Rich Benoits – from Rich Rebuilds – had long wanted to try to build a pure electric vehicle out of a regular car for less than five thousand bucks. He finally did it a few days ago – and ended up spending even less!
A Mini Cooper volunteered itself for donorship here. The man removed the rear seat row and put a Chevrolet Volt traction battery in their place. To be more precise, the project had envisioned the use of two such batteries simultaneously for more electric current, but the stock transmission proved to struggle under the load.
Later on, Rich worked out a solution similar to that used in regular diesel cars, tweaking the gearbox to allow launching from second or even third gear. Once this was done, he ended up with a perfectly drivable and dynamic Cooper. And the best part is, he invested less than $3,000 USD into it!
Watch the video for a more in-depth look at the project, along with some interesting and insightful observations.