Vashon will soon become a Mecca for electric cars and their owners, if a group of enthusiastic Islanders has its way.

More than 50 people have joined Vashon Electric Vehicle Association, or VEVA, to spread the word about transportation options powered by electricity.

“We want to promote clean vehicles and a cleaner environment,” said Rex Stratton, VEVA’s secretary.

They’ve even started a company, Electric Vashon, that converts traditional gasoline-powered vehicles to electric. They’re offering an independent study class for Vashon High School students to learn electric vehicle technology — from motor and battery installation to the math and physics behind it.

And they’re planning a rally Dec. 12 to raise awareness of nontraditionally powered vehicles on Vashon — from the more common hybrids and biodiesels to the rarities like three-wheeled two-seaters and electrified bicycles.

VEVA is made up of hybrid and electric car owners, idealists, pragmatists, engineers and grandparents — people who share the common bond that they’d like to see electric vehicles replace many of the gas-guzzling rigs on Island roads today.

“We want to use Vashon as a test bed for electric vehicle conversions and new types of electric vehicles on a larger scale than has been done elsewhere to date,” said Bob Powell, VEVA’s treasurer. “We have a community that’s receptive to alternatives in transportation.”

The group has its headquarters at the Sheffield Building warehouse, a cavernous space that’s currently home to four vehicles in various stages of electrification — from a small green Zap car named Zippy to OSparky, a 1972 sedan turned tiny pickup.

A group of Islanders gathered in the warehouse last week to discuss their ambitious venture to get gas-powered cars off the roads, convert some of them to electric and even build small electric vehicles from the ground up. A few tinkered with an electric motor, while another worked on a large floodlight.

There are about a dozen vehicles on Vashon that run purely on electricity, with more “coming out of the woodwork,” Stratton said.

Vashon’s already on a green path, with perhaps the highest number of Priuses per capita in the world, he said in all seriousness.

The Island is one of the friendliest places to be an electric car owner, VEVA members say: There’s a reserved plug-in space at Vashon Island Coffee Roasterie in the center of the Island, and most Vashon drivers, curious and even enamored of the small cars, respect the vehicles, some of which have a top speed of 35 miles per hour.

There are fewer than 1,500 plug-in electric vehicles on American roadways today, estimates Time Magazine. But soon, that number will exponentially increase, as major automakers including GM, Ford, Volkswagen and Toyota introduce electric-powered vehicles, many of which will forego gasoline power entirely.

Electrics are better for the environment in many ways, VEVA members point out. Obviously, they don’t spew exhaust into the air. But they’re also lighter, so they don’t contribute to pothole creation; they take up less space in crowded areas, and their motors are likely to last much longer than a typical internal combustion engine.

Electric cars needn’t be bought from an automaker, however. A solid, Island-ready electric vehicle can be created on Vashon, thanks to a core group of engineers, tinkerers and mechanics who can strip out a traditional vehicle’s engine, install an electric motor and batteries and get that car on the road as a purely electric vehicle.

Only certain vehicles are suitable for conversion, however — they can’t be too flimsy or too heavy — and the cost for conversion is still very high. Materials alone can be $10,000. Electric Vashon members have donated labor to conversions and plan to continue to do so.

Pres. Barack Obama said last year he hopes more than a million electric and hybrid cars are on U.S. roads by 2015 — an ambitious goal

that VEVA fully supports.

VEVA members want to go further than putting electric cars on Vashon’s roads, however. They’d like to see the town plan call for accommodations on Island roads for smaller, not always speedy, electric cars. And they’d like to stay abreast of the electric motor technology so they can soon create small electric cars from kits, if those become available.

Someday, when battery technology brings the price of electric cars down and their miles-per-charge range up, building and converting electric cars on Vashon could become a small, thriving industry for the Island, Powell said.

“It’s a mountain, and we’d like to climb it,” said Tag Gornall, VEVA’s vice-president, of the group’s lofty goals.

An upcoming project is a “heart transplant” from one Volkswagen Rabbit to another. Vashon High School graduate Spencer Caldwell turned a yellow Rabbit electric for an independent study project and donated it to the Vashon-Maury Island Land Trust.

But the vehicle’s body and brakes are in such poor shape that Electric Vashon engineers plan to take out the vehicle’s electric motor and batteries and transplant them into another Rabbit in better condition.

The land trust plans to use the small car for trips around town, said land trust operations manager Beth Bordner. She’s excited, she added, that the vehicle will be powered by energy generated by the solar panels installed atop the Land Trust Building.

“We love the idea that we’ll be plugging in and recharging through solar — it’s totally green,” she said.

Even electric cars that are powered by on-the-grid electricity, which often comes from coal-powered plants, are much better than traditional gas vehicles, said VEVA president and vehicle converter Dave Barden.

“Ten thousand gas cars are still going to pollute much more than one coal plant,” he said. “You can do things to clean up one plant and control its emissions more than you can monitor 10,000 cars. And as we move to cleaner power — wind, hydro and solar— electric vehicles get even greener.”

VEVA and Electric Vashon, made up entirely of volunteers, have donated dozens of hours to the cause of the electric vehicle. But they also need materials — from automotive tools like wrenches, screwdrivers and hydraulic jacks to safety gear and a desktop computer. E-mail veva@islandgreentech.org to donate items to Electric Vashon’s warehouse shop on Vashon. Visit veva.islandgreentech.org to see the group’s full materials wish list.