Saying you were interested in owning an electric vehicle just three months ago, would surely have raised some eyebrows and caused some people to chuckle behind your back. Now that the price of gasoline is bounding towards the $4 mark and will probably surpass that by the end of the summer, finding vehicles that run on little or no gasoline is on the mind of everyone.

When Dr. Richard Barnes and his wife Carole approached Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana Northwest with the idea to convert a truck into an electric vehicle, the College immediately jumped at the exciting opportunity. Through the generosity of the Barneses, the East Chicago De La Garza Campus of Ivy Tech will convert a 2000 Ford Ranger into an electric vehicle. Ivy Tech is the first educational institution in the region to work on such a project.

While electric vehicles are not commonplace now, they were actually among some of the earliest automobiles, because electric vehicles predate gasoline and diesel. Sometime between 1832 and 1839, Scottish businessman Robert Anderson invented the first crude electric carriage.

Current electric vehicles, or EVs, utilize energy stored in rechargeable battery packs which power electric motors instead of the internal combustion engines found in regular cars. The vehicles use no gasoline, and because they have no combustion engines, emit virtually no air pollutants. They provide for a maintenance free, cost effective mode of transportation.

"This project will not only introduce EVs to northwest Indiana, but will provide our students in our automotive program an opportunity to be on the leading edge of working with this technology," said Louie Gonzalez, executive dean of the East Chicago campus.

Juan Guadiana, instructor and chair of the automotive program, said that students will do all the work on converting the truck. "This will complement what we already do with our hands-on instruction," he said. "It will provide an opportunity for new students coming into the program and professionals already in the field to get first hand experience with these types of vehicles. " The process of conversion will be included in the program’s curriculum in the fall of 2007.

Dr. Barnes, an international businessman in Gary, said the electric vehicle makes sense. The goal is to promote the idea of electricity as a source of fuel and also provide the next level of training to those in the automotive industry.

Currently, most electric vehicles can travel no more than 50 miles before a recharge. But even with that, battery technology advancements have addressed many problems with high costs, limited travel distance between battery recharging, charging time, and battery lifespan. Those drawbacks have historically been blamed for the limited adoption of EVs. Toyota, Honda, Ford and General Motors all produced EVs in the 90s, in response to the California Air Resources Board's Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate.

O'Merrial Butchee, executive director of the Ivy Tech Gerald I. Lamkin Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center said that the vehicle will be on display throughout northwest Indiana. "We embrace innovation here at Ivy Tech and we plan to take this vehicle to high schools, place it in parades, and even show it at area businesses."

Ivy Tech will hold a press conference on May 24 at 11 a.m. to showcase the project at the East Chicago campus, 410 East Columbus Drive, East Chicago, IN.