Electric Co-op Today

Nissan’s Leaf gets the equivalent of 99 miles per gallon; for the Chevrolet Volt it’s 93. But there’s an electric car that leaves both in the dust.

Seven heads up Interstate 55, getting the equivalent of 207.5 miles per gallon. (Photo By: Jen Danzinger)

“We got 207-and-a-half miles per gallon equivalent,” Kevin Smith, founder of Illuminati Motor Works, said proudly of the car known as “Seven.”

Since 2007, Smith and a dedicated team of volunteers have been working on the car in his garage near Divernon, Ill., where he is a member of Rural Electric Convenience Cooperative.

In 2010, Seven competed in the Progressive Automotive X PRIZE, a contest to design and build high mileage cars that can be mass produced. Although it came up short, Smith and company have kept at it.

In late March, Illuminati brought Seven to Michigan’s Chrysler Proving Grounds. The car was put through what Smith described as “a normal driving cycle that tries to simulate regular city and highway driving.” It was the same official EPA 74 test cycle that the Leaf and Volt went through, and that was how Seven was rated at 207.5 mpg equivalent (mpge). The goal of the mpge rating is to be able to compare an electric vehicle to one using a gasoline engine.

By comparison, the car that won the X PRIZE got 102.5 mpge, though Smith noted that it was rated using a different method.

Seven’s rating followed a winter in which Illuminati made several improvements. The car was completely rewired. The transmission, which came from a scrap yard, was rebuilt and simplified to improve efficiency. The backbone of the car was widened and the batteries moved there from the footwell. About 250 pounds was removed to lighten the car.

Building Seven has been a dream for Smith, who continues to enjoy the support of his wife and team member, Jen Danzinger, a graphic designer at the Association of Illinois Electric Cooperatives.

“If we could find some investors we would like to start building more vehicles,” Smith said. But after four years, with $100,000 invested in the car so far, Smith fears the end might be in sight.

“We’re going to keep working on Seven and try to improve it some more. We’ve got another electric car project that one of the guys wants to do. But otherwise, unfortunately, I have to say it’s slowing down.”

Tags: Electric Vehicles