this post was submitted on 11 Nov 2023
318 points (95.4% liked)
Technology
59594 readers
2835 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related content.
- Be excellent to each another!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Approved Bots
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
One of several reasons I really want to do an electric conversion of an old car rather than buying a new electric car.
Renault Twingo, the original one with the eyes
Would sell like hot cakes in Paris
I'm not sure how feasible that is. Batteries are heavy, and take up space, and there's only so much room under the hood for battery modules. If you cram it to the max, can the frame take that load all the time? It might work for a short-ranged car - maybe 100km range, to avoid going much heavier than the normal curb-weight.
You’re not wrong about those things being issues, but also people do electric conversions all the time, there are shops that specialize in it and premade kits you can buy for it. Low range is certainly a very common outcome, but I don’t have big range requirements for most of my driving. Plus, I love taking on projects that are way over my had and muddling through them somehow. It’s how I learn best.
I have my shopping list together to convert an old Kia Rio to electric for 100 km range, it's about 400lbs of lifepo batteries and a 200lb motor. So slightly more than the cratered ICE motor I'd be taking out.
But yah, if you want to drive across the country, convert an SUV or light pickup for the room to keep the batteries, and remove everything weight wise that you can to compensate.
This is actually a not uncommon swap and some companies have even started selling kits to do it on certain vehicles.
I've thought about this also but that's insanely expensive and older cars are very unsafe by comparison.
I no longer have a family and don’t prioritize personal safety, but there are a lot of cars that aren’t too old which are still quite safe and lack all the connectivity crap.