Present EV Motors Founder Rocco Calandruccio grew up surrounded by automobiles; his grandfather opened a Ford dealership after which a Buick dealership and picked up classic and sports activities automobiles all through his life. Calandruccio’s household lived in a rural a part of Tennessee, the place it wasn’t unusual to search out fields filled with “rusting carcasses” of automobiles that had been deserted when the engines or transmissions had failed.
Calandruccio had these rusted-out automobiles on his thoughts when he began his firm. He wasn’t prepared to simply accept that automobiles are disposable entities and set out to determine a technique to give them new lives. Centered on that objective, Calandruccio secured two patents for EV conversion kits. Inside combustion engines are difficult beasts with hundreds of failure factors, he says; he needs to offer a simplified, streamlined path to all-electric driving.
Right here’s Calandruccio’s plan to convey EV conversions mainstream.
Bypassing the transmission
Crate engines have been accessible for many years. These totally assembled inside combustion engines present a cornerstone for automotive restoration initiatives as substitute or energy upgrades. You should buy a fundamental LS9 block with nothing else included, or go for a bundle like Chevrolet’s “join and cruise” setup that additionally incorporates a transmission.
Much less frequent is what Chevrolet calls an “eCrate,” which features a single all-electric motor and a few of the components you’d have to convert a gas-powered GM car to an EV. The equipment features a low stall torque converter, transmission management module equipment, flex plate, and {hardware}. Launched simply this yr, Chevrolet presents the eCrate as a motor “designed to attach on to a GM 4-speed computerized transmission with an exterior mode change.”
One defining facet of the eCrate is the standard one-size-fits-all 66 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack. For scale, Chevy’s Bolt carried a 66-kWh battery for slightly greater than 250 miles of vary. Now think about you personal a fleet firm that solely wants a spread of about 50 miles per day; you’d be carrying a number of surplus battery. That impacts the vary and might price hundreds greater than a smaller, right-sized battery to match the car.
What Present EV is providing is greater than a crate engine, Calandruccio says. His equipment is as a substitute engineered to bypass the transmission to enhance the electrical motor’s efficiency and effectivity. As an alternative of utilizing a transmission to transform power from the engine to show the wheels, the motor is bolted on to the axle.
“We’re targeted on a bolt-on, all-inclusive resolution for electrification,” he explains. “For this resolution to be sustainable, it has to attraction to on a regular basis mechanics and be protected, fast, and efficient.”
Calandruccio’s marquee challenge is a 1978 Ford F-150 he named Gator for its signature inexperienced end. A rolling instance of what will be achieved when a stable mass-produced physique meets an all-electric motor, Gator is one among about 10 million Ford vehicles constructed between 1961 and 1978 on that chassis. That’s a key issue for Present EV, which plans to construct kits in quantity to convey the associated fee down. In consequence, smaller conversion outlets can full initiatives in shorter quantities of time.
“We would like this to be an answer that helps folks within the EV trade see higher margins and switch round extra automobiles of their outlets,” he says.
Faster, simpler conversions
One main problem is that the conversion course of isn’t sometimes a plug-and-play possibility. It’s a fancy course of to take a automotive designed to help an inside combustion engine; pulling the engine shifts the middle of gravity one route and including a battery pack and motor shifts it once more. All the pieces in regards to the drive is successfully completely different, and that’s partially why it’s an costly, custom-made enterprise.
EV West, a customized conversion store in San Diego, California, converts basic and specialty automobiles into EVs. Even with prices topping $40,000 to $60,000 per conversion, CEO Michael Bream told U.S. News and World Report that his store has a 4 to five-year wait listing.
Whereas people could possibly wait it out, some organizations can’t. Working example: the College of the South in Tennessee wished to transform a 12-vehicle fleet of Ford Econoline vans to proceed shuttling college students round campus. The college’s fleet was beginning to age, and it grew to become clear that substitute was vital. Sadly, there was a multi-year look forward to substitute vans, and swapping the outdated items for brand spanking new EVs would price between $80,000 and $120,000 every.
The listed beginning worth for a gas-powered Econoline is about $35,000, or $46,000 for Ford’s E-Transit all-electric van. That’s simply a place to begin, although, as a result of these costs replicate the car as a cutaway. Principally, a cutaway is a cab that seats two with a body and axle behind it that may be fitted with a bus physique and seats or perhaps a field truck. Upfitting an inside can add tens of hundreds of {dollars} to the bill for every car.
As an alternative, the college signed on with Present EV Motors for a value of $35,000 to $50,000 per car. A driving examine uncovered the truth that the vans require minimal vary, Calandruccio says, at lower than 10 miles per day, so the conversion kits would worth out on the decrease finish of that spectrum with smaller battery packs. As one of the important prices for an EV is the battery pack, which means the college might buy what it requires with out overspending.
How that interprets to one-off conversions
The following frontier for Calandruccio’s firm will probably be kits for classic (mannequin years 1964-1977) Bronco SUVs and Scouts. By the way, the basic Scout Motors relaunched itself not way back as an EV firm, and will probably be promoting its personal electrical SUV and truck beginning in 2026. These with an older-model Scout on their fingers may contemplate a retrofit in the event that they don’t need to wait.
In the meantime, Present EV Motors is actively working towards making EV kits simpler and extra accessible to extra drivers whereas refreshing automobiles which may in any other case be put out to pasture. To take action, Calandruccio is working towards scaling manufacturing and on the hunt for funding companions or collaborators to scale operations and purchase in bulk.
Calandruccio’s dream is for any mechanic or fleet upkeep workers to have the ability to swap out any gas-powered car with a bolt-on equipment. That’s the tipping level, he believes, towards larger-scale conversion charges.
