[ASSURAS] After all we've just looked at and discussed, let's back up a bit on the talk about electric vehicles. By the end of 2016, according to the J.D. Power and Associates marketing firm, there will be some 159 hybrid and electric models available in the United States. But thousands of old types have been on the streets for years. Pickups, Volkswagens, Fieros -- remember that? -- to name a few. They're old classics which have been energized. "energyNOW!"'s Lee Patrick Sullivan introduces us to some people who are taking charge of their rides.

[SULLIVAN] Up in the Santa Cruz Mountains, through the twisting and winding roads, among the tall California redwoods, live a couple of electric veh--

All right, all right, hold on a second! Before we go any further with this story, there's a few things you need to know about me. First, I still record all of my TV shows on VHS tape. The car I drive was built in 1988 and it still runs perfectly. The headphones I use to listen to music are 16 years old and they have more tape on them than Brett Favre's knee. Heck, if my wife hadn't bought me an iPod, I'd still be rocking my jams on cassette tape. The point of this isn't to tell you I'm a cheapskate, it's just, I don't find a reason to throw something out when it still works perfectly fine. So when I heard that you could get an electric car without buying a new one, I had to check this out. Back to your program...

...live a couple of electric vehicle pioneers -- Mike Brown and Shari Prange, owners of Electro Automotive. Lee Patrick Sullivan.

[BROWN] Nice to meet you, sir.

[SULLIVAN] I've heard a rumor that this Volkswagen right here is an electric car. I didn't think Volkswagen had electric cars.

[BROWN] We had them first.

[SULLIVAN] You had them first?

They had theirs first because they've been making electric car conversion kits for 31 years. Each kit is custom made. Electro Automotive provides the step-by-step instructions on how to rip out the car's engine, fuel lines, radiator, and gas tank. Brown says he designs them so even the novice mechanic can electrify their ride. This is what a conversion looks like under the hood -- lead acid batteries. You know, the same ones you find in golf carts. But if you string them together, you get power.

So these are, I'm counting 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. So eight lead acid batteries, and you said there's more in the back of the car as well.

[BROWN] There's another eight in the back of the car and two more underneath what would be the back seat.

[SULLIVAN] The conversions plug into a normal home outlet. No need for a fancy charging station. The kits cost around $10,000 for cars they already have specs for, like the Volkswagen Rabbit and a couple small pickups. The cars get 40 to 60 miles on a charge. A Porsche 914 that was converted is getting 100 miles per charge, but Brown says that's not typical.

Now, I have a 1988 Fiero GT. Would that be prime for conversion?

[PRANGE] We have a lot of people do Fieros.

[SULLIVAN] So I could turn my Fiero into an electric car.

[BROWN] Yes, sir.

[SULLIVAN] How much would that cost?

[PRANGE] Uh, probably about $10,000, $12,000, with batteries, and depending how crazy you get about the battery boxes and so forth.

[SULLIVAN] And do you guys also provide money for the divorce attorney when my wife notices that the engine's gone from her car?

Now, while I thought about taking the steps to having the first Fiero EV on my block, the Electro Automotive folks took me out back to show me their first VW Rabbit they converted. It's been on the road now for 19 years and it hasn't used a drop of gasoline.

That Volkswagen that's out front, I notice it's already pointing downhill. Can I take that for a ride?

[BROWN] Most certainly.

[SULLIVAN] Let's do it. This will be my very first EV conversion drive, so why don't you go first, show me the ropes, and then I'll take it from there?

[PRANGE] Sounds good.

[SULLIVAN] The car was a lot louder than I expected...

[Motor whirring]

as we went through the twists and turns of the Santa Cruz mountains.

All of those rattles and squeaks that are usually muffled by an engine are now pretty loud. But as for the acceleration and power, it was like a normal car.

So far, Electro Automotive kits have helped convert more than 2,000 vehicles. Doug Bretlinger has one of them. He decided to get fancy with his ride, installing lithium ion batteries rather than the golf cart ones. It also more than doubled the price of his conversion.

What would possess you to want to turn a car from internal combustion to electric on your own? Why didn't you just wait for the Nissan Leaf?

[BRETLINGER] Well, this was done nine years ago. And I wanted one nine years ago. I didn't want to wait for somebody to finally figure out that we should be doing this.

[TEXT ON SCREEN] To learn more about Doug's Rampage retrofit go to energyNOW.com.

[SULLIVAN] And if you think these conversions are on the fringe, they're actually the mainstream, when it comes to electric vehicles. Of the 10,000 or so EVs registered in the U.S., 80% of them are conversions. I took a Chevy truck conversion for a spin at the Detroit Auto Show. It was electrified by a Cincinnati company called Amp. Its business model caters to those who are not mechanically inclined. The company will do the complete conversion for you. Amp only works on vehicles off the showroom floor. Currently it's offering the Chevy Equinox, Saturn Sky, and Pontiac Solstice. The cars get around 120 miles per charge and still have that new car smell. But these conversions are three times as expensive as the Electro Automotive kits. Plus, you have to add the additional cost of a new car. But conversions could be on the fringe really soon, with the flood of electric cars expected to hit the market.

Is there any nervousness about your business model, that there's going to be some affordable electric cars coming out in the next year?

[BROWN] Yeah.

[Laughter]

[SULLIVAN] As for Douglas Bretlinger, he won't be buying a Leaf. He's working on his newest conversion -- a 1982 Fiat 124.

Does this have more to do with that you like to tinker with things and less to do with trying to save the Earth?

[BRETLINGER] More about saving the Earth. Absolutely.

[SULLIVAN] For Mike Brown...

How much of your business plan is that you want to go out and save the Earth and how much of it is that you just love electric cars?

[BROWN] I like to eat.

[SULLIVAN] Okay. Oh, so you do this for money?

[BROWN] Damn right.

[SULLIVAN] Well, they won't be getting any money from me on this trip. It turns out these kits are designed for manual transmissions, not automatics like mine. So my Fiero engine, not to mention my marriage, are safe for now. On the outskirts of Santa Cruz, California, Lee Patrick Sullivan, "energyNOW!"

[ASSURAS] Now I remember what the Fiero looks like. Anyway, one very popular EV conversion kit sold in California turns a Prius -- it's a hybrid -- into a plug-in hybrid. It goes about 20 miles on a charge before morphing back to its regular routine with the battery charging as the vehicle is driven. The conversion was so popular, Toyota decided to release a plug-in Prius of its own, to hit showrooms at the end of this year.