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Electric car conversion project

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  • 03-12-2018 12:57am
    #1
    s_o_s
    Registered Users Posts: 17 ✭


    I'm considering starting a project to convert a classic car to electric. The main goals are to have something fun to pop around town in, that looks cool and is low maintenance, I'm not too worried about range.

    Have people done this before? Were there any issues that came up, e.g. changing how to tax it since it's the same car but now uses electric? Are there any caveats from your experience doing this before I hand over money?
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    #2
    Bigus
    Registered Users Posts: 4,942 ✭✭✭Bigus


    have a look at Damien maguire on YouTube, irish expert on ev conversions.


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    #3
    mr chips
    Registered Users Posts: 610 ✭✭✭mr chips


    Some bedtime reading/viewing for you ...
    http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-your-own-Electric-Car/
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXsQGWWz3Is
    http://www.evwest.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=218

    Back in February I priced the conversion with the lads who did the Beetle featured in the Fully Charged vid at £15k (sterling). Of course, you'd have to supply the car for converting on top of that. Bit rich for me right now, but could be an option in a couple of years when I hope to have a bit more spare cash, and the price of battery modules should have fallen a little bit. At the time, they were using Tesla battery modules for the Beetle conversion and the car had a range of around 170 miles - obviously the range and performance will depend on the weight and shape of the car you're converting. Dunno if they're still using the Tesla modules or if they've gone with any other battery types.


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    #4
    Alkers
    Registered Users Posts: 6,831 ✭✭✭Alkers


    mr chips wrote: »
    Back in February I priced the conversion with the lads who did the Beetle featured in the Fully Charged vid at £15k (sterling). Of course, you'd have to supply the car for converting on top of that. Bit rich for me right now, but could be an option in a couple of years when I hope to have a bit more spare cash, and the price of battery modules should have fallen a little bit.

    That price doesn't seem too bad if you blew an engine in a car it would be worth considering.


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    #5
    mr chips
    Registered Users Posts: 610 ✭✭✭mr chips


    I guess it depends on your circumstances. If I was a wealthy man, I'd have a couple of Teslas on the driveway, but I'm not so am stuck with ICE for now. I actually do have a spare car of my own as a possible future EV conversion project - no issues with the existing engine or anything, I'd just prefer to have EV. But the cost of conversion would have to pay for itself in a reasonable amount of time (say 4-5 years). At the moment, in terms of the savings on fuel spend, servicing and road tax it'd be more like 8-10 years before I'd recoup the £15k, so I just have to hold fire till the cost of battery modules comes down. Or wait for a used EV with a 200 mile range to drop below £8k!


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