By Colin Wood
Mar 18, 2022
How long does it take to convert a car like an old-school VW Beetle from an internal combustion engine to a fully electric powertrain?
At least in this case, just one day.
3/17/22 1:21 p.m.
I love that!
3/17/22 1:58 p.m.
In reply to SV reX :
For some reason, I think old VWs like Beetles just work really well as electric cars. I'd totally buy one/pay someone to build one if I had the means.
3/17/22 2:51 p.m.
How quickly the disassembly of a Beetle can go makes this seems like cheating.
Also, where's the heat in this one? I would miss the fumes.
3/17/22 3:03 p.m.
That is just wonderfully awesome!
I want one! But the cost is just out of my reach by about all of it.
BTW, nice tie in on St Paddys day with the green Beetle. Er, the Beetle that's green. No, I mean the green Beetle that is green. That doesn't make sense.
That car.
3/17/22 3:04 p.m.
In reply to Colin Wood :
There really needs to be somebody getting the electric motor swap game going. Making it this easy, a bolt up affair. They would make a lot of money.
3/17/22 3:56 p.m.
In reply to Definitely gone now :
There totally is. The reason people think it's easy to swap a Beetle is because of EV West. And coincidentally, that same engineering lets you swap a 911. Check it out - you can buy it online and have it shipped: https://www.evwest.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=40&osCsid=c1b4509c8e234854a52dfe20252de543
It's like LS swaps. There are easy bolt-up options out there, but they can never be universal.
3/17/22 5:22 p.m.
Huh. I'm pretty sure the air-cooled flat four is the most endearing thing about old Beetles. I owned one. Entertaining enough, I suppose, but won't get another, gas or electric.
3/17/22 5:33 p.m.
EV West beetle "complete kit" including batteries = $18K. 90 miles range, 110 Lb ft torque. I guess that's not crazy money. It's all that I need for my local needs. Although what I'd really like to put that into would be an old pickup like this:
https://images.classic.com/vehicles/38d79cca0fe96bbb9e0560c73ff121ffae9bf975.jpg?auto=format&fit=crop&ar=16:9&w=672&h=576
It would solve a lot of the unobtanium issues and make it more possible to use as a daily.
3/17/22 9:40 p.m.
I drove one of the first VW bugs that EV west built many years ago ,
Micheal is a very smart guy and the VW ran well for our ride down PCH highway and back to his house ,
The one thing you will notice is how loud the gearbox is and lots of other noises the Bug always had but were covered over by the stock cooling fan.
3/18/22 1:07 a.m.
Wow, that looked like it took them a long time to get that motor out.
3 guys should be able to do that in 10 min max for a stock bug!
Stock brakes would be... interesting with that conversion. Front disc conversions are very available though.
Not going to be doing that to my Ghia, but I would certainly consider something similar for a Corvair (needs a bigger motor though).
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