Local man wins patent for generator-powered car | DailyComet.com | The Thibodaux Daily Comet | Thibodaux, LA: "HOUMA — The idea that will put Joseph Boudreaux on record with the U.S. patent office came to him in the middle of a traffic jam.
Boudreaux and his wife, Jeanne, were stuck in New Orleans in a wreck involving a streetcar in 2000.
'I told her, ‘That's electric,' ' Boudreaux, now 76, said of the streetcar. 'Why can't a car be made electric?'
Once they got home, Boudreaux, a retired technician for BellSouth, slept on it.
Boudreaux got to thinking about an electric car that could be powered by a generator, like the generator he had just purchased to use during storms and power outages.
With the help of a lawyer, the opinions of generator companies, and support from his sons and daughter, they produced drawings and submitted them for a patent in 2006.
The engine could travel 100 to 150 miles on a gallon of gas, Boudreaux said.
Then they waited.
Last week, almost four years later, they finally heard back from the government office: He had won the patent.
Boudreaux doesn't plan to produce the patent himself — a prototype could cost $200,000. He says he might sell it to put toward his grandkids' retirement.
Still, the official recognition of his invention meant a lot, his son, Mark, said, particularly since the inventor's biggest cheerleader, his wife, had passed away in July 2007.
'My mom really encouraged him,' Mark Boudreaux said. 'When it came in, it was a heartfelt moment.'"
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