[RahulNagaraj]

California State Senator, Anthony Portantino, has introduced a bill which offers incentives of up to $2,000 if vehicle owners convert their ICE-powered cars to EVs.

Portantino stated that the newly-introduced Senate Bill 301 "will provide a financial rebate for people in California who choose to convert their gas-powered cars into electric vehicles, but can't afford to do so." He added that the incentives are part of a new method to promote EVs and meet the strong climate goals.



According to reports, a new EV on average costs $66,000, however, a conversion from ICE to electric power can be done for a relatively low amount of $14,000.

Companies like Ford and General Motors are coming out with electric crate motors, which would certainly help with generating interest towards electromodding a car. However, most of the electromods currently in the market are based on popular classic cars and carry a high price tag.

Apart from the incentives, the Senator also believes that the bill will help open job opportunities in the EV conversion industry.

Source: CarScoops

Link to Team-BHP news

[Contrapunto]

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/01/u...-charging.html

Politicians - whether in USA or anywhere in the world should not be trusted. I doubt people will rush to surrender their only ICE car for an EV. For the 2nd or 3rd car, sure.

[frewper]

We definitely need something like this in India. There are a lot of people who would like to retain their cars for longer time and this will be one option.

This will be more helpful in the Delhi-NCR region where the 10 year mandate exists.

There is no point scrapping a car after just 10 years. Cars now a days are so reliable that they can last 15 years easily. Scrapping a car in todays day and age just to replace it with another ICE is just stupid. You are doing more harm to the environment than good.

What is the point of replacing a reliable 2015 Corolla in the next two years when it can last for another 10 years easily.

The pollution issue in Delhi is an extremely bad situation, but replacing existing ICE car with another ICE is just meaningless.

Least you can do is convert them to Electric rather than manufacture a new one with the same problem.

[ExplorerXIII]

There has been a hobby enthusiasts scene for few years in California were classic models like the original Beetle, vintage S-class sedans are converted to electric motors and batteries after ditching ICE engines.

[shankar.balan]

There is this company in Pune which seems to be doing conversions of ICE vehicles to EV’s. I came across them in 2020 while doing casual research on the internet.

https://www.pixycars.co.in/
This is one of these EV Retro fitters. There seem to be several others too now.
I wonder how good and effective they are.
It is interesting but there are a lot of questions which I would like answered.
I have tried contacting them via the website contact form but no action has ensued. I rang the phone number too but the person was busy and couldn’t talk and never called back. I wonder whether they are able to sell these commercially or whether they have the infra for such sales and servicing or not.
And are they all nice and legal and ‘homologated’?
Will it be easy to re-register an ICE to EV converted car as an EV across all the states in India?
Will there be any tax impact?
What will be the cost?
What will be the effective range?
What sort of batteries do they have and what sort of charger works for these?

[guptad42]

Conversion usually gives you cars with poorer experience than a new EV, even one based on a converted ICE platform.

- the old car body strength would have reduced due to aging and micro rust, and putting in heavy batteries into this can be unsafe.
- Suspension redesign for battery weight for safe handling is too much for most converters.
- Usual conversion designs are heavily compromised in some way or the other. e.g. batteries in the boot taking up boot space or making the car tail heavy. Lack of regen braking in most converted cars.
- It is also expensive. Can cost a large share of money towards a new car or 2-wheeler. High demand for batteries and motors means the best, most efficient ones with high price to performance ratios are reserved for OEMs and new EVs. Qualified labour cost is also high per car.

It only makes sense for specialist conversions of old classic cars. And you really don't need govt incentives for those.

Instead of conversion, Indian govt should incentivise recycling old petrol and diesel cars by replacing them with EVs.
- Can have max incentive reserved for 10year or older cars where the new EV is less than 15 Lacs. It means older, non BS6, more polluting cars will be targeted first, and you are not giving incentives to people who can afford larger, expensive cars anyway.
- The incentive can also be made into an income tax rebate. The benefit gets limited to people who contribute by paying taxes. Reduces the chance of benefit to people buying cars with undeclared incomes. And it reduces impact on govt cash flows - the credit gets deferred to the end of the financial year at the time of filing returns, and it is a reduction in tax and not a cash payment from the govt.

[shankar.balan]

Here is another interesting video I came across. I reacted to the click bait, because I love Gypsys.
This says it is the first Manual Transmission EV conversion.

https://youtu.be/xTsBbE1l2ZQ

[Contrapunto]

Originally Posted by guptad42

Conversion usually gives you cars with poorer experience than a new EV, even one based on a converted ICE platform.

You are, in substance, right. Though I think there is a specific use case which can make good sense viz. conversion by the original OEM. Here is a quote from ex-CEO of Toyota
https://time.com/6247171/toyota-conv...reen-electric/

Imagine all the old Innova and Etios getting converted directly by Toyota (or a special purpose subsidiary)? It will also have other advantages

1. Cleaner roads and a new life to old cars
2. A new revenue stream for dealers (losing income since EVs need less maintenance)
3. A new source of commercial activity that "reduces" and "re-uses" rather than simply junking the car for recyclyng

[guptad42]

Originally Posted by Contrapunto

You are, in substance, right. Though I think there is a specific use case which can make good sense viz. conversion by the original OEM. Here is a quote from ex-CEO of Toyota
https://time.com/6247171/toyota-conv...reen-electric/

Imagine all the old Innova and Etios getting converted directly by Toyota (or a special purpose subsidiary)? It will also have other advantages

1. Cleaner roads and a new life to old cars
2. A new revenue stream for dealers (losing income since EVs need less maintenance)
3. A new source of commercial activity that "reduces" and "re-uses" rather than simply junking the car for recyclyng

I love the thought of Innovas living on for ever as EVs!

But the biggest tell that this may never work out at mass scale is the fact that Toyota is pushing it. This company has gone from an EV frontrunner with Priuses to anti-BEV propaganda so completely, that my money is on opposite of what Mr Toyoda says about BEVs. He has been indulging in patently false propaganda against EVs of the type that only oil & gas companies used to fund earlier. The single largest blocker of transport electrification outside oil & gas. For entirely selfish reasons. Toyota has fallen behind on BEV technology and manufacturing. They over invested in hybrids and hydrogen. Now they are one of the most highly indebted companies in the world, with hundreds of billions in assets that will not be productive if EVs continue to scale up as they have.

It has led to this strange situation of BYD entering Japan with EVs! Japan is the world's toughest auto market for imports. No non-Japanese has succeeded there. But now, there is a gaping hole in the cars on offer because there is no Japanese automaker doing a good EV, and they are still trying to avoid going all in on BEVs. It's simply crazy.