Photo: Omaze/The Planetary Society
Space research requires tons of money, and money is not easy to come by when you are a mostly scientific organization. Raising funds requires some creative thinking, and piggybacking on the notoriety of others is one way to go.
The Planetary Society is an organization founded by Carl Sagan and now spearheaded by one of our time’s most popular mechanical engineers, Bill Nye. Its latest achievement was the deployment of the LightSail 2 CubeSat in orbit earlier this year as a way to prove propulsion by light is possible.
As the Society looks to its future projects, it found it needs more cash. To raise the money, it partnered with Zelectric, a company that specializes in rebuilding older cars and converting them to electric power.
For this purpose, Zelectric has built a very special version of a 1965 Volkswagen Beetle, one The Planetary Society is now selling through Omaze so that it gets the money it needs.
The Beetle has been fitted with a Tesla-sourced battery that gives it a range of just 100 miles (160 km), and uses an electric motor that cranks out 102 hp. Not big numbers, by far, but enough to get you where you’re going and catch the eyes of one or two passerby in the process.
Adding an electric powertrain is not the only modification made to the car. Zelectric fitted it with modern-day amenities like heated seats, a new black canvas roof, and a Bluetooth stereo system developed by Focal and Alpine.
As with any Omaze campaign, you can get one chance at winning this car for free, but the more you chip in, the more your odds grow. The cheapest donation is valued at $10 and gives you 100 chances of winning the car.
If your’ really serious about getting your hands on it and helping space exploration move forward, you can go for as much as $5,000.
You can find all the details you need on the 1965 VW Beetle powered by a Tesla battery at this link.
As the Society looks to its future projects, it found it needs more cash. To raise the money, it partnered with Zelectric, a company that specializes in rebuilding older cars and converting them to electric power.
For this purpose, Zelectric has built a very special version of a 1965 Volkswagen Beetle, one The Planetary Society is now selling through Omaze so that it gets the money it needs.
The Beetle has been fitted with a Tesla-sourced battery that gives it a range of just 100 miles (160 km), and uses an electric motor that cranks out 102 hp. Not big numbers, by far, but enough to get you where you’re going and catch the eyes of one or two passerby in the process.
Adding an electric powertrain is not the only modification made to the car. Zelectric fitted it with modern-day amenities like heated seats, a new black canvas roof, and a Bluetooth stereo system developed by Focal and Alpine.
As with any Omaze campaign, you can get one chance at winning this car for free, but the more you chip in, the more your odds grow. The cheapest donation is valued at $10 and gives you 100 chances of winning the car.
If your’ really serious about getting your hands on it and helping space exploration move forward, you can go for as much as $5,000.
You can find all the details you need on the 1965 VW Beetle powered by a Tesla battery at this link.
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