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STANDARDS
About Us      About Conversions      PRINT A PAGE    EVs For Sale        Batson's Nightmares         Links       Bottlenecks and You        Videos

STANDARDS
The following description is taken from the web page of the ANSI 

The ANSI Federation’s primary goal is to enhance the global competitiveness of U.S. business and the American quality of life by promoting and facilitating voluntary consensus standards and ensuring their integrity. 
The Institute, which is active in both national and international standardization, recently worked with representatives from the public- and private-sectors to develop a National Standards Strategy (NSS) for the United States. This document establishes a framework that can be used by all interests including companies, government, nongovernmental organizations, standards developers and consumers, to further improve U.S. competitiveness abroad while continuing to provide strong support for domestic markets. Using the NSS as a guide, ANSI is successfully facing the standardization challenges of a global economy while addressing key quality-of-life issues such as safety and the environment.
Although ANSI itself does not develop American National Standards (ANSs), it provides all interested U.S. parties with a neutral venue to come together and work towards common agreements. The process to create these voluntary standards is guided by the Institute’s cardinal principles of consensus, due process and openness and depends heavily upon data gathering and compromises among a diverse range of stakeholders. The Institute ensures that access to the standards process, including an appeals mechanism, is made available to anyone directly or materially affected by a standard that is under development. Thousands of individuals, companies, government agencies and other organizations such as labor, industrial and consumer groups voluntarily contribute their knowledge, talents and efforts to standards development.



You can read more at: 
http://www.ansi.org/standards_activities/overview/overview.aspx?menuid=3
American National Standards Institute - ANSIA premier source for timely, relevant, actionable information on national, regional, international standards and conformity assessment issues.
www.ansi.org/
IN SHORT
The EV Conversion industry could become more competitive by going through the process of describing the industry's best practices. 
This process leads to adopting industry standards.
Richard Minner has worked in the computer field for nearly two decades.  He knows the power of standards.

In a recent phone call, he described to me the importance of developing standards as a way to strengthen the industry of EV converters – standards could lead to UL approval and that could attract fence sitters who are waiting for some sort of independent lab to put a stamp of safety on the industry and to weed out the people who really shouldn’t be offering kits or converted vehicles to the public….

Weed out people who don’t know the physics behind a conversion
Weed out the opportunists
Highlight the well-engineered vehicles and suppliers of kits that make sense.
There is a process for adopting standards and it is not some external industry that approves the standards.   The standards come from the industry’s stakeholders – the suppliers of parts and the converters.   They meet, either virtually or in person, to describe what good conversions look like, how they perform, what processes are used in the industry.
Then through a process of review, the group votes on what processes should be identified as “Standard” for the industry.   Should wires be allowed to hang loosely?   Is it okay for a wire to drape across the battery box?   Is it okay for batteries to be outside the battery box?  Do we need a battery box?   Some converters don’t think so…

Richard Minner has experience with ISO 9000 and ANSI, the standards institute.  On this web page you will find links to take you to the ANSI site.   The participants in the EV industry are invited, encouraged, and urged to start setting up a system of communication about standards.   Others have called for standards.  I’ve been in this role of EV advocate and user since 1989 and I’ve heard dozens of calls for standards.  There was an association, EVIA, an industry association, that attempted the standards work. 

With kits advertised for under $2000 and with interest in alternative fuels rising along with gasoline prices, the time is ripe to get standards adopted.   In this space, on this web page, Richard Minner will continue to comment as time allows.  If you have questions about the ANSI process, send the question to mistermath@comcast.net and I’ll pass the question to Richard. (and whoever steps forward to collect comments regarding standards)

The rest is left to the EV industry :  Converters and Suppliers
Key Words: 
Form a consensus through Virtual committee work
Build a framework

EVIA was formed in 1992 in part to adopt standards for the conversion and ground-up EV.
Comments
Yeah! Go ahead and add our name and email to the list. We really want a standard, especially after hearing some horror stories of shoddy work, no safety features in place,
no standard! It will take a bit of work, but this is just as important as getting the EVs on the road. We could really raise the bar with EVs and show that they are safe, good for the environment and money savers.  Mike will be going full time at EVs come
Plug In,
Paula
ampmobileconversions.com 




14 years ago we started the Electric Vehicle Industry Association to establish standards.
Bob @ EVAmerica.com
evamerica@aol.com