• Fondots@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    A miracle, an engineering degree, and a lot of money?

    I think that depends on what you’re hoping to achieve with the conversion

    Probably true if you’re looking for something that is totally equivalent to a modern car with all the bells and whistles, with hundreds of miles of range, that will keep up with traffic going 70mph down the interstate, etc.

    But if you’re just looking for an around town kind of vehicle to get groceries and such, and are maybe willing to forego some things like power steering and air conditioning, you can potentially do it fairly cheap. A junky car off of craigslist (doesn’t necessarily need to run, after all you’re not gonna need the engine anyway,) an old electric forklift motor, and a few hundred bucks in various electronics, batteries, hardware, etc. and with enough free time, the right tools, and some know-how, you can make it work. I’ve seen people online who have done it for under $2k, often including the donor car.

    An engineering degree would certainly be helpful, but it’s not exactly untrodden ground at this point, if you’re willing to hit the books a bit and figure things out as you go there are a lot of resources out there to help you.