High-dollar EV conversions are all the rage right now, with some cars costing well over $200,000 to be restored and then transformed from gas-burning classics into silent retro machines. But what if you don’t have that kind of money lying around?
What if you just have a ratty old Jeep that used to have a tree growing through it and less than $5,000 to turn it into an emissions-free, old-school, two-door father-son project? You roll up your sleeves and get into the world of budget EV conversions, just like Jeremy from the Jeremy Makes Things YouTube channel.
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Converting classics into EVs on the cheap
Converting a classic car into an EV doesn't have to be synonymous with six-figure budgets. If you're handy, you could do it for much, much less and get the rush of joy at the first turn of the wheels.
After unearthing a 1956 Jeep CJ5 that hadn’t moved in roughly 40 years and then gradually restoring the essential mechanical parts, the man in front of the camera decided to ditch the gas-burning engine that came from the factory in favor of a homemade electric powertrain.
While some EV conversion specialists turn to Tesla-made electric motors and batteries, our man Jeremy took a different approach. A used Smart ForTwo motor sends power to the manual transmission, while a second-generation Toyota Prius inverter is in charge of transferring the electrons from the battery to the motor.
Tying everything together is a small, open-source logic board called an OpenInverter that can be programmed to communicate with the Toyota inverter and ultimately make the wheels turn.
As you’ll see in the video embedded at the top of this page, the old Jeep CJ5 is still very much a work in progress, but it moves under its own power–thanks in no small part to the very helpful hand of the creator’s son, which makes it so heartwarming.
It wasn’t easy making all the components talk to each other, with lots of fiddling and trial and error, but in the end, it worked out nicely and, by the looks of it, didn’t break the bank. The video doesn’t mention it, but after a quick browse on eBay for the same parts, the tally seems to be under $3,000.
A used Smart EV motor is around $1,000, a Toyota Prius inverter is somewhere between $200 and $400 depending on the condition, and the OpenInverter board for the Toyota unit is about $330. Then, there are the batteries. For the initial testing, he used three modules that were charged to roughly 40 volts and then wired in series for a total of about 120V. That said, we don’t know what types of batteries or how much they cost, but we’d wager somewhere between $1,000 and $2,000.
It’s certainly not a job for anyone, but we love the idea of tinkering on a dilapidated car in the comfort of your own garage using readily available parts. But what do you think? Let us know in the comments below.
