This Car Is Powered By Vapes, But Not The Way You Think

In a previous post about Chris Doel's e-bike powered by disposable vape batteries, reader JustinQueso commented, "Wouldn't a clapped-out WRX be a more appropriately powered by vape batteries?" Doel must have been reading our comments, as his latest project is a car powered by nothing but vape batteries originally destined for a landfill.

Rather than a clapped-out WRX, Doel used a G-Wiz, one of the worst electric cars ever made and one that we would erase from history if we could. But its simplicity compared to a Tesla or Porsche made it much easier to adapt to a custom battery pack without a whole bunch of complex reprogramming. It also helps that the G-Wiz is designed to run on a 48-volt lead acid battery pack, which is close enough to the 50-volt lithium-ion vape powerwall that Doel had already built to power his entire garage that he simply adapted it to power the car instead. 

That powerwall was able to run a welder to build a new enclosure for itself, which was also a good test of a high-amperage application before installing it in the car. The welder pulled about 60 amps of current, but that's nothing compared to the 350 amps the car can pull at full acceleration. Even Doel admits is a bit too much for his homemade pack of vape batteries. Thanks to the simplicity of the G-Wiz, he's able to reprogram its "boost" mode to instead limit the maximum current. That, plus several layers of fuses and circuit breakers help ensure that Doel's homemade battery doesn't turn the car into a crispy critter.

With a few more bits and pieces, the car is ready to take on the road. The standard G-Wiz is already slow, and Doel's current-limited version is even slower, able to draw a maximum of about five kilowatts of power. Compare that to a Tesla Model S, which pulls up to 252 kilowatts per motor, and it has two of them. But it does work, eventually exceeding 35 mph until Doel has to slow down for traffic. Regenerative braking even feeds 10 amps of current back into the vape cells to extend the range a little bit.

That range needs all the help it can get. The 500 vape cells can only store about 2.5 kilowatt hours of juice, which results in a real world range of just 18 miles until the car stops. But that's 18 miles on batteries that were just going to be thrown away after the Subie bros were done polluting their lungs at car meets. While it's not a good car, it's a great demonstration of just how much potential we're literally throwing away in our disposable culture. It's also worth watching exactly how Doel does this, as he hides no secrets in showing how easy this is — at least, as long as you know what you're doing. Free energy is tempting, but don't try this at home.