Has anyone in DE converted to EV?

[Team WorldTour]

Hello again!
After a DISASTER of an AAZ upgrade (the motor blew after 1000km!), I want to look into an electric conversion.
TUV says it will be a nightmare (LOTS of paperwork!), but if someone has already done this, the door is already open.
I have a 1990 Syncro, and ideally, it would be a bolt-on to the transmission.

[CBSnake]

hi,

this one:

https://murschel-electric-cars.de/

Greetings

Achim

[Atlantik90]

Hello,
if you think of the 1.8 liter EV-Golf engine - this may be possible. But to legalize the emission situation without catalytic converter may be tricky. The EV-motors are elder then your 1990 Syncro. I think it would be more easy to make a conversion to an 2E (younger engine type from the 1990s) due to more done conversions.

[Osku]

The electric conversions for old cars at current sound stupid. Lets say you build it to day 1 year minimum build time batterys are either new or used. If used they have some 6 years life left if new 12 years from wich 1 year minimum was used during the build. Take now remaining battery life and divide the battery cost with that and you have a yearly cost now imagine the kilometers you have to drive to justifie that.
And that is only the depriciation not total costs and that only for the battery. I would say forget it but go ahead if you want.

[multigerd]

Hello,
if you think of the 1.8 liter EV-Golf engine

Hallo Joachim, ich denke er meint einen Umbau auf Elekromotor.

Gruss, Gerd

[CBSnake]

The electric conversions for old cars at current sound stupid. Lets say you build it to day 1 year minimum build time batterys are either new or used. If used they have some 6 years life left if new 12 years from wich 1 year minimum was used during the build. Take now remaining battery life and divide the battery cost with that and you have a yearly cost now imagine the kilometers you have to drive to justifie that.
And that is only the depriciation not total costs and that only for the battery. I would say forget it but go ahead if you want.

Hi Osku,

Sticking with a drive system that relies on a finite, constantly increasing resource can be just as foolish. Imagine spending years building a car with a combustion engine only to discover there's no fuel left, or it's become incredibly expensive. Currently, you might be right about the costs, but fuel is getting more expensive, while batteries are getting cheaper. If the battery fails after 12 years, you replace the defective cell, not buy a whole new battery, even if the manufacturer would prefer you to. You wouldn't throw away the entire engine and buy a new one just because of a cylinder head failure.

I'm running an Excel spreadsheet: with current electricity and fuel prices, I'd only break even after 9 years and then start saving. With an annual mileage of 6,000 km, if I drive 12,000 km annually, it would only take 6 years. If fuel prices continue to rise as they have been, it would take 4 years, and at 4 years, I'd be in a great position and would start the conversion immediately.

Greetings
Achim

[Osku]

You are building mostlikely enthusiast car and as such it should have a long lifespan as you drive it usually fewer kilometers but over tens of years and I´m just saying that works bad with components with a shelf life especialky if they are expencive. Ask any ferrary owner how the like the engine out on a timing belt and that is cheap in comparison to the batteries. The ecological aspect is also questionable if you do not get the kilometers on the veichle during the batterys life span. I would go out on a limb and say my 65 triumph herald is more economical with compared to most ev converted classics where they throw the batterys out after a few years. I restored it in 98 and have driven it since then with a 3000 km awerage per year since then. how many battery sets would that have been.....

[CBSnake]

Hi,

You need to make a clear distinction: are you driving a collector's item? Then it doesn't matter if it's out of commission for an extended period due to a lack of spare parts, especially when you're talking about decades. What do you think the availability of combustion engine parts will be like in 20-30 years? All those people who swap out their stock engines for TDIs and Subaru engines can also install an electric motor. And again, you can replace the entire battery, but it doesn't make sense. That's the beauty of doing the conversion yourself: I have individual cells, I can access them, and I can replace a single defective one for the price of an oil change. That is, if they even fail at all. Dual use is also interesting; you can use the battery as a storage unit at home, then aging is irrelevant. No one has to convert, no one has to drive electric.

You can still have a campfire outside and spend the night there, but most people prefer an apartment with central heating.

Greetings
Achim

[Osku]

The combusrion engne cars will have parts suplye as they are workable as a hobby but the electric ones You endup upgrading and switching evrything the hole time precicely as a result of te electric car being an short lifespan throw away item and hench wont get any traction as a hobby in the long run but you seem to belive in it so go ahed build it but time will prove me right. For reliable travel i recomend an museum registered diesel.

[CBSnake]

Hi Osku,
Are spare parts for steam-powered vehicles still readily available? They were popular once, too. What would I constantly need to replace on an electrically powered T3? The electric motor lasts longer than any standard T3 engine; I won't have to replace that. The weak point would be the battery. By the time it's so worn out that you have to replace the whole thing—as I explained above, you can replace individual defective cells—there will be newer, better battery technologies available. Compare it to the 1.6 CS engine: you drive it, change the oil, replace a gasket now and then, and maybe the cylinder head, but if the damage is more serious, you just swap in a TDI. And that's how it'll be with EV conversions: drive, drive, do minor repairs, and then when the battery finally gives out after YEARS, you just swap in newer technology for more range and faster charging.



``` I'm building the car, then we'll see how long it lasts and until then I'll plug it in at home when I'm not driving it, charge the battery when electricity prices are low and discharge it back into the grid when prices are high, so you don't come back with the argument that the battery just sits around and will be broken after 6 years

As things stand today, you'll still be perfectly fine with your diesel engine, but you too will notice over the years that the number of gas stations still selling diesel will decrease. Not immediately and not noticeably, but eventually you'll have to plan your trip the way electric car drivers do now: where can I still fill up with diesel?

It took 30 years to replace the horse with the car. I don't know your age, but maybe we'll talk again in 30 years and see whether we're driving diesel or electric.

Greetings
Achim

[mib]

Both of you have good arguments, depending on the time horizon we are talking about.
Our summer holiday trip was through the French city of Annecy. Because we did not have the right Crit'Air certificate, we could only stay on the main road in a 1h traffic jam. With an EV, we could have taken the side road without any congestion.
This will be reality, traveling with an EV will one day be easier than with Petrol or Diesel. Every gas station will have to show its profitability.
For EV, a solar park, or water turbine, a containerized battery is enough so that the local farmer can earn money by recharging bypassers.

I'm with Achim, I have a PV that is big enough to power our heater 10 months of the year. The EV battery will be another buffer for the sunny winter days, and is charged for free in summer. A converted EV can do that easily, our current daily driver doesn't have V2L unfortunately.
I don't think that EV conversions are as closed-box as factory EVs. The physics are more identical and easier to exchange than in ICE conversions. Just look at transmission adapter plates and engine mounts.


Let's be excited and waste time wrenching on old cars. It's a hobby after all.

Best
Michi