EV conversions: the future

[A32009]

I’ve my A3 8P now for nearly half a decade. It’s my first car and I love it to bits. I really don’t want to let it go ever and I hope to keep it like a classic car ( I don’t think it will ever become a proper classic and go up in value like an S3 but I’ve my reasons to keep her for as long as I can)

My only concern is that Diesel will probably be banned in the future, especially in urban areas. Will there ever be a drop in motor and battery kit for old ICE cars that wouldn’t take up any extra room or weight compared to the engines we have now? The biggest issue with EV conversion a the moment is the size and weight of the batteries and this is partially why every new electric car is mostly an awful SUV (I really hope that they’re taxed out of existence because they’re brutal for the environment and are useless as vehicles. Some of them can’t even carry a washing machine) Because Lithium ion batteries are so heavy, the efficiency and range goes down too.

Would it be even worth converting old cars to electric in the future? Would it just cost way too much? Would we be better off looking at making diesel from algae?
I really hope there will be a solution in the next few years because I can’t see myself paying nearly 100 quid to fill the tank every 2 weeks.

 

[MWright]

100% it'll be worth it. Saving on having to get create a new chassis to put the powertrain in. I've been thinking about this but maybe in 5 years time. Would want to get a pano roof and try to utilise the dsg selector for the gear selection (also for sport and track modes)

I've been watching Vintage Voltage and it definitely wets the appetite to do such a conversion, but prices to reach the levels of conversion they do are in the region of 10s of thousands of pounds.

Then the choice of powertrain, whether you go for a small drive unit (Tesla) 300bhp and get driveshafts made up and lose the quattro or trial using a manual box in 3rd gear and hook up a large drive unit.

I suppose the amount of research required would be sorted by the time I may get around to doing it.

 

[A32009]

I really hope the size and cost of the batteries come down significantly to the point that you can just take out the old engine and just stick in a motor and your battery where the fuel tank would be and call it a day (super optimistic and will never be that simple but one can dream). I keep seeing these articles about how a battery revolution is just around the corner and super energy dense batteries that don’t catch fire when damaged and are made from non rare metals are on their way. I really hope that’s true because everything else has been a huge disappointment (bio diesel, diesel from Algae, super capacitors, nuclear fusion etc etc) and we really need some sort of miracle if we are to save the world. Even if global warming is all bull, it would be nice to be able to switch to a fuel that doesn’t go up in price every time there is a crisis.

 

[A32009]

Also, some of those Audi engines are an excellent piece of engineering. It would be shame to make it redundant.

 

[SootySport]

A couple of friends have changed over to electric cars recently, both have confirmed the cost of running them has halved compared to there old petrol cars and that's including the extra cost of buying new.
Range anxiety doesn't come into it, they are fully fuelled up at home and never had concerns about running out. It's a fact that no car spends more than 5% of its life actually moving on the road.
like most people on this forum I'm a petrol head and have 3 cars.,all petrol but can see the the the environmental impact I'm having. Conversion is not financially viable, just buy a new EV.

 

[toooldforboyracing]

Conversion is not financially viable —> Without manufacturer support
It could be done IF there is a minor amount of effort spent to provide conversion facilities to existing customers
Once battery density reaches a point that enables existing car bodies to be able to accept the mechanicals AND have places for the batteries to be fitted, it’s a trivial effort for VAG to distribute templates for the process AND update the software to allow existing dashboards to be EV compatible (meaning icons change as well as for the modern cars, the Virtual Cockpit can continue working instead of being replaced)
They’d already have the components needed and gain efficiencies of scale by selling more motors, batteries and associated components
When spread across all the brands, this is a win win for everyone

So the question comes down to if a manufacturer wants to support this endeavour or continue with the route of selling new cars
That is a tough one