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Comment by mattlondon | Hacker News Reader

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mattlondon

This is great and awesome to see, but the prices soon rack-up.

- Kit itself: 8,850

- 12 kwh battery pack: 16,000 (no indication on range)

- Motor-controller: 3,860

- Charger: 1,950

- coolant pump: 144

Total 30,804, or £36,964.8 inc tax

And that is before you add a donor vehicle (and other bells & whistles like LSD etc) and costs/time for removing old engine and putting right the "probably knackered" original body shell (and likely interior too). Call it £40k all in (min) assuming you get a good deal on a donor vehicle + repairs etc.

I know classic motoring is not about price or practicality, but just for the sake of comparison:

New nissan leaf: £26,845 inc tax

New Kia e-niro: £29,595 inc tax

New tesla 3: £40,490 inc tax

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Suddenly a Model 3 doesn't look so outrageous.

£19,200 (inc 20% VAT) for a 12 kWh battery pack is especially outrageous.

That cost is actually in the ballpark for an ICE drivetrain swap using new parts and fully prefabricated fitment. Can be done much cheaper going with used parts from wrecked cars. Cheaper still if one has the resources to do their own fitment fabrication work.

It's nice though to see an outfit with the kind of reputation that Swindon has earned in ICE motorsports jumping into the EV game. This is bound to be a straightforward and high quality kit for those with the means and not the patience or ability to spend a year of weekends tinkering - that's a section of the EV conversion market that's always been missing.

For those who care about the cost and enjoy long tinkering projects, the hobbyist market's already been around for decades, and now the used production parts market is becoming well established.

> no indication on range

less than 30 miles at a guess. An optimized and integrated Model 3 has a 75kwh battery from memory, for comparison. This wont be optimized at all on anything with a vastly smaller battery. Still a fun project.

You are totally correct of course, a Tesla is the more practical and economical choice. But fun is the key word i think...

I suspect for many people that price is already considered well into luxury car territory (I've never bought a car >£5k, the used car market is large in the UK and the most common way people acquire cars)... Anyway my point is, 40k for most people is not an economical purchase, it's for fun - and even though I think Teslas are kinda cool - I find the idea of a raw EV powertrain in a classic like the mini quite appealing over all the distracting gismos and fairly normal looking modern car you get from a Tesla.

- takes cover, behind old mini -

If you're building a kit for a production volume in the hundreds on up and no reason you couldn't scan a floor pan and then just take a "dozen cells here, hundred there" approach and interconnect it all as necessary. Considering the price point of the kit it kind of seems lazy not to do it.

>>"dozen cells here, hundred there" approach and interconnect it all as necessary.

Heat. You cannot just daisy chain batteries ad hoc wherever you find the space. These things produce heat. Too much and battery life will degrade rapidly. Much too much and fires start. And too little heat (drawing from frozen batteries) or inconsistent temperatures of batteries in the same circuit can cause all manner of nasty low-voltage surprises.

and other bells & whistles like LSD etc

It would be dangerous to convert a car while you're on hallucinogens.

Gotta be careful with those Lysergic acid differentials.

And the cops don't appreciate fish driving around, they frown on that.

dangerous... or grooovy?

Pre-owned electric 2017 Fiat 500e with 20k miles: $7,000.00 on eBay

It will be interesting whether any of the electrical components (battery/charger/controller especially) will be able to be adaptable from budget-priced used EVs to power a kit like this.

Plenty of people still want a unique vehicle, and electrical drivetrains are a lot simpler than everything required for an ICE.