The Non-Replacement for Displacement

Tesla thinks it has the replacement for displacement for the V8 engine in your classic car, truck or project car. It is a “turnkey” (if electric cars had keys) electric motor that supposedly bolts directly in place of a factory V8 engine and transmission, tying into the existing driveshaft and rear axle.

It even has the general shape of a V8/transmission combo.

What it doesn’t have explained in auto press coverage (including even Motor Trend) is a battery pack to run the thing. It’s like a crate V8 without pistons only worse because it is easy to install a set of pistons in a V8.

It is not easy to install a battery pack in a vehicle that was never designed to house one.

Electric cars that aren’t converted cars are designed from the floorpans up around their battery packs, out of necessity, because of their size. The pack is spread out over the length and width of the vehicle’s floorpans, so as to leave room in the car for passengers and cargo. Electric car conversions have to find room for the batteries, which generally have to go in the trunk or where the back seats used to be or maybe in the bed, if it’s a truck conversion.

This eats up a lot of room for the passengers and cargo. If it’s a truck, with a battery in the bed, you’d better not load the bed without first having reinforced what’s under it as putting or dropping heavy objects onto an EV battery pack risks damaging it and that risks a fire.

The risk will increase, regardless, in a vehicle never designed to safely house an EV battery pack. Wherever you manage to fit the battery pack, it will be vulnerable to damage in the event of a crash and thus, to a fire unless the whole car/truck is re-engineered to safely house the battery pack.

This will add more weight to the 1,000-plus pounds of battery pack necessary to power an electric V8.

That Motor Trend could overlook all of this is mute testimony to the sorry state of automotive journalism especially. Much attention is given to how much power (550 hp) the non-replacement for displacement generates. But how will it generate any power without any power?

An electric motor is a kind of translator of power–converting electricity into propulsion via its motor. The same is true, of course, for a gasoline-burning V8, which converts gasoline into propulsive force, via combustion.

The difference is that 20 gallons of gas stores far more propulsive power and doesn’t take up nearly as much room (or add nearly as much weight) as 1,000 pounds of electric batteries.

To refine it a little further: A gallon of gasoline weighs about six pounds, so 20 gallons weigh about 120 pounds. Assuming 25 miles per gallon (most modern V8s are capable of this) we have a range of about 500 miles–about 200 miles farther than the longest-range factory-built EVs can travel on a single charge at about 15 percent the weight penalty.

Without the wait.

How far will your electrified classic car or truck go on no batteries? Where will the batteries go? In the bed? In the back seat? How will this affect the balance (and handling) of the result, assuming you don’t mind having a backseat or bed full of batteries? If the resultant conversion weighs 1,000 pounds more than it weighed when it had a V8, the brakes will need to be upgraded, unless you don’t mind not being able to stop.

How about the vitally important cooling system needed to prevent an electric battery pack from “bricking” in the cold (and being capable of receiving a charge, in the cold) and to prevent it from overheating and catching fire when it’s hot?

How about the electronics necessary to supervise the delicate process of recharging, without which an EV cannot be “fast” charged or rather, without which an EV is very dangerous to “fast” charge?

Motor Trend is silent.

Well, not exactly silent. The writer exults in the “wonderful creation” that is “gunning” to replace displacement.

Well, let’s see.

A crate V8 weighs about half what an electric battery pack weighs. Most modern V8s are made of lightweight aluminum. It has its power infrastructure (gas tank lines, etc.) already installed and is ready to go. It is, to borrow a term, “plug and play.”

The non-replacement for displacement just makes you pay.

Motor Trend lists the price for the aptly-named Revolt(ing) motor: $11,900 sans the 1,000-plus pounds of batteries plus the cooling system it will need and the electronics needed to run the works assuming you can find a place to put those 1,000-plus pounds of batteries.

This is like buying a house without plumbing or wired for electricity–with the foundation already poured and the walls already dry-walled.

Have fun with the conversion.

So how much more will you pay to “electrify” of your previously V8-powered classic car, truck, or project car? Figure at least another $5-$8K for the battery pack, which will then have to be Frankenstein’d into the chassis somehow, somewhere plus the same for the cooling system for the battery pack plus the necessary electronics and then paying someone to hook it all up and sort it all out, which is likely beyond the capabilities and tool-kit of the typical do-it-yourselfer and you’re probably looking at $25k, all in.

Meanwhile, you could have purchased a literally “bolt in” crate V8 from any of several suppliers (such as Summit Racing or JEGS) for $4,500-$5,500. These are “turnkey” engines, ready to run. There is no need to spend more to get them running unless your vehicle needs a new gas tank and lines, cooling system and so on.

And there’s no need to fill your back seats or bed with batteries, either.

Eric Peters lives in Virginia and enjoys driving cars and motorcycles. In the past, Eric worked as a car journalist for many prominent mainstream media outlets. Currently, he focuses his time writing auto history books, reviewing cars, and blogging about cars+ for his website EricPetersAutos.com.

Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.

Not an NMA Member yet?

Join today and get these great benefits!

Leave a Comment