Colleges : Campus scene : COSTA MESA : OCC Teacher Pioneers Electric Car Project

If Detroit is looking for advice on how to build an electric car, Tom Hersh would be more than willing to oblige.

Hersh, a professor of electronics and high technology at Orange Coast College, built an electric car with a group of students last year. The experimental class project was so successful that it is now a regular fixture.

Hersh volunteered his own 1988 Ford Ranger for the experiment and could not have been more pleased with the results. “It is totally quiet and as smooth as glass,” he said. “And I am not having to go to the gas station.”

Driving an electric car has also simplified his life in another way. “I don’t have to make trips to the mechanic, because there is only one moving part in the engine,” he said. “The only maintenance that is needed is you have to change the brushes in the motor every 80,000 miles.”

Though some auto makers contend that electric vehicles are complicated and prohibitively expensive to build, Hersh said the conversion of his truck was done with parts available at any auto supply store. Most of the work, with the exception of a little welding, was done with ordinary tools.

Though Hersh had never done a conversion before, in eight weeks--about 70 hours of class time--he and his students accomplished the task. “If somebody has a basic understanding and can work with their hands,” he said, “they can do it.”