I did it to my Europa. Last year my Elan developed a problem with the clutch which meant I had to take out the engine. Not as easy as the Europa’s engine removal. Whilst the engine was out I was looking at the oily twinc and then at the electric motor in the Europa then back to the empty engine bay in the Elan. Well for the engineering challenge I decided to convert the Elan to electric. It took about a month but most of that time was waiting for the battery boxes to be fabricated. It worked and I was generally pleased with the conversion. I needed to up the voltage which meant another battery module (I was using Tesla model s modules). This meant more fabrication and more weight at the back. I was only using it locally so the range was fine (40 miles) so I didn’t bother.
I mentioned it on the Elan forum and was roundly criticized. I’m ok with it. I’m old enough and certainly ugly enough to take the flak. The best one was that Chapman would be rolling in his grave at the thought of all that extra “lightness”. Ironically it ended up being 50kg lighter! Breath easy purity fans, I’ve just finished the the petrol restoration. I purposely designed it so that no cars were harmed in the process and that everything would be reversible.
Back to the Europa. I only ran it a few times and the motor certainly was more suited to the lighter Europa. I’ve decided to up the power of the motor. There’s a chap near here who has a great YouTube channel which specializes in converting BMWs to electric drive with used EV components. He’s building me a Vehicle Control Unit (VCU)for a Nissan Leaf motor and inverter. I have a Leaf motor and have tried it in the engine bay. I was abit nervous because the Leaf motor is bigger than my previous motor. However, to my surprise it fits in between the two original motor mounts. Indeed one of the mounting holes lines up with one on the motor! The VCU requires only 12v in, ground, 5v to an accelerator pedal and return. It also needs a fair bit of programming which I will have to learn. Everything is open source and published online.
Why bother? I like the challenge and it’s my car. Like the Elan, everything is reversible.
Someone mentioned pedestrians getting run over. Like a lot of stuff surrounding electric vehicles, this is abit of a myth perpetuated by the press and traditional motor industry. By EU rules new EVs have to make a noise to warn pedestrians. This does not apply to hybrids or modern internal Combustion Engine cars which can be as quiet AT slow speeds. Every year the tram company in Dublin shows dashcam footage from the previous year showing pedestrians stepping out in front of their trams. A number of things are common throughout. No one is looking where they are going, most are looking at their phones and almost all of them are wearing noise cancelling headphones. The trams have a loud bell to warn of their approach. An artificial noise from a car is not going to make a difference. What it does do is make EVs unpalatable to the general buying public. I have a Tesla Model 3 and I love it. I don’t care what noise it makes outside.
A Europa is a perfect candidate. It’s small, very light and very aerodynamic. The strength of the original gearbox is a concern but the beauty of the electric motor is that it can spin in both directions quite happily. Therefore a different gearbox could be used and you wouldn’t have to swap the crown wheel over.
I’d be happy to talk through it with anybody who’s interested away from the forum. PM me.
