​DUNTON, U.K. - I have converted my 1996 Ford Probe to run on electric only.

I work at the Research and Engineering Centre in Dunton, U.K. and you can regularly see my car out front in the electric car parking bays.

I've been trying to achieve a balance between cost and range for the batteries.

I have tried recycled batteries from a scrap yard and new batteries and I am currently back to the scrap ones. So far these have all been lead-acid types and this is old tech. The new batteries only lasted eight months.
The cost of lithium phosphate batteries is very high, so I reverted back to the battery recycler and I am developing a battery monitoring system to identify when a battery is failing.

With the recycler, I have spares and I can swap out any that are failing to keep the range up and wring the last bit of capacity out of these used batteries.

I am saving up for lithium batteries as this is the only viable long-term solution. I am looking for a sponsor to get my lithium batteries and get my range up.