ELECTRIC AVENUE
> EV CONVERSIONS ARE STARTING TO BE A THING. WHAT’S INVOLVED, HOW MUCH WILL IT COST, AND ARE YOU PREPARED FOR THE HATERS?
FANCY an argument with a car guy? Start chatting about electric vehicles. Prefer a full-blown fist fight? Suggest you’re going to convert your classic car to electric power and do away with its petrol- or diesel-swigging internal combustion heart. Let’s just say ‘electromodding’ isn’t for everyone. But like it or not, it’s an ever-increasing trend.
Out goes your engine, fuel system, radiator, exhaust and anything else related to internal combustion. In their place goes one or more electric motors, a battery pack, and a power controller to regulate proceedings. The gearbox and shifter can stay if you wish, but even they can be ditched if you want to lose more weight.
The batteries need a cooling system, and to be safely and securely boxed and fitted. You need to fit a charge point or two. And, as you can imagine, the wiring harnesses and cabling are quite extensive. Those are the main hassles, but, as with any conversion, you can count on there being other engineering work required.
Not easy. So why do it? Green things, like reducing your carbon footprint and saving the planet? If that’s not your bag, how about free fuel, improved reliability, minimal servicing and the chance for your classic car to accelerate two, three or even four times as fast as before? Yep, that little list of pros can certainly help convince a person to cast aside their oily bits.
“You’re turning your classic into the ultimate daily driver,” says James Pauly of Queensland conversion specialist Traction EV. “You can rack up the kilometres Monday to Friday and it’s bulletproof reliable; this is keeping classics on the road.”
Conrad Gibb of NSW’S Ev-torque has been performing EV conversions for around 10 years, and counts a VW Kombi, VW Beetle, Toyota
Hilux, Land Rovers and an early Porsche Boxster among his triumphs. “EVS are great fun to drive, with fantastic acceleration,” he says. “Plus, they only cost a few cents per kilometre to run and have outstanding reliability.”
If you’re considering an EV conversion, you must accept that the driving experience will be very different. No engine noise or soul-stirring vibrations, and you can’t rely on servos or a jerry can in the boot when you’re running low on juice. But the number of electric car charge points is ever-increasing, and anyway, the vast majority of EV owners charge them conveniently at home.
Fitting DC charging capability to an EV conversion (so you can use public fast-chargers) is timely and costly, but being able to add 200km of range in about 30 minutes is pretty appealing. The same range can be added in about three hours if you buy a $2000-odd AC home wallbox charger. You can, of course, just plug it into your household socket to get that range overnight.
Convinced? First, a reality check. “It’s not a quick thing, it’s not a cheap thing, and it can be incredibly difficult to get components,” says Emma Sutcliffe, director of Melbourne conversion specialist Electric Car Cafe. She’s not wrong. These
YOU’RE TURNING YOUR CLASSIC INTO THE ULTIMATE DAILY DRIVER. THIS IS KEEPING CLASSICS ON THE ROAD
specialists are suddenly in high demand, so it can take months to plan and source components – and for them to clear current jobs – before they can even start on your new project.
The biggest cost comes from battery size or capacity, which dictates how much range you’ll get. EV batteries are expensive and in demand, as there just aren’t that many crash-damaged Teslas and Nissan Leafs to tear down, especially in electric car-shy Australia.
New batteries are available but expensive, but most conversions use ones from old cars. The latest indicative pricing – and these vary widely – has your drive unit (motor and controller) between $8000 and $30,000 depending on your power needs. Batteries with a range of between 100300km cost $10-30,000. Chargers, cabling and associated bits will set you back $5-20,000. And an engineer’s inspection and report starts at about $2000. Then you need to add your battery box and mounting fabrication. Maybe rebuilding that old petrol engine just got more appealing?
A full turnkey conversion at Electric Car Cafe costs upwards of $70,000. Traction EV can get you on the road from about $40,000, while Ev-torque’s conversions start at about $48,000. These prices are working with an already roadworthy car, and, of course, there are many variables.
If you can stomach that, what sort of cars are best? Electric Car Cafe’s Russ Shepherd says you have to consider weight, age and coolness factor. “Small cars aren’t really ideal, as you pull out a reasonably light engine and gearbox and add a lot of battery weight, so you can end up with a compromised vehicle.”
Russ says he likes converting something with a cast-iron engine block. Sling that away and you remove a huge chunk of weight. Then, when you
add hundreds of kilos of batteries, you could actually end up with a lighter car.
He’s currently converting an MG B, showing that smaller stuff is possible, while Traction EV has worked on VW Beetles, a Mazda MX-5, a 1965 Ford Cortina and an ’87 Nissan R31 Skyline. You don’t need to go crazy with the motor and batteries in such cars. For instance, that Corty (see page 110) uses a Us-sourced Netgain Hyper 9 motor. “They’re compact, nine inches in diameter, relatively light and ideal for a small car weighing around a tonne,” says James Pauly. “They make 90kw and 240Nm torque, so are a lot of fun in a light car.”
Helping things is the converted car’s kerb weight being a six-pack over 1000kg, or only about 100kg more than an original Mk1 Cortina. Its battery pack and range are conservative: five Tesla Model S battery modules are used, giving 28kwh and allowing a 150km range.
As you’ve probably guessed, modern cars don’t make good conversion projects. Anything running CAN bus electronics (cars post mid1990s, basically) make things incredibly complex software-wise, including power steering, heating, traction and stability control. Anything
YOU MUST ACCEPT THAT THE DRIVING EXPERIENCE WILL BE VERY DIFFERENT: NO ENGINE NOISEOR SOULSTIRRING VIBRATIONS