BOB’S BOB (BATTERY OPERATED BEETLE)

Highway 99 runs from Vancouver BC down to the US border, and then as Interstate Highway 5 it cruises all the way down to San Diego and Mexico. Ambling down 99 towards Bob Cutting’s house in White Rock BC, I was curious to find out how he had tackled converting a 1963 Beetle to electric power.

I’ve driven an electric Smart and... meh. The whole concept of electric cars seems to me to be a temporary side issue on the way to hydrogen cells, and I expect Priuses to end up as valuable and relevant as compact discs. The low cost of automotive electricity is a temporary mirage as well. It may well currently (as it were) cost Bob $2 to fill the electric tank on his lecky Beetle, but that means the government is losing the $20 they would have taxed him for filling up with petrol. How much longer do we think governments are going to tolerate losing tax income at that level? Placez