A new movie that opened in theaters this past Friday asks, “Who killed the electric car?”

Ten years after they started ruling the roads of California, the filmmakers argue electric cars are dead. But here in Alaska, there is a small group of people on a mission to resurrect the alternative fuel engines.

These days filling up your tank means slimming down your wallet. In the last year the average price at the pump has gone up about 90 cents, and there seems to be no relief in sight.

Chris Rose of the Renewable Energy Alaska Project says, "Fuels that before didn't look that economical are now looking very economical."

Fuels like electricity. In Alaska there are at least 10 people that have given up on gasoline-powered engines and traded them in for electric motors.

Mike Willmon is one of them.

"Well I'd been researching it for several years and figured out that the price of gas had to hit three bucks to make it economical and worthwhile," he said.

So about a year ago Willmon put his plan into action, converting his 1988 Mitsubishi Mighty Max pickup into a four-wheel drive EV.

Looking under the hood of a car, your typical gasoline powered car, we've got a complicated engine. There's belts, there's hoses, you have a battery, there's radiators, all sorts of complicated parts. But underneath Willmon’s hood it's a much simpler version. There's only a few parts. There's a motor, a motor controller, a battery charger and the brains."

It doesn't look like much, but Willmon says it gets the job done.

"I can drive around, do my errands, get home and I still have about 50 percent capacity left," he says.

Willmon says his truck can go about 100 miles on $3 worth of electricity. That same $3 dollars would only take him 15 miles on the old gas engine.

"I haven't stopped at a gas station in two months," he says.

In the past, talk of renewable energy cars has sparked thoughts of hippies or artists like Willie Nelson chugging down the road in a vegetable-powered tour bus. But all that's changing.

"No, I'm not really an environmental kind of guy. It's just, it's nice to - I’m an electrical engineer so this kind of stuff, you know, is neat to play with," Willmon says.
While it's fun for Willmon, it's intimidating for people who aren't electrical engineers. That's why websites like EV World and AustinEV.org have popped up.

Everyday people can log on and talk to owners of EVs and even look at guides on how to build their own. You can get an idea of what you'll need and how much it will cost --
About $8,000 for an average conversion.

"I splurged a little bit. I got the little bit bigger controller, the little bit bigger motor, the few extra batteries and so I’ve got about $12,000 into it right now," Willmon says.

That extra money let him build a motor that goes about 40 miles before it's time to plug in and recharge. That's more than enough to get around town, and his wife still has a gas powered car in case they want to explore more of the last frontier.

Willmon says breaking his addiction to oil was scary at first but not the hardest part.

"I think the hardest thing to get used to is the noise,” he says. “You hear things on the car that you don't hear with the engine running."

If you're worried about power, don't be. Willmon’s truck can go from zero to 60 in 12 seconds, and that's in third gear.

So while the auto industry may have killed off its EVs, a new generation of auto makers is giving birth to new ones right here in our own backyard.

Mike says his electricity bill has gone up about $20 a month, so he's paid about $40 dollars in fuel so far and that's gotten him 1003 miles on the truck.

Willmon says he has talked with people who have the exact same motors in their car, and it's been running for more than 20 years. The only sort of maintenance needed is changing a brush about every 80,000 miles, and that's a $40 repair.

As far as driving in Alaska, Willmon’s batteries are insulated, and the cold doesn't create a problem for the motor. He's got enough power that the snow won't be a problem either.

Would you spend a lot of money on an EV if it would save you money in the future? It's ABC Alaska News’ online poll question of the week. Log on to aksuperstation.com and let us know.