Tesla as a base for mutant vehicles

[Sham]

There appears to be a glut of Tesla cars and cyber trucks being turned back in by people who are no longer comfortable driving them for one reason or another. These vehicles may be unpopular on the road, but are mechanically still in good shape, and selling used at fire sale prices. Buying a car used, doesn't connect, support or give profit to a manufacturer.
A fully charged Tesla gets between 250 to 400 mile range, depending on the model and battery age. Running the heat or air conditioner will diminish the range, but MVs don't usually have heat or AC. They can also be recharged by camp generators.
Once the body is removed, it's no longer giving of any stigma of the donor vehicle, but rather a perfect base and clean palette to create a new era of Burning Man vehicles. EMV's
I am wondering if the 360 cameras and sensors could be used for safety when cruising the dark playa at night, or even in dust storms and white outs.

[Molotov]

As a former Tesla owner, I can say this regarding recharging a Tesla using camp generators. The plug in charger (not the 220 volt wall mounted charger at your home or a Supercharger) will take over 8 hours to bring a 20% charge up to an 80% charge, That's a lot of generator run time consuming a lot of fossil fuel. An array of solar cells with a 120 volt output (that would take a battery bank and an inverter to 120 volts) will take just as long.

Just my two cents worth.

[some seeing eye]

There are many EV MVs. Some are mutated electric golf carts. A good friend built one like that in the early 2000s, still operating today. It was part of the first disability camp. Thinking bigger, today, there is an EVMV based on a European mine clearing vehicle chassis, and the new Mayan Warrior is now electric.

The resources for, and network, for building an EVMV is the BORG sustainability group. https://burningman.org/about/about-us/sustainability/

Hacking the TX software for the playa or making it open source is an interesting idea. DARPA has all kinds of autonomous navigating vehicle challenges that university students code. They would be welcome for peaceful purposes on the playa.

[FlyingMonkey]

If nothing else it's guaranteed to get burned by someone.

But seriously, any EV is probably overkill for something that's not supposed to exceed 5 MPH and has been mentioned charging one without the normal electrical infrastructure seems impractical. It's just hard to beat burning dead dinosaurs when it comes to moving people. Besides, even one traded in is still going to be very expensive.

If on the other hand you're embracing it as a challenge in true Burner fashion then knock yourself out. There are many ICE to EV conversion kits available too if you just really like the idea of an electric MV or art car.

I take back everything I said above. Burning man is all about impractical extravagance. Half the fun of burning man is making crazy shit work in one of the harshist environments on Earth. That's part of the magic that I think is slipping away each year.

I say go for it!





- I just want to know if the 5 MPH rule applies to my eZorb.

[trilobyte]

You can give it a try, but know that it's likely fraught with peril. The vehicles are known to be more expensive to service, and are typically not known to be built for rugged or commercial use. Going hundreds or thousands of pounds above the rated passenger and cargo weights could subject it to a lot of strain that affects the frame and suspension, and even a cheap used swasticar would be ridiculously expensive to repair or replace parts (to say nothing of the issue of towing). That will of course vary depending on what you have in mind for the mutation or how many people you're looking to have on board.

I don't have anywhere near your level of experience with mutant vehicles, but from my experiences the pain point always seems to be repairs. Either the cost or availability of parts, and the ability to get it worked on. If you've got a line on a place to get parts or get work done at a fair price, you may be golden.

Remember, an EV is only as green as its energy supply, so if you're planning on driving an EV around the playa all day and then spend 8+ hours running a gas generator at camp to recharge it, that's probably less environmentally friendly than using a gas-powered vehicle to begin with (my understanding is gas-powered generators are less efficient than a gas-powered car engine).

FlyingMonkey makes a good point, there are some great conversion kits out there so you may want to consider building on a different base vehicle.

Lot of different options, it's a matter of finding something that gets you excited enough for the undertaking.