Green Jersey

West New York students convert a gas car to electric

West New York teacher Ron Grosinger showed his students this year that with some tools, sweat and about $14,000, you can build an electric car the likes of which no major automaker is selling yet: one with a decent range that can keep up with highway traffic

Grosinger and his students at Memorial High School spent hundreds of hours converting an ordinary, used Volkswagen Cabriolet into an electric Volkswagen Cabriolet. Their efforts, begun in January, culminated in a trip in the car to get ice cream last week, according to Grosinger; the energetic tech ed teacher had plans to unveil the car this past Friday at the New Jersey Technology Education Association’s conference and expo in Hasbrouck Heights.

The electric-car conversion was the first project of its kind at Memorial High School.

We spent time with Grosinger and a handful of his most committed students recently at the garage. Check out the video above.