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VW Beetle converted to electric in a day

300 H and H

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14:46 min.


Electric Classic Cars
64.6K subscribers

We managed to convert this classic VW Beetle to electric in a day using our bolt-in conversion kit. Motor - Hyper9 (120hp), 25kWh Tesla battery pack giving 80 to 90 mile range, 6.6kW charger, disc brakes on the front.
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Any one have a spare Snow Trac or a Kristi we could try this conversion on? :thumbup:

At 120 HP this conversion would wake up a cat nicely. And quietly as well...
No high altitude loss of power either.
 

m1west

Well-known member
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I have a plan to convert my 1982 jeep cj7 to an EV using a Nissan Leaf traction motor, inverter and charger. Using the Leaf batterys also. Will be good for short trips to town etc. I have burned many tanks of gas running to town thats 11 miles away. Also thinking of a stand alone solar charger and a swappable battery pack or small trailer with auxiliary battery for longer trips. EV is coming like it or not. In my opinion the battery development is lagging to make a complete transition. Hybrid vehicles make more sense until that happens.
 

300 H and H

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One thing that makes me wonder what the extreme left is shooting/smoking is they keep saying they will totally eliminate fossil fuels. Can't they realize what all is made from crude oil besides gas and diesel??
I think the reality is Gas and Diesel engines will be with us for a very long time yet.
Other wise we will all be starving to death unless you personally have a food supply.
But for a commuter who drives an hour or less to work they might make a lot of sense.
in rural America less so.
The economics at this time say in the long run cost of ownership of an EV will drive the markets.
Unless that changes, EV's are here to stay. Right now you can drive a Tesla unlimited miles for $16 month.
No oil changes, no check engine light either.
No road fund tax to pay with fuel. But that will change soon.
 
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300 H and H

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Back to the OP,
I think this conversion for a VW will be eventually work it's way into many of the places we find VW engines.
A Snow Trac with one can use the space under the bench seats for the batteries.
It would be even better in a Kristi for keeping the engine exhaust and heat out of the cabin...
And in the long run it looks like it would be fairly simple to re install the VW engine if not satisfied.
 
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m1west

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Back to the OP,
I think this conversion for a VW will be eventually work it's way into many of the places we find VW engines.
A Snow Trac with one can use the space under the bench seats for the batteries.
It would be even better in a Kristi for keeping the engine exhaust and heat out of the cabin...
And in the long run it looks like it would be fairly simple to re install the VW engine if not satisfied.
With a 100 mile range in a car doing 65, that snow cat won't make it but a few miles. Plus the extra weight would destroy your PSI. The batteries are the key, and we aint there yet.
 
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m1west

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
I think the reality is Gas and Diesel engines will be with us for a very long time yet.
Other wise we will all be starving to death unless you personally have a food supply.
But for a commuter who drives an hour or less to work they might make a lot of sense.
in rural America less so.
The economics at this time say in the long run cost of ownership of an EV will drive the markets.
Unless that changes, EV's are here to stay. Right now you can drive a Tesla unlimited miles for $16 month.
No oil changes, no check engine light either.
No road fund tax to pay with fuel. But that will change soon.
$16.00 plus the $2000.00 car payment
 
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Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
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One thing that makes me wonder what the extreme left is shooting/smoking is they keep saying they will totally eliminate fossil fuels. Can't they realize what all is made from crude oil besides gas and diesel??
The lovely Mrs_Bob and I were watching the morning financial news this morning and one of the talking heads made the comment that FOOD costs are directly tied to FUEL costs. The other talking head changed the topic.

We get most commercial nitrogen FERTILIZER from oil/gas wells. Plastics come from oil/gas wells. Chemicals come from oil/gas wells.
 

chowderman

Well-known member
there is most certainly a very large part of the "market" that can be well served by an EV.
this is particularly true in Europe where 'daily' travel of 30-50 miles is essentially an 'unthinkable' situation.
when we were living in Germany and Monday when asked how 'was the weekend' and I replied 'oh, we went skiing in Switzerland' - people looked at me like I had three heads. that kind of weekend 'travel' was well outside of the norm...
for an American with a VW bus and an Autobahn, nada problem...

here's an question:
(1) back before cars went all aerodynamic..... it took roughly 5 hp to maintain 70 mph on (non-alpine) terrain. cars have become seriously more aerodynamic since then....
(2) Detroit loudly railed about 'mpg targets' because cars needed big engines to accommodate the stop/start/acceleration "needs" of the average driver - and internal combustion engines of a size that met those needs were inherently inefficient because the design need to provide little to extreme amounts of power from low to high rpm.

so . . . why not put more emphasis on the hybrid designs? charge at home, plus a small, constant rpm, low horsepower, high efficiency gas/diesel to charge the batteries/provide long distance road range.
provides super long range with the speed of a gas fill up . . .
for local use, goes the range in total EV mode - longer range available 'on demand'

EV as 'a second local use vehicle' is entirely workable, except for the budget bit...
not a lot of households can afford that price tag for second car.
and note: the "cheap operating costs" of EV will change - some method of extracting much money from EV owners not paying state gas taxes will happen.

an EV as primary vehicle plus gas rental for long(er) trips is also thinkable . . .
but rental companies are stocking up on EVs. oops.

in grade school my father and I built an lead acid battery powered wheel chair for a disabled youngster. worked, very limited - 'electronics' of the day were transistor radios. achieving 'energy efficiency' was severely limited when burning off battery power into heat using a rheostat to control speed.

in high school I/we 'converted' a junked Falcon to an electric car - again with the lead acid batteries . . . worked, but what a zoo.

UPS (UK) is doing a trial with mini-delivery vans in urban settings. supposed to have a 40 mile range. well, 40 miles on flat open at steady speed is not the same as 40 miles starting/stopping every +/- hundred feet; so a lot depends on how honest they were in the 'testing'
 
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300 H and H

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(1) back before cars went all aerodynamic..... it took roughly 5 hp to maintain 70 mph on (non-alpine) terrain. cars have become seriously more aerodynamic since then....
Way to low of a number. In the 70's and even today 70 mph takes more than that.
A VW at 70 was pretty well out of breath at 60 HP.
My bet is the older cars took 90HP and the newer ones maybe 50 HP.

65%-70% of the heat of an internal combustion engine is wasted. It is very hard to overcome this fact.
 

chowderman

Well-known member
that heat/energy waste is based on designs to provide mega-HP from zero to sixty - or 160 - whatever.
a home generator of sub-tens-of-thousand watts will run for 12-16 hours on 5-6-7 gallons of gasoline.
small purpose designed internal combustions are much more efficient than a Dodge Charger . . . or super Corvette . . or staggering Mustang....
 
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m1west

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that heat/energy waste is based on designs to provide mega-HP from zero to sixty - or 160 - whatever.
a home generator of sub-tens-of-thousand watts will run for 12-16 hours on 5-6-7 gallons of gasoline.
small purpose designed internal combustions are much more efficient than a Dodge Charger . . . or super Corvette . . or staggering Mustang....
It takes 20kw to maintain 75 mph in a 3500# vehicle. A 20kw diesel generator at full load burns around 1.6 gph, as a hybrid in theory with a flat road and low wind resistance. You could get around 46 miles per gallon in a 3500# vehicle of which the generator is going to weigh 1000#. On a smaller scale a Toyota Prius is that vehicle with a gas engine. And those vehicles generally get better milage in city driving than on the hwy. Hybrids do there savings getting the vehicle moving form a stop using the electric motor and battery to get things moving. once you are at hwy speeds you are mostly using the ICE. The savings come from the battery and electric motor helping the ICE. But at this stage of development its much more realistic than a total EV conversion. There are also several different ways to hybrid a vehicle. Electric motor in drive line with ICE motor, electric motors on 2-wheels with ICE motor driving the other 2 or an electric motor driving a transmission with the ICE motor running a generator charging a battery bank.
 

300 H and H

Bronze Member
GOLD Site Supporter
that heat/energy waste is based on designs to provide mega-HP from zero to sixty - or 160 - whatever.
a home generator of sub-tens-of-thousand watts will run for 12-16 hours on 5-6-7 gallons of gasoline.
small purpose designed internal combustions are much more efficient than a Dodge Charger . . . or super Corvette . . or staggering Mustang....
Small purpose built engines are with in the parameters of all internal combustion engines. Waste heat from exhaust, radiator, cooling fins, and radiation of engine surfaces.
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
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I could easily get by with 1 gas vehicle and 1 EV. I need more range than the EV's offer, the gas vehicle that I would need would be a larger gas guzzler, either a pick up or a large SUV. But for the most part, if I have 275 miles of range then I could get by with an EV if it had enough room to carry 3 adults + a baby seat. I think everyone in the urban areas can use EVs as their only vehicle. I think most in the suburbs can use an EV as their primary vehicle. In the rural areas, an EV would probably be the 2nd vehicle.

Aerodynamics and vehicle weight need to be optimized for EVs to keep their ranges up at reasonable levels.

I'm not sure why DIESEL has gotten such a bad rap. Bio-Diesel is actually very clean and efficient too. It is efficient and it is largely due to taxes that it costs more than gas.
 

300 H and H

Bronze Member
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It takes 20kw to maintain 75 mph in a 3500# vehicle. A 20kw diesel generator at full load burns around 1.6 gph, as a hybrid in theory with a flat road and low wind resistance. You could get around 46 miles per gallon in a 3500# vehicle of which the generator is going to weigh 1000#. On a smaller scale a Toyota Prius is that vehicle with a gas engine. And those vehicles generally get better milage in city driving than on the hwy. Hybrids do there savings getting the vehicle moving form a stop using the electric motor and battery to get things moving. once you are at hwy speeds you are mostly using the ICE. The savings come from the battery and electric motor helping the ICE. But at this stage of development its much more realistic than a total EV conversion. There are also several different ways to hybrid a vehicle. Electric motor in drive line with ICE motor, electric motors on 2-wheels with ICE motor driving the other 2 or an electric motor driving a transmission with the ICE motor running a generator charging a battery bank.
I like the hybrid idea a lot, especially class 8 heavy tractor trailers. Hyliion is a company doing just that. I own a bit of their stock as well as Tesla. I think you and Hyliion are onto some thing.
 

m1west

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I like the hybrid idea a lot, especially class 8 heavy tractor trailers. Hyliion is a company doing just that. I own a bit of their stock as well as Tesla. I think you and Hyliion are onto some thing.
Heavy commercial trucks would benefit from the electric motor helping it get up to speed and hills. On flat ground at fwy speed there is not much savings with a hybrid. But thats where you use the most of the fuel, city, accelerating and hills.
 
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