I contacted a UK firm doing full electric conversions to classic cars, this is their reply.....

Thanks for your email.

Our shop truck is an early Bay pick-up so it's a similar to yours.

If you're up for the challenge of a DIY conversion we can sell you a kit which includes everything you'll need for £21k including VAT, or we can complete the conversion on your bus here at our workshop for £25k incl VAT. This would result in a bus capable of 100 mile range and more than enough power to push the splitscreen along.

Please let us know if we can help you any further.


So, for £21k / £25k you get to drive no further than 100 miles, and have no heating / no windscreen demisting... think I'll stick to the fossil fuels until Mr Tesla's products become more mainstream so the price is at least half that and the range is greater.

Double that if you talk to the 'other' firm that does conversions, they use tesla batteries and they cost nearly half the price, but gives you 200 miles.

At least our buses aren't diesel

62 Double Door

That would be at least a 20 year payback period if you do about 5000 miles a year and every battery charge is free.
I'll stick to my petrol engine. It's in the bus already and has a bigger range. And the bonus is you can always find a petrol station.

Cheers,
Gertjan

I can't see the point of converting to electric myself ... surely people own and run an old bus (or classic) cos that's what it is! I just wish the Cali (sorry for swearing) had a petrol engine option when I bought it - though it does now! I just hate the smell of diesel .... let alone its noxious output...
If I had 25K I'd go out and buy myself another old untampered with bus! I can only dream...

Charging at home would be 'free' as we're fully solar'd up. But the batteries won't last 20 years, so you'd be buying new ones, and modifying the mounting system as each time the new batteries won't fit in the old battery mounts.

David Eccles wrote: ↑Tue Sep 26, 2017 11:34 am I can't see the point of converting to electric myself ... surely people own and run an old bus (or classic) cos that's what it is! I just wish the Cali (sorry for swearing) had a petrol engine option when I bought it - though it does now! I just hate the smell of diesel .... let alone its noxious output...
If I had 25K I'd go out and buy myself another old untampered with bus! I can only dream...

Exactly David,

I was just curious what the technology was like / costs involved. One day petrol will be harder to buy, but not for a while yet.

I'm very happy to discuss technical questions about electric drive on my conversion thread ( here).

On the wider point it's important to stress that nobody converts to electric drive to save money, it's really no different from lowering a bus or installing a Subaru engine, you do it because it's fun and it's YOUR bus

Obviously, I could mention climate change, air pollution, Middle East wars, etc., but I guess that would probably be a red flag to many

I agree, we all mess with our buses because its fun. Its like bubble perns in the eighties, it was a good idea at the time. But living with radical alterations doesn't always work.

However, I am looking forward to more updates on your thread Kevin.

I don't think its the cost saving that would make someone do it, but the cost to entry would stop all but the few. That's why there aren't more 911 engined buses flying around, after all, they just bolt in

vwJim wrote: ↑Tue Sep 26, 2017 11:39 am

David Eccles wrote: ↑Tue Sep 26, 2017 11:34 am I can't see the point of converting to electric myself ... surely people own and run an old bus (or classic) cos that's what it is! I just wish the Cali (sorry for swearing) had a petrol engine option when I bought it - though it does now! I just hate the smell of diesel .... let alone its noxious output...
If I had 25K I'd go out and buy myself another old untampered with bus! I can only dream...

Exactly David,

I was just curious what the technology was like / costs involved. One day petrol will be harder to buy, but not for a while yet.

well I don't think I will be around then!!!!
And I don't mean to diss or offend anyone who does it, we have profiled electric buses in Camper magazine in same way we run other very modified stuff cos it's interesting to see things that people with skills can do...
I am off to read Kevin's thread now!

Nice to get an idea of what the costs are today. I agree that petrol is likely to get harder to find as electric vehicles become mainstream, in the same way that the number of pumps serving leaded declined in the lead up to the ban on selling cars that only ran on it.

Thankfully, the current timeline is 40 years in the UK, so plenty of time for production costs to fall and a decent sized used parts market to evolve.

I'm hanging out for hydrogen fuel cells.

Hydrogen cells, pahh
Where we"ve going you don't need roads

62 Double Door

W-W wrote: ↑Wed Sep 27, 2017 6:03 pm Hydrogen cells, pahh
Where we"ve going you don't need roads

62 Double Door

I always wondered - is a 'Jiggawat' an imperial unit of measure?

https://youtu.be/mjCRUvX2D0E

Interesting article in The Telegraph;

"Shell plans UK's first 'no-petrol' station as journey towards clean motoring continues"

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/201 ... -motoring/

Who.Me? wrote: ↑Wed Sep 27, 2017 4:50 pmI'm hanging out for hydrogen fuel cells.

I really like hydrogen and have seriously considered it for energy storage on my bus. Today it faces three challenges, hardware cost is approximately four times battery cost, hydrogen is twice as expensive as electricity, and almost no refuelling infrastructure exists

I do see hydrogen being used on large machinery such as ships, trains, diggers, etc., but suspect the tide has already turned in favour of battery storage for cars and bikes... that said, predicting the future is tough, ask Kodak

Kevin Sharpe wrote: ↑Thu Sep 28, 2017 8:41 am I do see hydrogen being used on large machinery such as ships, trains, diggers, etc., but suspect the tide has already turned in favour of battery storage for cars and bikes... that said, predicting the future is tough, ask Kodak

Unless they can crack recharging times without negatively impacting lifespan, range will always be a problem for batteries. That's where fuel cells offer hope.

I've heard suggestions that battery cars could have exchangeable battery packs. Drive up to a service station and just swap your discharged pack for a charged one. I can't see that working though. If you imagine how many battery swaps a service station would need to do each day, they'd need to be huge to store all the batteries.

Toyota (or Honda?) invested heavily in fuel cells, but their customers want a solution now, so they've switched to a battery strategy, which seems short sighted. Taking a long term view; unless the charging issue is resolved, I see batteries as an intermediate step to tide the car industry over until they can get a practical fuel cell solution. Either that, or we're going to be stuck with range-extending fossil fuel/electric hybrids.

Or get the train