bruggermann: “Yeah, yeah, it’s dollar for dollar at the moment, I hope my reading keep going that way, I love it.”

Gooseling: “And with commercial goals for the Kiwi developed systems, his electric car hobby may one day power a fullt-time career. Dave Gooseling, 3News.”

ENDQUOTE - Yes, right now it costs $20,000. But I might just be crazy enough to start saving... and at least the cost can only go down from here. Great job, Hagen my man! You're my hero.