Electronic cigarettes are considered an environmental issue. A YouTuber has now used discarded products to power a small car.
Disposable electronic cigarettes, known as vapes, have long posed a growing environmental problem and a risk for waste management. Disposal is difficult.
YouTuber Chris Doel has now used 500 discarded vapes to power a car. He managed to drive 18 kilometers with them. This is reported by Techspot magazine.
Powering an apartment or even a car with old electronic cigarettes
What exactly did he do? Each disposable cigarette contains a rechargeable lithium cell. However, these cells are thrown away after the device is used, even though they are rechargeable and still functional.
YouTuber Chris Doel therefore began extracting the cells from the vapes, testing and grouping the functional ones, and using them in successive energy projects. In initial projects and further tests, he managed to power his house with a homemade battery.
He has now put these experiments into his latest project. The homemade battery now forms the core of his latest test platform: a Reva G-Wiz, a lightweight electric microcar from the early 2000s. The Indian car brand no longer exists today and is now called Mahindra.
Doel mounted his modified battery in an aluminum housing, wired the cells for voltage stabilization in series-parallel groups, and installed the unit in place of the original batteries. The converted car started without any problems on the first attempt. A nice detail: The car is charged via USB-C.
During his test drive, Doel reached nearly 60 km/h and traveled about 30 kilometers.
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