Rover 200 & 400 Owners Club

Guys - I have a 2004 25 which I want to convert to EV. Has anyone done this before or can offer advice/Info

I have converted a mountain bike.

Same principle

Done about 7000 miles so far in the past 5 years

Good luck

Batteries, motor, patience

TimB53 wrote: ↑Sun Jun 12, 2022 9:01 am Guys - I have a 2004 25 which I want to convert to EV. Has anyone done this before or can offer advice/Info

I think the only real question is how deep are your pockets? The job its self is not that hard but the price of the parts is pretty prohibitive in relation to a 25 with the motors being £10k+

TimB53 wrote: ↑Sun Jun 12, 2022 9:01 am Guys - I have a 2004 25 which I want to convert to EV. Has anyone done this before or can offer advice/Info

If you look on YouTube, there is a series called "Workshop Diaries" done by Edd China (he of Wheeler Dealers fame, before the knobhead Anstead came along). Part of the series involved Edd converting a Mercedes Sprinter Van from diesel to EV so he could attempt a Guinness World Record for the "Fastest Electric Icecream Van"
Although the 2 vehicles are NOT the same (obviously), he went through a lot of the issues and prices involved with converting an existing ICE engine to EV. The conversion is basically a wiring job (with the proviso you are working with high current, so it needs to have good connections and be well insulated), but you need really deep pockets, as RoverRevival said. It's not just the motors, you need controllers, the battery pack itself, a method of cooling the controllers down as they get exceptionally hot (think of a PC and the fans for the CPU, etc) and a method of connecting the motors to the existing drivetrain. It's part of the reason a modern EV costs at least twice the price of the exact same model fitted with an ICE.

Lpg it. Will be far cheaper, far quicker, and also won't limit range, and lpg vat prices in UK are frozen until 2029. I'm about to do my new van for that reason.

TimB53 wrote: ↑Sun Jun 12, 2022 9:01 am Guys - I have a 2004 25 which I want to convert to EV. Has anyone done this before or can offer advice/Info

Consider Vintage Voltage on the Quest TV channel (Freeview). The website: https://www.vintagevoltage.tv

The TV series is actually a fly-on-the-wall series made at Electric Classic Cars in Powys in Wales. Website with contact details: https://www.electricclassiccars.co.uk/

No idea of the prices they charge, but they've converted a huge range of different vehicles from very old (much older than the R3) to new. They'd definitely be able to do the job and get a good result, nicely integrated into the car so it looks factory-fitted.

did anything come from this pipe dream? i think id probably try find a honda insight thats getting scrapped and try to use the whole running gear hybrid system in the rover body,not a true e/v but the conversion cost is extreme this would seem a more viable option

I would research the price of replacement batteries first.