Electric car kit approved ?. Yes, in Spain and Europe.

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In recent years, electric cars have become more and more common, and the question,often is: which electric car to buy?.

With the new European directives, regulations to reduce CO2 emissions, the inflation of raw materials (copper, aluminum, lithium, etc.) and the problems in the supply chain, it becomes increasingly obvious that the way forward is to retrofit, that is to convert a car into electric.

The most obvious advantage is the price, and that is that converting a small city vehicle with a car conversion kit to electric can have the same or less price than buying an electric car without a license.

And without looking at the price, the fact of giving our planet earth less work and making real use of the circular economy is the most important reason.

By buying an electric car, we will have promoted the manufacture of a car from scratch, with the resulting waste of energy and resources, while converting it with a conversion kit, we will be recycling and reusing a car that would otherwise go to scrap.

Well, we are ready to offer our first “approved car kit in Spain” (and in Europe), in this case for the fabulous classic Mini. And more approved kits will follow the Mini: VW Beetle, Seat 600, Seat Ibiza, Renault Kangoo,…

The kit will be tested, approved and ready for distribution in 2023.

And what does this approved kit consist of?

The kit has a three-phase induction electric motor of 18Kw of sustained power and 35Kw of maximum power. Air-cooled and weighing about 50Kg, it will be capable of developing a maximum torque of 150Nm.

The brain of this kit will be a 108V controller with a sustained output current of about 250A, air-cooled, which makes it easier to maintain, and with a power capacity of up to 55Kw and an energy efficiency of 98%.

The batteries for the prototype will be a 10Kw lithium battery pack with its corresponding charger (the final battery pack is yet to be determined), more than enough for urban use for the Mini.

It also has a 12V dc-dc converter so that the auxiliary battery continues to power the car lights.

Also, the kit will have all the other extras such as signal wiring, high-voltage cable (so that the conversion is very simple without the need to add anything else) and a console with all the information on the Mini (led aesthetics or Mini aesthetics)

The entire drive assembly is installed on the Mini’s sub-frame, so mechanical installation is a simple step from replacing the old sub-frame with the new one from the kit. Something that the car workshops will appreciate because of how easy and fast this operation is.

How will the kit approval process be?

Well, as simple as there is nothing to do. The kit will be distributed with the approved conformity reports (including the batteries approved with the R100V2), which will suffice with the workshop certificate that assembles it to go to the Technical inspection service (MOT in the UK) and update the Mini’s technical sheet.

The Mini will be a similar vehicle, weighing exactly the same (about 650 kg), with its four seats and running on electricity, it will be possible to obtain the ZERO label without any difficulty. Of course, a silent, more fluid drive, with regenerative braking and ready to continue being driven for many more years.

The electric classic Mini is in labor.

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It would be misleading if we say that this delivery has come easy, but we hope that it comes with a bread under our arms ( as we say in Spain) for the planet and especially for our cities. The new classic Mini is about to be born.

At the beginning of the pregnancy, the complications came with the aproval, where the labs insisted for each test of our prototype (in this case with the Renault Twingo) that we rest a lot, that we had to have patience, that we had to rest and let time pass. Then, after a lot of effort and expense, we managed to pass the aproval.

Then came the ITV (MOT in the UK), which had never seen a delivery like this, and they began to panic about the unknown, so not to assist us in the delivery, they used excuses such as, the documentation is not printed in the colour of ink that we are used to, and similar… but after much more effort, we managed to reach an agreement and use the ink and the type of paper that was required (They would not understand this sarcasm either).

Later, more complications came in the following weeks of pregnancy with the batteries, where the European Union long ago released a new R100 regulation, to warn us that batteries could no longer be installed without new R100 approval in electric vehicles throughout Europe. And all the manufacturers in the EU, queuing to approve their batteries, so once again we needed to be patient, they can’t serve everyone. The collapsed primary health of unapproved batteries. But we finally got approved batteries.

Well, the delivery is about to arrive, and with everything we need, we are ready to give birth to a beautiful classic Mini powered by an electric motor.

As we have been doing in recent times, we continue to group ourselves by car models that we want to convert to electric. The Mini is the largest group, with 112 interested at the time of publishing this article. So we begin.

We are in the design phase, so the requirments are still up for grabs, but it will surely have a 90V system, with an electric motor of around 25Kw, a battery pack of around 20Kw and with all the essence of the Mini, ready to go with a zero emissions sticker.

Technicall aspects will still change, but in general it will be like described.

And when will it cost? Well, let’s hope it’s the most affordable for lovers of the classic Mini, and let’s also hope that by the time the kit is approved and available, the government has taken out more aid for the conversion of vehicles to electric than what has already been published. Let’s see if it is possible for them to help with €7,000, just as they do with new electric vehicles, with the difference that our converted and recycled vehicles have used much less energy to give birth.

And when will it be ready? Well, we estimated a quick delivery but with great pain. Between 3 and 6 months for the prototype to be designed and working, plus another 3 to 6 months to aprove the kit. With what, we hope that within no more than a year the kits will be available to enjoy, or throughout Spain or throughout Europe.