We need to write a bible for Ev conversions.

One of the 10 commandments will be “Thou shalt not plan on using hub motors, thou ist not building an e-bike and thou hasn’t found a secretly superior way of building yon EV.”

That’s what the Mitsubishi Outlander basically is.

The thing is, electric motors just don’t wear out. Not like engines. So, the best source for motors isn’t to go buy a new one. It’s to just buy up one that lasted longer than its donor vehicle.

You can pick up a Prius transaxle for like, $150 picked and palleted from a wrecker. You can barely buy a fuckin’ oil change for that price these days.

Likewise with the Outlander, a few hundred, maybe a thousand bucks for the whole assembly.

I highlighted this on the OpenInverter and DIY EC forums (linked).

In short, $12.50 for contactors worth hundreds each.

And for the 1000 posts a year we get for people hoping to build a cheap EV, I highlighted two pretty much dirt cheap battery options that’ll get you 90 miles for ~$1200 + shipping. Both on new/uncycled/barely cycled cells.

They’re heavy for what they are (how many of you can afford to add 600lbs?) but all things being a compromise, there you get cheap.

Maybe most of you would have to squeeze by with a 45 or 60 mile pack because you can’t fit the size or weight in your vehicle. Oh well, still the cheapest way to get yourself rolling on an EV. Beggars and choosers.

I’ve no affiliation with BatteryHookup other than being an occasional and generally satisfied customer. Not getting a kickback. They don’t know I’m posting this. No shenanigans.

Gotta take the usual stance and say, after years of recommending them and endorsing them, screw EV West. They sent basically every single part defective to someone in the community, and then ghosted them for months, pretended not to be in the office, wouldn’t answer emails, etc. Tens of thousands of dollars in junk.

I’ll never trust or endorse them again, and I make an effort to warn others against them.

They’re overpriced too, but, no more than any other retailer.

A Bug is about the easiest, most common, and most traditional EV conversion out there. You can choose from dozens of other’s projects to follow.

You have awesome access, you don’t need a lot of power, it’s so common you can buy the few custom parts you need for pretty cheap since people have run batches of them before.

If I was doing it, and budget-conscious…

Probably pay $50 from a wrecking yard for a Gen 2 or Gen 3 Prius inverter, $150 for a motor/transaxle out of the same, gas pedal, power steering, even A/C from the same, a replacement control board from the fine folks at OpenInverter or EVBMW, connect whatever batteries I felt like buying when the time was right, $30 (last year $15 black friday sale) contactors from BatteryHookup, and that should pretty much do it.

Should get it done under $4k, range dependent naturally.

That or an old forklift motor for $150 and do it the way everyone did back in 2010. I don’t even know that that’s any cheaper nowadays though.