Have a look at:
https://www.evwest.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=40
to see what goes into a typical EV conversion.
Batteries are here:
https://smallcar.com/vanagon-2.2-and-2.5-conversions/
https://www.bostig.com/bostig-vanagon-conversion-2021-2022-k...
Then you gotta build motor mounts, adapt to existing manual transmission or figure out some other gear reduction + attach to axles, cases for batteries and other components, wiring, etc.
It'd be a big project and probably around $40k all in by the time you were done.
I can see some of the EV conversion specialty shops using this Ford motor as part of their services though because it is higher wattage than most of the products the DIY market is used to.
Note that this is a higher voltage motor than most DIY electric car conversions are done with, too. So harder to work with safely and harder to configure battery pack.
Make fun of the rich guy buying $7000 status watches, god knows I will, but there are thousands of relatively "poor" people in every American city spending 10's of thousands on their shitboxes... and I love it.
I'm going off-topic, but just a heads up, there's a fairly large watch community out there (https://www.watchuseek.com/forums/) that have a passion for watches and treat it as a hobby like any other. They're probably one of the friendliest online communities I've come across. I haven't bought any thousand dollar watches, but I've spent a decent amount of time reading about watches and releases, and I know there's a lot of people out there that save up their money for years, decades, or life, to buy a $7,000 grail watch they've dreamed of owning. They might look like rich guys wearing a dumb Rolex status watch to an outsider, but sometimes that couldn't be further from the truth.
In that, you can do it for $15k as your starting budget but you'll have to cheap out everywhere, get lucky many different ways, sell the things you swap out and still have it creep upwards.
Likewise, unless you're starting with a junkyard motor $15k is probably not enough.
A proper turnkey conversion for a V8 Miata for example ends up right around... $40k.
The Mach E battery pack is 450 volts. So after going through the inverter, it'll be a bit less than that, but still very high.
Almost all commercial non-DIY EVs have quite high voltages, 300 and over at least. DIY EVs tend to use lower voltages but at higher amps.
EDIT: though it would not surprise me to find that you could run this motor fine at lower voltages but with higher current
My stated plan is to convert it to electric in 2025.
There’s good progress being made forging a path - see the DreamEV guys on YouTube for a currently ongoing 2wd Tesla vanagon conversion. They documented all the steps, are pretty entertaining, and just finished like 2 weeks ago.
If I was to do it now, I’d go Tesla engines front and rear to keep the AWD and ditch the engine and both diffs, which are the most troublesome part of the syncro anyway.
In 5 years, who knows. Maybe I’ll transplant the parts from a scrapped 2023 Cyber Truck!
Got to keep these museum pieces alive and relevant!
...
> https://www.bostig.com/bostig-vanagon-conversion-2021-2022-k...
That second link says $8k, not $15k.
If you DIY hack it together with junkyard motor and spend nothing on anything you can get away with a self-made conversion for ~5k. If you're buying your parts from a kit like these links and using new crate motors then you will never get under 12k. Not to mention the cost differences of you doing the work vs a mechanic. The cheapest turn-key mechanic-done conversion with a new motor won't be under 15k and will likely push in the 20k+ range.
It’s very likely you will see a disproportionate number of conversions being done for vehicles that are experiencing transmission or engine failure, because then you are comparing the cost of conversion against a $4-5k repair bill.
Not including a traction inverter or control system is like buying a LS crate engine without an ECU.
The challenge for EV conversion is not the motor, which is simple, it's the battery skateboard and the technology to process the stored energy into viable mileage.
EV's are a huge fire risk, my concern would be fast EV's and inadequate battery protection in a converted vehicle + impact damage to charged batteries = inferno.
There is plastics tech on the horizon to stop damaged ganged up batteries in a runaway thermal event from trapped energy contagion but right now little effort has been made to isolate batteries to prevent this.
https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/2021/10/22/electric-c...
I just started driving again. Got an old Tacoma. New trucks are way too big and most don't even have full beds. Would love to just keep a 'classic beater truck' design but EV! Cheaper than just buying a new one anyways.
>Weighing in at a svelte 205 pounds, this electric dynamo delivers 281 horsepower, 317lb.-ft. of torque, and generates a maximum speed of 13,800rpm. The Eluminator crate engine package includes a high-voltage motor-to-traction invertor harness, low-voltage harness connector, and vent tube assembly.
so, it sounds like the the motor traction inverter is included. Controller and the batter obviously still costs $$.
The text there says includes "inverter harness"... What does this really mean? You sure they're simply not referring to the inverter mount point / wiring connector at the top of the motor?
"Does NOT include:
Traction inverter
Control system"