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Comment by sushsjsuauahab | Hacker News Reader

Where can I buy it? So many cheap old cars lying around waiting to be electrified.

From Ford. There is a huge drivetrain elements market from Ford, Mopar, GM (whose terrific LS series of engines are in hundreds of thousands of street rods, race cars etc). This is a natural progression and an encouraging continuation (for now, bureaucrats willing) of the long tradition of US car building choices.

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...

Do you think it would be easier or safer to convert a truck with a full length bed? Like could just put it as a layer in the back bed without messing with the chassis?

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.

Yes. I was hanging around with a homebrew EV club 10 years ago (I like all types of vehicles) and most of the conversions were small trucks with the batteries in the bed and ev conversion under hood. The sweet spot is still late 70's/early 80's trucks which are relatively simple, still made out of steel and are relatively easy to adapt. In the event of fire it is relatively easy to install a big lever and spring loaded connectors to ungang the battery connections.

i would love a vintage truck like that but totally updated inside + ev. Though they don't crumple like modern cars..

recommend evwest.com

thanks!

https://performanceparts.ford.com/part/M-9000-MACHE

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