A recent insideevs article featured an ongoing conversion project which supposedly will cost just 4,000 US-dollars. The basic message: Buy a donor car (and a compatible controller) to source all major components in one go, change as little as possible in the traction battery layout, and save considerably on costs.
Such a low-budget conversion is refreshing news as most articles in the media focus on high-price conversions of classic cars with price tags in the five- or even six-figure range. However, though we agree with the donor approach, we think project costs of just 4K are not possible.
And we can prove it as Udo has chosen the same path.
For his 1993 Volvo 850 conversion he bought a demolished Nissan Leaf which cost 5,900 Euro (with a 30 kWh battery).
However, there are other costs that need to be taken into account. Just to mention the “big ticket” items:
- Cables (1,453 Euro)
- Adapter plates, coupler, brackets/holders (2,364 Euro),
- Software/Boards (1,144 Euro)
- Other EV components not provided by the donor (1,435 Euro)
For a detailed list what Udo spent his budget of about 18,000 Euro on, see the double page taken from our book “Deep Dive EV Conversion“:
But still, 18 K is an amount that seems worthwhile to us, if you love your classic and want to continue driving it regularly.
