Help UC San Diego engineers make swappable electricle vehicle batteries a reality

Engineers at the University of California, San Diego, want to revolutionize the electric car industry--and they need your help. They have built a car with swappable, rechargeable battery modules, which allow drivers to change car batteries just like you change the batteries in your photo camera or flashlight.

They now want to take the car, a 2002 four-door Volkswagen Golf, on a cross-country trip--but they need funds. So they have launched a crowdfunding campaign on UC San Diego’s brand-new Crowdsurf website. So far, they have raised more than $6,000 toward their $14,000 goal. The funds would go toward building housings for the battery modules, so that they can survive the cross-country trip.

Engineers estimate they can go from San Diego to South Carolina in about 45 hours--at the legal speed limit--stopping only to swap out modules. They named the project Modular Battery Exchange and Active Management, or M-BEAM for short (http://www.modularexchange.com).

Donors to the crowdfunding campaign will get their name on the modules and on the car in different font sizes depending on their contribution level. 

Check out the video above for an overview of the campaign.

You can contribute here.