1987 Mercedes 300 SDL Electric Conversion?

by Alex
(United States)

I have a 1987 Mercedes 300 SDL with a bad automatic transmission, it has around 280k miles on it, and I was thinking about turning it into an EV. I know that this is a big heavy car but a great deal of weight can be removed. My main concerns are the faulty automatic transmission and the weight of the vehicle. Is this car even worth converting into an EV, and if so what would be a solution for the faulty automatic transmission?

Hi -
I like the 450 in the video better for a conversion. With your 300 SDL, the curb weight is approaching 3700 pounds. Yikes! Just how much of that weight can be removed, and at what cost?

You can take the transmission out. Use a little bigger motor and direct drive - the TransWarP motors from Netgain are designed for this.

But is it worth converting to electric? I guess that's your call. It's got a whole lotta miles on it.

My answer is, in a nutshell, is "Not unless you love it." And personally, I wouldn't.

Regards,
Lynne