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“I learned how to design motor adapter plates and battery boxes, which are the two most critical and difficult things to build for a car,” he said. Then, after a chance Facebook post, he lucked into interning at EV West for two months. Inspired, he began his first conversion on a 1987 Nissan R31 Skyline using two 300kW NetGain’s Warp11 DC motors. James discovered hero EVs through the internet, including the White Zombie 1972 Datsun 1200 which was once the world’s fastest street-legal electric car and, in California, EV West’s Tesla-motored 800hp BMW M3 Pikes Peak racer. RC cars are just in a scaled-down package, so I thought I could apply my mechanical knowledge and start building EVs.” “I got into electric radio-controlled car racing and that taught me a lot about lithium battery technology, safe charging procedures and electric motor theory. “I watched the documentary film Who Killed the Electric Car? in about 2007 and thought ‘what the hell’s going on here?’” he said. So how did this all start? James spent his formative years in a more traditional manner: hotting up a Holden Gemini panel van and then a Hemi-powered Chrysler Centura, cutting his mechanical teeth along the way. There’s an onboard AC charger that can deliver 3.3kW for wall socket charging, while Traction EV fitted a DC fast charge system so 80 percent charge is possible in 30 minutes through a CHAdeMO plug. It features an 88kW/236Nm NetGain HyPer 9 motor (about twice that of a Cortina’s original 1.5-litre engine) and five Tesla Model S battery modules, making a total of 28kWh and allowing a 150km range. Just down the road, Brisbane’s Charged Garage is working on an electric conversion classic car share program, and enlisted Traction EV to convert its beautifully restored 1965 Ford Cortina Mk1. Just quietly, something of an EV conversion mini revolution is happening in South East Queensland. Traction EV Land Rover Defender awaiting electric motor conversion Classics big and smallĪ hoist at James’ workshop holds a Land Rover Defender ready for its new electric heart there’s a pair of electrified VW Kombis, a Beetle with battery pack housed under its bonnet, and a second-generation Mazda MX-5 with the same 88kW HyPer 9 motor found in James’ company demonstrator Beetle. They make 90kW and 240Nm torque, so are a lot of fun in a light car.” Six motors are destined for customers around Australia, the other two for forthcoming builds at Traction EV. “They’re compact, nine-inches in diameter, relatively light and ideal for a small car weighing around a tonne.
“They’re the newest HyPer 9 motor NetGain makes,” he said. It’s all totally reversible, which is a lot less than many engine swaps.”ĭuring my visit to James’ workshop north of Brisbane he received a delivery from the US containing eight electric motors. I go to a lot of classic car shows with the Beetle and I hear murmurs in the crowd: ‘how could you do that?’ but there’s no cut, no weld. “The number one thing is don’t hurt the car.
“We’re future-proofing vehicles,” James explained. Traction EV’s electric conversion 1968 VW Beetle NetGain Motors in the US has provided an 88kW HyPer 9 electric motor a 28kWh Tesla battery pack brings the juice, and this curvaceous VW now goes far quicker than it ever did in its petrol-powered life.
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