Electric Sonett -My Division III project (Senior Thesis 2016)

I graduated from Hampshire College in 2016 after completing my Div III studying electric vehicles and the feasibility of converting old cars to electric to save money for commuters. During that year I also converted a ride on lawn mower and a tractor from gas to electric. The Electric Sonett was somewhat different as I placed a constraint on the project and required all components to be sourced used in an effort to keep old cars and car parts out of the landfill.

I felt that the discussion around EVs and climate change was not appropriately addressing the embodied energy and associated carbon footprint of creating new cars and car parts - electric or not. I therefore made this project to take a deeper look at embodied energy, and to have a great excuse to turn this classic car into a torque machine.

Adam Curtis - Hampshire College 2016