How to convert an electric scooter to a solar scooter

With the solar panels folded open in the charging position, wire the panels in series for the 48 volt configuration. The panels I used had 10 feet of lead wire to work with so no additional wire purchase was necessary. You will need to use a volt meter to keep the positive and negative wires in the correct polarity of pos to neg, and so on. When wired correctly the panels should read about 40 volts DC at no load on each side. I used zip ties and electrical tape to hold the wires in place in the panels.

When the panels are wired, drill a 3/8 inch hole in the bottom left and right side of the trunk. Feed the wire from each side into the hole in the bottom of the trunk. Using a volt meter, check the polarity of each side and make the final connection of the series. The combined voltage should now be about 80 volts DC. I attached a 10 amp fuse inside a holder to the “panel positive” block inside of the C-40. Connect the negative lead wire to the “panel negative” post inside of the C-40. Inserting the fuse into the respective fuse holders acts as a simple switch to turn the system on. Removing the fuse turns the system off.

Mounting the charging system in this manner allows the factory charger to still be used, should extended cloudy days reduce charging. It appears EVT chose to charge each battery individually as a separate lead goes to each battery individually. My bike has not been plugged into the factory charger since April 15th 2005 and it’s now travelled over 700 miles.

I like how quiet this bike is when riding. You can hear everything around you as if you are walking. In thunderstorms you hear everything around you, wind, thunder, rain, etc. It is fun to be at a traffic light and talk to the person in the car next to you. Hearing excited kids shouting at mom or dad with excited comments about “that really cool motorcycle.”

I hope to use the test numbers from this bike as a stepping stone for a larger model. I really think the technology is now here to ride affordable motorcycles, charged only by the sun.

Donald Dunklee