Tom Ngo's Electric Car:

It is a 1980 Renault LeCar or also known as the “Lectric Leopard”. Back in the 1980's Iowa Power and Light was the original owner and had a few of these cars as a pilot program. As with most electric car pilot programs they discontinued it after a few years and allowed the employees to buy them if they wanted to. As an electrical engineer I was always interested in building an electric car and while talking with some of the guys at work, I found out that one of them, who used to work for Iowa Power and Light actually had one of the Lectric Leopard's in his garage. He used to use it to commute around town for a few years until someone broke the rear driver-side window one night when he had it parked outside. For some reason he never got it fixed and it was sitting in his garage for about 10 years. After talking with him for a little bit he agreed to sell it to me for $1000.

I originally planned on building the electric car from scratch, but after doing some research and adding-up the cost of all the parts to start it from scratch, I decided it would be cheaper and easier to buy the electric car from him and fix it up. At the moment I really haven't had time to do to much with the electric car, since I just had a baby boy 2 months ago, who keeps me pretty busy, but I've been able to track down a rear driver-side glass between his naps. My next step is to find batteries and get the car powered up and running to see how it handles. Hopefully by spring when he's sleeping a little longer I'll be able to sneak into the garage and really work on it (thank god for baby monitors).