Electric Car Conversion Kit
(for beginners)

chevy s-10

Looking for an electric car conversion kit? Yeah, you can build your own electric car, if you can manage to change your own oil and wiper blades. It takes a little know-how, but it's not rocket science. Here are the steps:

If you're new to conversions, you may ask, "Well, what's in an electric car conversion kit?" The answer is, "that depends on where you get it".

The simplest kits have only a motor and a compatible controller, so they might seem to cost less. You'll need a few more items before you're ready to drive your conversion down the road, items you may or may not have laying around the garage already.

One very good place to get a kit, if you're a beginner: Canadian Electric Vehicles.  Why?

  • Because they have kits specific for several cars, and you can get an electric car conversion kit that is essentially plug and play;
  • Canadian Electric Vehicles also has all the accessory parts you might need to get your electric car on the road, like power steering and power brake kits;
  • Best of all, because they also have a conversion shop and years of conversion experience (plus a huge inventory of EV parts), you get all the tech support you'll need after you buy your EV conversion kit, and they've got next-day shipping.

Beginners, start your engines...uh, motors.

If you've never converted a gas-gulper to electric before, you'll probably want to use a donor car that's got a kit already specifically made for it. Canadian Electric Vehicles has kits for:

neon conversion kit
  • The Chevy S-10/S-15/Sonoma;
  • Ford Ranger;
  • VW Beetle;
  • Geo;
  • Neon; and
  • Scion.

All these kits come with very detailed, very complete instruction manuals so that it will be fairly straightforward and easy to do, even for a beginner.

CanEV Electric Car Conversion Kits on TV

What About Universal Electric Car Conversion Kits?

universal electric car conversion kit

Canadian Electric Vehicles has universal kits, too, that can be customized to fit ANY car, but Randy doesn't recommend:

  • Heavy vehicles. Like that giant Hummer or full-size pickup that costs 150 bucks to fill the gas tank now, for example.
  • Automatic transmissions. Because they're range-wasters, and you won't have to shift (much) anyway.
  • A 4x4. Because of the added weight and drag of the 4x4 system.

They will also provide pre-wired control boxes for a plug and drive system for an additional $1,200US.



So should you get an AC or DC conversion kit?

electric car conversion kit geo

Answer: it doesn't matter anymore, really. You can get either one, and they're both equally good in a car, both simple to use and install. The AC electric car conversion kit costs about a thousand dollars more than the DC, so not a lot of difference there. I still like AC better, but they both have their virtues.

Canadian Electric Vehicles has both AC and DC conversion kits available in stock.

And no, Canadian Electric Vehicles isn't paying me for an endorsement. I've just come to respect the work they do and the service they provide for the EV community!

For more EV conversion information to help you with your project, you may want to visit CanEV's Electric Car Conversion parts page here, or read CanEV's extensive conversion FAQ pages from their 20 years of conversion experience.


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