Electric car from a gasoline car - do we make it ourselves or at the factory?

About a year ago, the Russian mass media actively commented on the decision of Avtotor (Kaliningrad) to begin converting gasoline cars into electric cars. The first-borns in this business were to be BMW and Kia, which the plant itself produced in 2000-2009. Later it was planned to launch the production of kit kits for converting cars of any brand.


Information about the project was announced by representatives of the company at the MIMS Automobility exhibition held in the capital. However, all comments were of a general nature and little was said about technical details. Therefore, we will try to consider the conversion process itself and the problems arising in connection with it.

History and reality

An ordinary car owner may consider such plans a utopia, and he will have sufficient reasons for this. From time immemorial, “alterations” were carried out in garages, or, at most, in specialized tuning studios. And here the project is supposed to be developed almost on a national scale.


However, in reality, cars with gasoline engines have long been transferred to electric “rails” and buying a kit kit, for example, in China, will not be difficult. The world already has a well-functioning mechanism for transforming a car with an internal combustion engine into an electric car.


Each specific model has its own kit kit. The purchased equipment is mounted in bolt-on mode: that is, no welding work is implied. Everything is installed in its original place. At the same time, there are no difficulties with the law either: for this purpose, a system of standardization and certification of kit kits has been developed and successfully applied. There is no need to give every converted copy to be “torn to pieces” and studied by experts, paying them a lot of your own “hard-earned money.”

How does transformation happen?

The process is simplified if the donor car is front-wheel drive. In this case, you can remove the internal combustion engine along with the gearbox, and replace it with an electric motor, which is already equipped with a transmission. By the way, she is not anything complicated. Typically this is a final drive differential plus a gearbox. The new motor is mounted on the pads of the old one directly or using adapters. If cooling is required, a standard radiator is used complete with an electric pump.


The accelerator pedal is converted to an electronic one and communicates through the ECU with other car systems. New blocks communicate with the machine equipment via the CAN bus.

Suspension and brakes

Everything at the rear remains intact, but sometimes the CV joints have to be altered: shortened or, conversely, lengthened. The operation is simple: the hinges are cut and welded again through bushings with thick walls. The brakes remain hydraulic, but you will have to add a pump to create vacuum. A similar product is used on diesel cars: there it forms a vacuum in the intake manifold. Yes, and on gasoline engines it is also sometimes used as an additional option.

Microclimate in the cabin

To create comfort in summer, a battery-powered air conditioner is installed. Such products have been mass-produced for a long time and there are no problems here. The heater is another matter. Heating elements can play its role. This is the most inexpensive, but also energy wasteful option. The best way out is to install a separate heater that runs on liquid fuel. Kind of like on the Zaporozhets. Only here the so-called is used. “dry dryer”: this is when heated air comes from the boiler of the device and is distributed throughout the heating system.


The batteries included are the so-called. voltage distributor. This is a unit that is mass produced and is suitable for a wide variety of engines and batteries. The module allows you to charge the battery from a home outlet and at specialized stations using alternating or direct current. An inverter is sometimes integrated into the unit to produce an output voltage of 220 volts and a power of 3 kW. Then the car will become a kind of power bank, which, for example, can be used outside the city if the electricity in the house is turned off.

Where to put the batteries?

When creating an electric car today, its own platform is being developed. In it, the batteries are located in the underbody. This lowers the center of gravity, which gives the machine additional stability. In addition, it does not take away useful space. And one more thing: everything is designed so that, if necessary, the batteries can be quickly replaced.


What if the body is from a gasoline car? Then, alas, you have to place the battery cells where possible.


Something will fit under the hood, something in the trunk and instead of the fuel tank... Inevitably, part of the scarce space will be occupied - but nothing can be done about it.

How much will the remodel cost?

Avtotor promised a year ago that the resulting electric car, created on the basis of a gasoline car, would cost 950 thousand rubles. Moreover, the cost of equipment will be 650 thousand rubles, half of which is for the battery. It is clear that taking into account inflation for the year the price will not be less than a million. If you take into account the cost of the donor car, you get very “boring” numbers. Folding them is unlikely to save anything thanks to relatively cheap electricity and free parking.


As mentioned above, the main cost of the conversion is the batteries. In this regard, Avtotor is negotiating with the Rosatom branch, the Renera company. It is assumed that it will be the company that will supply batteries to the enterprise in Kaliningrad. By the way, it produces electric motors itself. However, the state of affairs at this stage today can be described as “silence”. We have not heard any news from Avtotor regarding the conversion of passenger cars since the spring of last year.


Obviously, the whole point is high cost: it is more profitable to produce “real” cars “powered by batteries.” Who needs an electric car converted, say, from a passenger car at a cost of 1,5 million rubles, for what else do you need to pay an extra million? And at the end we get “something” with a reduced trunk, which cannot be registered with the traffic police. If you want an electric car, you can buy a ready-made one for almost the same money. Well, or used.


There is also a “homemade” option. And we're not just talking about remodeling in the garage. There are small companies, such as Z-ion Controllers, that have been doing this kind of thing for a long time. It is possible that the conversion work, the cost of batteries and equipment there will be cheaper than at Avtotor. But again: the stumbling block will be the registration of the car at the traffic police. And if you do decide to officially register your car, rest assured that it will cost you a pretty penny and the total cost of transforming a gasoline car into an electric vehicle will skyrocket.


Now - about garage “homemade workers” (the author treats them with great respect!). Undoubtedly, there have always been and are talented people in Russia. And such a transformation will cost the master much less. As for registration, you can drive like this until the first inspector who wants to look under the hood. But this is rare if the car in its gasoline “version” has all the documents. Have you often been stopped and asked to open the hood? True, it will no longer be possible to sell or re-register a converted car.