Love this guy. Seems so down to earth. I genuinely can't wait until these kind of conversions are affordable to the average motorist. I'm sure we will see plenty of garaged classics returning to the roads as daily drivers. Great video Ian!
This and the previous video have opened my mind a lot more to electric cars, i have come to appreciate the technology, especially what it does to classics in terms of reliability, speed, practicality, dailyability etc... I seem to remember Matt from Furious Driving saying about his rover 200 "ultimately it'll be the electrics that will kill these cars" maybe in a few years to come when parts get even rarer it could be electrics that save these cars, only time will tell. I love tinkering with engines, and i love the noise some of them make but when the parts to replace are all gone but I want to keep the car electric is the way to go
Excellent video Hubnut and a great conversion. I remember owning one of these and any sign of a hill was a cause for anxiety and changing down a few gears.
Good real test drive! And fun to see the all over the place Type 2 steering is still intact 😀 (I have owned T1, T2, T3, T4) If only I could afford a Tesla pack for one of my old cars.
D'you know, I am one of those people (there must be lots who watch your channel) who do not care about electric cars. But… listening to this guy, I get it. What's more, with a classic, you could have two, and have petrol and electric side-by-side, and get two completely different experiences. This guy seems to convert cars for the right reasons. There are benefits and he wants to enjoy them. Ditto, for me, the other way around, too. All power to your elbow!
In my opinion between this and the carwow stuff has genuinely opened my mind up to electric cars, I dont think I will ever be a Tesla person having experienced them, but give me 78ish spitfire with equivalent power (not too much!) and no breakdowns, what a thing!
What a great video. It was nice to see you driving Moggy's VW Crew Cab & it certainly looked like you thoroughly enjoyed driving it. I look forward to seeing what comes up next on Hubnut.
Whilst I admire the work and grit that has gone in to this, for me, a huge part of a classic car is the mechanics and understanding them. I feel my Triumph would be missing its soul without its little 4 pot under the bonnet.
I love old normal cars, hence the Hubnut, the first car I ever got behind the wheel of was a Renault 5 turbo that a family friend asked to keep on our drive for a bit. When I was learning I wanted a Triumph Dolomite Sprint or a Ford Capri Laser as my first car, but I also love some of the electric cars coming out now, and the technology in general. All modern cars are a bit boring, but the least boring "normal cars" are the electric ones, and the tech for preserving older cars would be amazing. As long as there are some examples kept original, I think it's a great thing that potentially your old bangers could be made daily driveable. There's some classics that are feats of engineering and would probably rightly get shouts of sacrilege if converted but a lot of old cars are pretty poor in some regards and I don't think addressing that takes anything away from them. If you had a car with notoriously awful drum brakes and got a disc conversion, would you say that has taken something from the car? Or a stainless or fibreglass replacement for a highly rust prone component? I think of it like this, if I could have bought in the 1980s a Ford Capri Laser that would do 0-60 in 5 seconds that I could plug in to my house and charge up overnight, I'd have bit the salesman's hand off. For me most of a cars "soul" is derived from the aesthetics, engineering choices, and the time they're from and the journey they've been on. Taking a knackered, pain to service engine out and replacing it with a motor, is just the next step on that journey. Doesn't negate the rest of it, and might mean that journey has many more stops along the way.
Ah, the ever enthusiastic Moggy! Love Electric Classics on the tele box. What a fantastic business to be in. I hope one day to have a classic they can convert. As usual, top work Ian 👍🏻
Beautiful! I want to drive it, too. The last time I travelled in a VW bus was 1969, and I promised never to repeat the experience. I'm re-assessing that now. 😄👍 Thanks, Ian, and thanks to Richard.
Hi Hubnut. Thanks for putting the range of the VW up. It's the critical question for we in Australia. And well done with the question about brake lights and regen. That one hadn't occurred to me! Cheers.
Never a fan of the T van, thought they were so overated, but admire the pioneering work and the fact he got it all in without losing any space...Steph's Commer van with a V8 in it is not a 'van' anymore but sure it brings the owner much amusement.
Absolutely superb!! Great video! And what a great transformation! It totally makes sense! You often see these buses on the side of the road because they have over heated.
I quite like what he's done. It still looks the same inside and outside minus an engine. I've also read an article about a Yellow Bedford Rascal that got converted to Solar power and even has a small wind turbine for charging when stood.
@@HubNut As someone who has done some daft things (bought a 1971 bus when I was about 24, converted it to a mobile home, then drove it to Kathmandu and back, built my own hot tub out of an IBC water tank), I'm tempted to think I can DIY it, but my actual knowledge is very scant indeed. However, I'm sure that the kit will become more easily available from scrappies as time goes on.....
I remember being impressed that my Escort 1300E could get up the Vastre in 3rd. ( the steep hill you went up.)Wish i still had that car. Great video. But I worry about all that power and the total lack of safety features in these converted classics.
To be fair, you don't have to opt for loads of power. The Fiat 500s and Beetles generally have fairly gentle power, to reflect their nature. Otherwise, performance upgrades are the same as if you upgraded a normal engine - better brakes, suspension etc but you still need to remember you're in an old car, not a modern Volvo.
So true! The car is definitely impressive, but so is the mind of this guy. Some people have this full-time high-speed curiousity to things which makes them stand out from the rest of us. Never seeing problems, just looking for clever solutions!
The Porsche «Hackmesser» wheels fit perfect this DoKa in German sixties police green. No heating? Like the original with combustion engine. Electric Classic Cars do a brilliant job. Chapeau!
This is a proper E-Cymro show! Great Big Kudos, Ian. Show this to e-sceptics. Reprogram a few more neuron connections in the lot. I drive a Camry Hybrid for my taxi work and like it, since 2008.
That was brilliant, I was hooked from the start. It is a totally different driving experience, part Tesla and part VW bus, plus a barrel of laughs and technology to play with. Would not mind making my poor TR6 electric, actually I would love that.
That guy is one smart chap or as they say they say in Boston "Wicked Smart". That is a beautiful retro fit. I think this is the way to go for vehicles that are being driven in cities and going a set number of miles which is most of them. I agree with him that classic cars are to be driven and this one still allows the driver to still use his skills to keep it on the road, but with the reliability that electric can offer.
What a wonderful transformation--I can only imagine this as a "Rapid Response" fire vehicle originally (as compared w/ walking to the blaze, making suitable siren noises)! Sorry 'bout the wipers; I think from now on when I road test a new car, I'll ask the dealer about "triangle of doom" or "corners of disappointment"! Electric Classic Cars seem to do a first-rate job on these conversions (and there must be an awful lot of crashed Teslas in the UK--I'm pretty sure there are in the States, what w/ the reliance on the "auto-pilot" feature). When I watched your video y'day, about your visit to ECC, I admit, to my chagrin, when you started to unveil the MB 190, I looked at the front end, and thought "by God; it's a Chevy Vega!" Great job on the road test and camera-work, as usual!
I would love something like this. Unfortunately I'm unable to afford one. Hopefully the technology will get cheaper . But love the idea of making a classic car more usable and daily driveable
Great video! as much as I love driving my T2 it would be nice to go up hills at a decent speed! The "heating" that my camper has is pretty much non existent though so his is no different, but I don't drive mine daily.
Here the benefits of an EV converted classic are well explained. Now only need to clean the brakes every year because of too little use (regenerative braking) and everything is good.
To me half the enjoyment of owning a classic is the maintenance, love tinkering with engines, I wouldn't want to spend thousands of pounds to take away half my enjoyment!
@@Markcain268 There is a way for everyone to enjoy vintage cars. I am also a car mechanic and like to tinker with my classic car. But I also see a lot of people who don't understand tinkering at all, then an EV conversion is a solution.
depends a lot on the width of the wheels- my bus has pretty light steering on the small winter tires, but it is borderline undrivable on the bigger summer tires
I think you should have taken Moggy to the pub and proceeded to tell him about the holy trinity of Triangle of Doom, Corner of Disappointment and Dribble of Despair. Clearly a man who needs educated. Seriously though, a great character facilitating equally great creations
Excellent! Too bad conversions are very expensive, but I wonder what if they take an older EV and make it more modern? 340 HP to me, for this, is way too much. 200 HP is more than enough. Plus it shows how far EV conversions have come. Plus, I like silence whilst driving; no noisy, falling apart exhaust and other noises an ICE would make. I'm of an age where an automatic makes driving effortless, especially on hills. And where I am in upstate New York I see many Tesla vehicles!
@HubNut, what is that rear view mirror called? It looks an amazing piece of technology that could be used in any car and wouldn't look out of place in a classic
I'd love to convert a GSA (I've owned many) to a "GSE". Aside from working out what sort of electro-mechanical LHM pump & accumulator would work (BX unit and wee motor maybe?), my bigger concern is the financial side of it. Is it really feasible to take a GSA worth let's say £3k, and add about £10k's worth of motor/batteries/controller/charger alongside any restoration work, and bespoke fabrication to end up with a "GSE" worth what? Still £3k? I'd still love to do one though!
Fantastic van and conversion - this bit Made me laugh. “You can drive it like a pussycat and no one would know it wasn’t an ordinary VW bus” ………..Err except that it’s totally silent and Type-2s make a right ol racket 😂
I live in a area with a cold winter climate. I remember back in the day when people put rear defogger kits on the windshield of their beetles,busses and Porshe 914s. Same with large US cargo vans.
It's very interesting to see these new businesses converting classic cars, the vanguard of a new industry. Go forward ten years and I'm convinced there will be high street franchises converting fuel cars using affordable mass produced EV conversion kits suitable for all models - just like in 'Back to the Future 2' (but just EV, not fusion powered flying cars!)
I think the idea of converting ICE-powered cars to electric will always be a bit of a niche - if only because the idea of keeping a vehicle long-term, and maintaining it and modifying it, just isn't a thing these days. Most people don't have that kind of relationship with their cars. Present company excepted, of course - I should think everybody here *does* have that kind of relationship with their cars. That's why we watch HubNut videos! But, realistically, the old-car scene is a niche, and the convert-old-cars-to-electric scene is a niche within a niche. I don't think it'll ever be mainstream enough for conversion kits to be widely available, as an off-the-shelf purchase from your local Halfords. Look what happened when low emission zones came in and older diesel vehicles became non-compliant. Even though it's theoretically easy to clean up a diesel by fitting the relevant kit (I remember the government telling irate London cabbies to upgrade their FX4 taxis in just this way) I don't think anyone did. They just sold - or scrapped - their old diesels. FX4 taxis vanished from the streets overnight. Nobody tried to sell DIY clean-up kits to keep older diesels going, because the tinker-with-an-old-diesel market isn't big enough to make upgrade kits viable. I think the same thing will apply to EV conversion kits. Having said all that, I think that while the DIY electric niche might never become mainstream-big, Halfords-big, it will be big enough for specialists to sell to it. To a certain extent it's already happening. Bolt-on electric conversion kits are already available VWs, Land Rovers, Morris Minors, Minis (and related models - for example, the Morris Minor kit will fit other RWD A-series cars. It's all about the bellhousing!) It's very simple stuff, which keeps the original drivetrain. The motor sits on the engine mounts, everything from the flywheel backwards stays original. One of the interesting things about some EV conversions I've seen is that they're about ten times more complicated than they need to be. There's a Mini conversion in progress on TH-cam - th-cam.com/video/SWIrcijnFMU/w-d-xo.html - and it's fascinating stuff. But the converter is diving in to the bespoke engineering side of things far more deeply than he really needs to. Fine if he wants to do it that way, of course, and I know that for many people the process, as much as the end result, is a big part of the project. But I always feel like commenting, "Mate, you know there's a kit that'll do all that?"
Imagine if Mustie1 did a conversion like this on his splittie called Crustie, but that said I'm not sure he could do that given the work he put into that, though he does have a few other type 2s that could be done if he got round to it... :P
Tesla make over 100k cars a month at the moment. You only need a very small % of those to be side swiped by another car on the road. Also, it doesn't take much for insurance companies to write off a car nowadays. 👍
@@ElectricClassicCars agree totally...insurance companies do find cost of repairs to high...can i say not a fan of ev's but what your doing is superb....👌👌👌.....
An impressive range on that, I expect it drops if a lot of towing done just as consumption goes up in an ICE vehicle. It seems he has not had any problems without a fast charge, just top it up a bit with an extension lead at destination and that impressive regen. It would still be impressive with only half the power.
The point he made about charging holds if you have a driveway and somewhere to charge it at work. If not, then there is range anxiety, higher charging costs, hunting for an available charging bay and compatibility.
@@HubNut if I had the money and place to charge it at home, I would be tempted to convert my Mercedes 190E 2.0. Interestingly Mercedes built 10 190E Electros in 1992 for a four-year trial, so in a way there is a precedent!
Isn't the UK to totally stop sales of combustion engine cars by 2035? So I would imagine within less than 10 years there must be a public charging infrastructure to support those who can't charge at home. At least that's the (obvious) strategy here in Germany, even though we don't have such a fixed target date.
@@garage6346 it's government by press announcement and sound bite in the UK. The implications of what is promised isn't realised until some time afterwards, still less how to achieve it.
That's a real nice conversion, you did a real nice job. I'm just not a VW fan, I just think it's ugly especially the color, but I tell myself I don't have to drive it, so it doesn't matter what I think. I'd convert something like a Dodge Dakota.
OK, the schocks have been updated but what about the suspension links? Given that the pack + motor combo weighs around 700 kg, I'd have figured the suspesion needed more of an update than just the shocks?
This is a commercial vehicle designed for a 1 ton payload, so the suspension will have been designed to cope with a degree of overloading anyway. Unless they fill the loadbed with another ton weight it probably won't make that much difference. Also, the weight is more evely distributed than in the original design as the battery is partially under the crew compartment.
I love this electric conversion to classic vehicles where it makes sense. I probably already know the answer to this but are you considering electrification of Elle or other members of the fleet? Elle is wonderful as she is. I doubt she'd appreciate serious invasive surgery (having had a few of my own in the last year and I'm still not Robo Cop). I'm not suggesting anything here though. When parts become impossible to obtain and vehicles have a choice between becoming a static exhibit or a runner with a different power unit my preference is err... both. Which is odd.
Nice but the comment about not having to charge it other than at home or the destination wouldn't work for me. 200 mile range & slow charging would mean it's totally useless for me.
Remember he built this for himself, to meet his own requirements - which it does admirably. We don't have many rapid chargers in Wales. (almost none in mid-Wales)
I'm getting 200 mile range in winter. 250 mile range in summer. I built this around my needs but if someone was doing frequent long journeys I'd put 150kW CCS rapid charging in it, like I have done in my Defender. 👍
@Alfred Wedmore I don't know! First, the 200 miles should be true, which I doubt (and I don't mean driving at an average speed of 5mph!), second the normal range one uses of a battery is between 30% to 80%, third you never be able to get all energy out of the battery it has theoretically, since you will have to push your vehicle to the next charging station, forth at 0°C the battery has 1/2 capacity of the capacity at 20°C, fifth you must take a fully loaded vehicle, not just a guy of 55kg but the ton you can load on and in it etc. .
The easiest way would be to fit a motor to the existing gearbox (probably not a Tesla motor!). It's easier to convert the VW to rear motor because it already had independent rear suspension. It would be more difficult with the Minor.
Very nice job, although I can't help feeling that it's quite a lot more complicated than it really needs to be. It's possible to buy a bolt-on kit for VWs that simply replaces the engine with a motor, and keeps the original drivetrain, which is possibly a more sensible option. But I don't think 'sensible' was high on the priority list for this one! Even a relatively mild conversion will give better acceleration, though, given that electric motors put out all the torque, all the time.
@@michaelwright2986 Well, the Invacar already seems to be much too fast for what it is. One must be nuts to drive it at 60 mph! I would never dare this! Imagine: Cable operated breaks, and three wheels!
Looks like a good job, well done. But it appears that there is a decent market of written off EVs that have had a lot of components transferred into projects like this one!
Good idea in theory if you can do some or all of the work involved saving money on labour...but if I were to keep a classic on the road iam sorry but for me it would have to have its original combustion engine ...even the sound of an original vw engine is unique in it self..
Love this guy. Seems so down to earth. I genuinely can't wait until these kind of conversions are affordable to the average motorist. I'm sure we will see plenty of garaged classics returning to the roads as daily drivers. Great video Ian!
I'm not a fan of new electric cars but seeing these older cars been converted is brilliant I love it
This and the previous video have opened my mind a lot more to electric cars, i have come to appreciate the technology, especially what it does to classics in terms of reliability, speed, practicality, dailyability etc... I seem to remember Matt from Furious Driving saying about his rover 200 "ultimately it'll be the electrics that will kill these cars" maybe in a few years to come when parts get even rarer it could be electrics that save these cars, only time will tell. I love tinkering with engines, and i love the noise some of them make but when the parts to replace are all gone but I want to keep the car electric is the way to go
Excellent video Hubnut and a great conversion. I remember owning one of these and any sign of a hill was a cause for anxiety and changing down a few gears.
What a lovely bloke, well done HubNut! the camera angles just everything was like watching a tv show. Another excellent upload!♥
It needs heavy duty tailgate catches to prevent losing the load when accelerating! :D
What a fricken great bus! Truly combining classic charm with the joys of low-maintenance, high-excitement EV motoring.
Good real test drive!
And fun to see the all over the place Type 2 steering is still intact 😀 (I have owned T1, T2, T3, T4)
If only I could afford a Tesla pack for one of my old cars.
that is a beast, love what Moggy does, great to see you getting in and driving his toys
D'you know, I am one of those people (there must be lots who watch your channel) who do not care about electric cars. But… listening to this guy, I get it. What's more, with a classic, you could have two, and have petrol and electric side-by-side, and get two completely different experiences. This guy seems to convert cars for the right reasons. There are benefits and he wants to enjoy them. Ditto, for me, the other way around, too. All power to your elbow!
Lovely to see people understanding this.
He converts cars for one reason, money!
@@Markcain268 And I guess you work for magic beans
@@Snarfcat nope, money, same as everyone else
In my opinion between this and the carwow stuff has genuinely opened my mind up to electric cars, I dont think I will ever be a Tesla person having experienced them, but give me 78ish spitfire with equivalent power (not too much!) and no breakdowns, what a thing!
What a great video. It was nice to see you driving Moggy's VW Crew Cab & it certainly looked like you thoroughly enjoyed driving it. I look forward to seeing what comes up next on Hubnut.
Whilst I admire the work and grit that has gone in to this, for me, a huge part of a classic car is the mechanics and understanding them. I feel my Triumph would be missing its soul without its little 4 pot under the bonnet.
I love old normal cars, hence the Hubnut, the first car I ever got behind the wheel of was a Renault 5 turbo that a family friend asked to keep on our drive for a bit. When I was learning I wanted a Triumph Dolomite Sprint or a Ford Capri Laser as my first car, but I also love some of the electric cars coming out now, and the technology in general.
All modern cars are a bit boring, but the least boring "normal cars" are the electric ones, and the tech for preserving older cars would be amazing. As long as there are some examples kept original, I think it's a great thing that potentially your old bangers could be made daily driveable.
There's some classics that are feats of engineering and would probably rightly get shouts of sacrilege if converted but a lot of old cars are pretty poor in some regards and I don't think addressing that takes anything away from them. If you had a car with notoriously awful drum brakes and got a disc conversion, would you say that has taken something from the car? Or a stainless or fibreglass replacement for a highly rust prone component? I think of it like this, if I could have bought in the 1980s a Ford Capri Laser that would do 0-60 in 5 seconds that I could plug in to my house and charge up overnight, I'd have bit the salesman's hand off.
For me most of a cars "soul" is derived from the aesthetics, engineering choices, and the time they're from and the journey they've been on. Taking a knackered, pain to service engine out and replacing it with a motor, is just the next step on that journey. Doesn't negate the rest of it, and might mean that journey has many more stops along the way.
Ah, the ever enthusiastic Moggy! Love Electric Classics on the tele box. What a fantastic business to be in. I hope one day to have a classic they can convert. As usual, top work Ian 👍🏻
My '65 Corvair wants that. His obsession with windshield wipers is very fun.
Beautiful! I want to drive it, too. The last time I travelled in a VW bus was 1969, and I promised never to repeat the experience. I'm re-assessing that now. 😄👍 Thanks, Ian, and thanks to Richard.
Going to say I am not a fan to of a type 2 but I could make the exception with this, it's mental and rapid!
Hi Hubnut. Thanks for putting the range of the VW up. It's the critical question for we in Australia. And well done with the question about brake lights and regen. That one hadn't occurred to me! Cheers.
Never a fan of the T van, thought they were so overated, but admire the pioneering work and the fact he got it all in without losing any space...Steph's Commer van with a V8 in it is not a 'van' anymore but sure it brings the owner much amusement.
Exactly. The two are the same really. Silly amounts of power in classic commercial vehicles, giving them a new lease of life. I love that Commer.
Absolutely superb!! Great video! And what a great transformation! It totally makes sense! You often see these buses on the side of the road because they have over heated.
I quite like what he's done. It still looks the same inside and outside minus an engine. I've also read an article about a Yellow Bedford Rascal that got converted to Solar power and even has a small wind turbine for charging when stood.
Great-looking little bus! Love the green-with-black paint job and, above all, the attention to detail and clearly high-quality engineering.
This is really encouraging. I have been dreaming of putting electric kit in a Commer, and this confirms it's not unrealistic.
Oh that would be an awesome upgrade!
@@HubNut As someone who has done some daft things (bought a 1971 bus when I was about 24, converted it to a mobile home, then drove it to Kathmandu and back, built my own hot tub out of an IBC water tank), I'm tempted to think I can DIY it, but my actual knowledge is very scant indeed. However, I'm sure that the kit will become more easily available from scrappies as time goes on.....
Another brilliant video 👍👍 love the electric conversions 😁
I remember being impressed that my Escort 1300E could get up the Vastre in 3rd. ( the steep hill you went up.)Wish i still had that car. Great video. But I worry about all that power and the total lack of safety features in these converted classics.
To be fair, you don't have to opt for loads of power. The Fiat 500s and Beetles generally have fairly gentle power, to reflect their nature. Otherwise, performance upgrades are the same as if you upgraded a normal engine - better brakes, suspension etc but you still need to remember you're in an old car, not a modern Volvo.
Excellent camera work from Miss Hubnut
WOW - what a car and what an engineer
So true! The car is definitely impressive, but so is the mind of this guy. Some people have this full-time high-speed curiousity to things which makes them stand out from the rest of us. Never seeing problems, just looking for clever solutions!
Brilliant video Ian 👍
The Porsche «Hackmesser» wheels fit perfect this DoKa in German sixties police green. No heating? Like the original with combustion engine. Electric Classic Cars do a brilliant job. Chapeau!
Daily driver...respect Richard.
Very cool. I want a go and I want to build one! Richard is right about charge time being 5 seconds to plug it in.
This is a proper E-Cymro show! Great Big Kudos, Ian. Show this to e-sceptics. Reprogram a few more neuron connections in the lot. I drive a Camry Hybrid for my taxi work and like it, since 2008.
Good video, Ian.
That was brilliant, I was hooked from the start. It is a totally different driving experience, part Tesla and part VW bus, plus a barrel of laughs and technology to play with. Would not mind making my poor TR6 electric, actually I would love that.
That guy is one smart chap or as they say they say in Boston "Wicked Smart". That is a beautiful retro fit. I think this is the way to go for vehicles that are being driven in cities and going a set number of miles which is most of them. I agree with him that classic cars are to be driven and this one still allows the driver to still use his skills to keep it on the road, but with the reliability that electric can offer.
That's what I'm talking about! Oh hell yeah!
Great video. Love the enthusiasm.
Fascinating. Great video.
Fantastic Car and a fabulous garage and man, wish I lived in the UK!
Brilliant, absolutely brilliant!
What a wonderful transformation--I can only imagine this as a "Rapid Response" fire vehicle originally (as compared w/ walking to the blaze, making suitable siren noises)! Sorry 'bout the wipers; I think from now on when I road test a new car, I'll ask the dealer about "triangle of doom" or "corners of disappointment"! Electric Classic Cars seem to do a first-rate job on these conversions (and there must be an awful lot of crashed Teslas in the UK--I'm pretty sure there are in the States, what w/ the reliance on the "auto-pilot" feature). When I watched your video y'day, about your visit to ECC, I admit, to my chagrin, when you started to unveil the MB 190, I looked at the front end, and thought "by God; it's a Chevy Vega!" Great job on the road test and camera-work, as usual!
I would love something like this. Unfortunately I'm unable to afford one. Hopefully the technology will get cheaper . But love the idea of making a classic car more usable and daily driveable
Type 2 T2 crew cab! 😍😍
Great video! as much as I love driving my T2 it would be nice to go up hills at a decent speed! The "heating" that my camper has is pretty much non existent though so his is no different, but I don't drive mine daily.
What a machine , love it 🙂👍👍
Here the benefits of an EV converted classic are well explained.
Now only need to clean the brakes every year because of too little use (regenerative braking) and everything is good.
To me half the enjoyment of owning a classic is the maintenance, love tinkering with engines, I wouldn't want to spend thousands of pounds to take away half my enjoyment!
@@Markcain268 There is a way for everyone to enjoy vintage cars. I am also a car mechanic and like to tinker with my classic car. But I also see a lot of people who don't understand tinkering at all, then an EV conversion is a solution.
@@micheltebraake7915 it is for them, but not for me
thats a new level of madness,i love it..
EV sounds the best bet for Miss Hubnut as a daily driver
Fair play, good to see the passion and looks like quality work, can you make it sound like a V8 please
Watch this YT vid- th-cam.com/video/SpX4rNtVP-g/w-d-xo.html
That sun shinning @1:36. 😁😎
Short-lived!
I would convert my 65 bus tomorrow if it weren’t for the conversion cost. Moggy mentioned on Petrol Ped’s video conversions start at 30k
And probably 200k when you wish to have the same range as the petrol one!
The steering on those old Kombi's is so light as it was, with power steering it must be an absolute dream
Makes it a little too light for my liking, though a doddle when parking.
depends a lot on the width of the wheels- my bus has pretty light steering on the small winter tires, but it is borderline undrivable on the bigger summer tires
I think you should have taken Moggy to the pub and proceeded to tell him about the holy trinity of Triangle of Doom, Corner of Disappointment and Dribble of Despair. Clearly a man who needs educated.
Seriously though, a great character facilitating equally great creations
This guy is brilliant
Excellent!
Too bad conversions are very expensive, but I wonder what if they take an older EV and make it more modern?
340 HP to me, for this, is way too much. 200 HP is more than enough.
Plus it shows how far EV conversions have come.
Plus, I like silence whilst driving; no noisy, falling apart exhaust and other noises an ICE would make.
I'm of an age where an automatic makes driving effortless, especially on hills.
And where I am in upstate New York I see many Tesla vehicles!
@HubNut, what is that rear view mirror called? It looks an amazing piece of technology that could be used in any car and wouldn't look out of place in a classic
I'm afraid I don't know. Was a smart bit of kit.
@HubNut that's a shame but still, I agree, looked very impressive, keep up the great content :)
I'd love to convert a GSA (I've owned many) to a "GSE". Aside from working out what sort of electro-mechanical LHM pump & accumulator would work (BX unit and wee motor maybe?), my bigger concern is the financial side of it. Is it really feasible to take a GSA worth let's say £3k, and add about £10k's worth of motor/batteries/controller/charger alongside any restoration work, and bespoke fabrication to end up with a "GSE" worth what? Still £3k? I'd still love to do one though!
Fantastic van and conversion - this bit Made me laugh. “You can drive it like a pussycat and no one would know it wasn’t an ordinary VW bus” ………..Err except that it’s totally silent and Type-2s make a right ol racket 😂
Not having a windshield de mister would bother me 🤔
Having a t2 the demister wasn't that brilliant.
I live in a area with a cold winter climate.
I remember back in the day when people put rear defogger kits on the windshield of their beetles,busses and Porshe 914s.
Same with large US cargo vans.
@@raychambers3646 I remember aftermarket ones, called "candle" 😁
Very cleverly done but having been unfortunate enough to have a front end accident in a type 2 I don't think I would want to make one even faster!
Lovely van 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
Great fun!
She is a Beast!
Looks to be in good nick. Someone's been over the chrome with a black paint-brush. Sad.
I quite like the look myself.
Great stuff 🏴
I think you need to send Moggy a Triangle of Doom Hoody as thanks and to keep him imformed
I have thought about converting my 66 beetle to electric, right now I don’t have the money to due a proper conversion. I love this conversion. 👏👏👏👏
Very neatly done - like a science-fiction version of the dear VW.
It's very interesting to see these new businesses converting classic cars, the vanguard of a new industry. Go forward ten years and I'm convinced there will be high street franchises converting fuel cars using affordable mass produced EV conversion kits suitable for all models - just like in 'Back to the Future 2' (but just EV, not fusion powered flying cars!)
I think the idea of converting ICE-powered cars to electric will always be a bit of a niche - if only because the idea of keeping a vehicle long-term, and maintaining it and modifying it, just isn't a thing these days. Most people don't have that kind of relationship with their cars.
Present company excepted, of course - I should think everybody here *does* have that kind of relationship with their cars. That's why we watch HubNut videos! But, realistically, the old-car scene is a niche, and the convert-old-cars-to-electric scene is a niche within a niche. I don't think it'll ever be mainstream enough for conversion kits to be widely available, as an off-the-shelf purchase from your local Halfords.
Look what happened when low emission zones came in and older diesel vehicles became non-compliant. Even though it's theoretically easy to clean up a diesel by fitting the relevant kit (I remember the government telling irate London cabbies to upgrade their FX4 taxis in just this way) I don't think anyone did. They just sold - or scrapped - their old diesels. FX4 taxis vanished from the streets overnight. Nobody tried to sell DIY clean-up kits to keep older diesels going, because the tinker-with-an-old-diesel market isn't big enough to make upgrade kits viable. I think the same thing will apply to EV conversion kits.
Having said all that, I think that while the DIY electric niche might never become mainstream-big, Halfords-big, it will be big enough for specialists to sell to it. To a certain extent it's already happening. Bolt-on electric conversion kits are already available VWs, Land Rovers, Morris Minors, Minis (and related models - for example, the Morris Minor kit will fit other RWD A-series cars. It's all about the bellhousing!) It's very simple stuff, which keeps the original drivetrain. The motor sits on the engine mounts, everything from the flywheel backwards stays original.
One of the interesting things about some EV conversions I've seen is that they're about ten times more complicated than they need to be. There's a Mini conversion in progress on TH-cam - th-cam.com/video/SWIrcijnFMU/w-d-xo.html - and it's fascinating stuff. But the converter is diving in to the bespoke engineering side of things far more deeply than he really needs to. Fine if he wants to do it that way, of course, and I know that for many people the process, as much as the end result, is a big part of the project. But I always feel like commenting, "Mate, you know there's a kit that'll do all that?"
Imagine if Mustie1 did a conversion like this on his splittie called Crustie, but that said I'm not sure he could do that given the work he put into that, though he does have a few other type 2s that could be done if he got round to it... :P
Is this the laws of averages!!! or why is there so many crashed teslas available....🤔
People who drive them can't drive ?
Tesla make over 100k cars a month at the moment. You only need a very small % of those to be side swiped by another car on the road. Also, it doesn't take much for insurance companies to write off a car nowadays. 👍
@@ElectricClassicCars agree totally...insurance companies do find cost of repairs to high...can i say not a fan of ev's but what your doing is superb....👌👌👌.....
An impressive range on that, I expect it drops if a lot of towing done just as consumption goes up in an ICE vehicle. It seems he has not had any problems without a fast charge, just top it up a bit with an extension lead at destination and that impressive regen. It would still be impressive with only half the power.
I do love a Doka (DoppelKabine) or crew cab in english
Richard's looks and character make me think he's a classic car version of Guy Martin.
His Landrovers are amazing also!
The point he made about charging holds if you have a driveway and somewhere to charge it at work. If not, then there is range anxiety, higher charging costs, hunting for an available charging bay and compatibility.
Indeed, but he built this for himself and it meets his requirements perfectly. I love EVs but I can't home charge, so they don't work for me either.
@@HubNut if I had the money and place to charge it at home, I would be tempted to convert my Mercedes 190E 2.0. Interestingly Mercedes built 10 190E Electros in 1992 for a four-year trial, so in a way there is a precedent!
Isn't the UK to totally stop sales of combustion engine cars by 2035? So I would imagine within less than 10 years there must be a public charging infrastructure to support those who can't charge at home.
At least that's the (obvious) strategy here in Germany, even though we don't have such a fixed target date.
@@garage6346 it's government by press announcement and sound bite in the UK. The implications of what is promised isn't realised until some time afterwards, still less how to achieve it.
@@garage6346 actually, it's 2030 - better start panicking about now-ish, I'd say .....!
That's eight years.....
Great content thanks
What a brilliant vehicle
That's a real nice conversion, you did a real nice job. I'm just not a VW fan, I just think it's ugly especially the color, but I tell myself I don't have to drive it, so it doesn't matter what I think. I'd convert something like a Dodge Dakota.
AY UP MR AND MISS HUBNUT
OK, the schocks have been updated but what about the suspension links? Given that the pack + motor combo weighs around 700 kg, I'd have figured the suspesion needed more of an update than just the shocks?
This is a commercial vehicle designed for a 1 ton payload, so the suspension will have been designed to cope with a degree of overloading anyway. Unless they fill the loadbed with another ton weight it probably won't make that much difference. Also, the weight is more evely distributed than in the original design as the battery is partially under the crew compartment.
I love the ECC stuff. Do you think he'd employ me for £10 an hour? I know it's not much but it's all I can afford.
Id fancy a landcrab or a maxi in leccy….if i could aford
That poor old Multipla would have been a perfect candidate for conversion!
How does one keep the glass from fogging up on the inside during the winter with no heater?
Would love to see it humble a few " warm hatches" at a run what you brung at the pod.
I love this electric conversion to classic vehicles where it makes sense. I probably already know the answer to this but are you considering electrification of Elle or other members of the fleet? Elle is wonderful as she is. I doubt she'd appreciate serious invasive surgery (having had a few of my own in the last year and I'm still not Robo Cop). I'm not suggesting anything here though. When parts become impossible to obtain and vehicles have a choice between becoming a static exhibit or a runner with a different power unit my preference is err... both. Which is odd.
No firm plans, but I'm definitely not ruling out an electric conversion when costs come down.
Here's a thought what about the Olcet parts car getting converted to electric?
Any more info on that rear view mirror? Sounds like a great piece of kit.
All these need is a external sound, so folk know you are coming, and internal to mimic engine noise
Nice but the comment about not having to charge it other than at home or the destination wouldn't work for me. 200 mile range & slow charging would mean it's totally useless for me.
In winter, range goes down to 50 miles. These conversions are pure bullshiy!
Ah, well, in that case I would advise you not to get one.
Remember he built this for himself, to meet his own requirements - which it does admirably. We don't have many rapid chargers in Wales. (almost none in mid-Wales)
I'm getting 200 mile range in winter. 250 mile range in summer. I built this around my needs but if someone was doing frequent long journeys I'd put 150kW CCS rapid charging in it, like I have done in my Defender. 👍
@Alfred Wedmore I don't know! First, the 200 miles should be true, which I doubt (and I don't mean driving at an average speed of 5mph!), second the normal range one uses of a battery is between 30% to 80%, third you never be able to get all energy out of the battery it has theoretically, since you will have to push your vehicle to the next charging station, forth at 0°C the battery has 1/2 capacity of the capacity at 20°C, fifth you must take a fully loaded vehicle, not just a guy of 55kg but the ton you can load on and in it etc. .
Lack of knowledge concerning the "triangle of doom" is concerning
For Morris Minors, would you suggest motor drive at the back and battery pack at the front (and should that yield better storage space?)
The easiest way would be to fit a motor to the existing gearbox (probably not a Tesla motor!). It's easier to convert the VW to rear motor because it already had independent rear suspension. It would be more difficult with the Minor.
@@HubNut Yep , like Ford Escorts , I have seen two motors doubled up giving 400bhp roughly, which is a bit overkill for me - and the back axle.
Totally ace!
With a strong regen do the brake lights operate🤔. Edit..... watched to 12:20 and answered my question.
Very nice job, although I can't help feeling that it's quite a lot more complicated than it really needs to be. It's possible to buy a bolt-on kit for VWs that simply replaces the engine with a motor, and keeps the original drivetrain, which is possibly a more sensible option. But I don't think 'sensible' was high on the priority list for this one! Even a relatively mild conversion will give better acceleration, though, given that electric motors put out all the torque, all the time.
The Beetle conversions usually retain the gearbox, but I actually prefer this 'all or nothing' approach. Much quieter for a start!
I think the reason it was capped at 340 hp and not the full 450 it was capable of was because of the issues with traction?
This has officially become the most desirable car ever tested on this channel
No! TUC is the most desirable car ever!
@@jurivlk5433 I wonder how TWC would go with a Tesla motor in the back? Though battery space would be a problem.
@@michaelwright2986 Well, the Invacar already seems to be much too fast for what it is. One must be nuts to drive it at 60 mph! I would never dare this! Imagine: Cable operated breaks, and three wheels!
Looks like a good job, well done. But it appears that there is a decent market of written off EVs that have had a lot of components transferred into projects like this one!
Good idea in theory if you can do some or all of the work involved saving money on labour...but if I were to keep a classic on the road iam sorry but for me it would have to have its original combustion engine ...even the sound of an original vw engine is unique in it self..