Have you seen Chev's eCrate concept ?
I see eCrates having legs in the future.
Yeah, I friggin' love that idea. EV Engineering (an old aussie company, now defunct) made a converted VE Calais once. Was pretty sick, but battery tech at the time wasn't even remotely good enough. Only had about 200km of range, but at the time that was pretty solid. I could feasibly see about 300-400km of charge in a pack that'd bolt into the existing fuel tank location on a VE. If you also ditch the gearbox and mount the motor in the tranny tunnel using a CF driveshaft to the diff, you could add even more under the hood. In fact, you'd need to to balance the weight out.
I think the conversion of valuable petrol vehicles into EV's will be big business for about five to ten years, while the market converts to EV's generally. Once the backlog of the old cars has been converted, the business will die out but it could be a lucrative few years for a company that establishes a good reputation for quality work.
Old classics don't normally get driven as much as dailies. The restricted range of EV's won't matter so much. I can't see it working for classic hi-po cars like a GTHO, but for early Holdens, Foulcans and Valiants with 6 cylinder engines, the conversions could make sense.
I agree, I wouldn't want to see a GTHO or an LE Monaro converted to Electric. E85 conversion seems like a more realistic option for these old cars, as their value lies in the complete package of motor, transmission and the car itself. As for older non-classics, like your HQ Belmonts or even VEs as they age? I could definitely see that happening.
I really can't see anyone converting old petrol bangers to EV's. It will just be way too costly and there will also be the issue of EV's communicating with each other as that's the way it's all heading and that just will not be viable nor will these older cars pass any compliancy that will come in with new rules.
To me many of these older cars will either be static displays or head off to the crushers. If anyone thinks that Governments are going to cater for us oldies then you are sadly mistaken.
It's actually already happening, albeit to a small scale. Companies like EVWorks Australia and EVWest in the USA are already doing conversions and selling conversion parts to tinkerers. EVWest in particular focuses on VW aircooled cars. I agree in the fact that governments "Aren't going to cater for us" but at the same time, they will indeed push the ultimatum which will cause the private market to react. Government has a real power over the economy, often in ways we forget that it has.
They'll put up the idea that you either pay a converter to have it converted, buy the parts and DIY it, or crush it for credit to a new car akin to the Scrappage scheme or Cash for Clunkers. That's not to say that normies will take the conversion route, they most definitely won't. Your VE's not going to handle your holophone 3000 in the future, and to be fair most of today's car buyers often put power and speed really low down on the list, instead opting for safety features and tech connectivity (In fact most of the current mods to my ute are connectivity and safety related.) But for us guys who love our older cars? There's a very real future in that. Especially at a DIY level.
As for the whole "EVs communicating with eachother" idea, there's already protocols in place for older cars that don't have said communication systems in place. Engineers have a habit of thinking about these things when designing systems, as their heads are on the chopping block if they don't.
