Electric vehicle conversion

In automobile engineering, electric vehicle conversion is the replacement of a car's combustion engine and connected components with an electric motor and batteries, to create a battery electric vehicle (BEV).

There are two main aims for converting an internal combustion engine vehicle (aka combustion vehicle) to run as a battery-electric vehicle. The first is to reduce tailpipe emissions of vehicles that are already on the road, as electric vehicles do not produce any direct emissions.

The second is to reduce the vast amount of waste created when cars reach the end of their life cycle – as older cars or those written off after a road traffic accident are typically scrapped. This creates a considerable amount of metal, plastic and fabric waste, and uses a large amount of energy to recycle discarded parts into useful materials.

Price is another key catalyst for the growing electric car conversion market. The cost of electric car batteries and motors has fallen in recent years, and the cost of conversion is dependent in many factors, including range and batteries used for conversion. Not all conversion companies are equal.