We sat down with one of our Lead VW Mechanics, Ben, to chat electric vehicle conversions. Ben has been a key part of the Peace Vans family since 2014. Before joining us at Peace Vans, he got his hands greasy at a shop working on vintage Volkswagens and Porsches. He brings years of experience, great knowledge and expertise, and a whole lot of heart to each and every project here at the shop. We couldn’t do what we do without him! 

What inspired you to become a mechanic? 

Ever since I was a kid I liked cars, it was sort of a personality trait. I just flowed into that for my work. I’ve always been really good at making stuff work with my hands, so it felt natural.  

How long have you been doing this work?

I’ve been a professional mechanic since 2005. Before that, I tinkered on my own stuff. I used to fix motorcycles for my uncle when I was 12 or 13. He’d give me three motorcycles worth of parts, then I’d build them and he would let me keep one—it was a pretty sweet deal. I always had some beater motorcycle as a kid, but I had pride and ownership over it because it was something I built myself. 

Let’s talk electric vehicle conversions! If I’m interested in getting started converting my camper van with Peace Vans, what first steps do I need to take?

The first questions I ask are: what do you want to use it for? Is it for short road trips? Tooling around town? It depends on what the expectation is. Then we can guide you from there. 

What’s the electric vehicle conversion process like? 

We purchase electric vehicle conversion kits from EV West. The kit consists of a forklift loader that bolts to the stock Volkswagen transmission, a plate that adapts it, and a flywheel that properly mates it for hook up. Then there’s a controller that feeds the power from the batteries into the motor. There’s also a read out that goes on the dash and you can change the parameters of the controller. We use a gas pedal from a Prius for acceleration—you essentially can use a gas pedal from any car that drives by a wire.

Then there’s the componentry. On our first conversion, I made a cooling system to cool the batteries and the controller, and installed a small vacuum pump that makes the power brakes work. The componentry also consists of some relays, fuses and the wiring. A battery charger is on board so when the vehicle is plugged in, everything charges properly. Finally, there’s a charger that goes between high voltage from the electric car battery and steps it down to 12 volts so you can run your lights and windshield wipers properly. 

And we keep the original transmission?   

Yes, for now. It’s simpler to install the electric motor that way as opposed to trying to adapt, say, the Tesla motor that comes with its own transmission attached to it. It’s much simpler for us at this time to just hook a motor to the stock transmission and leave all that componentry the same. That way you’re not making different mounts to try and fit something else into the vehicle.        

We currently only do electric vehicle conversions on air-cooled vehicles. Why is that?

One reason is the 60s and 70s VW vans are much lighter than the 80s Vanagons, so it’s more efficient. Less batteries and less power are required to make it go. 

We use the Tesla Model S batteries. What do you love about these batteries?

Right now, they’re industry-leading and the most efficient batteries on the market. For the amount of money you pay for them, you get the most power. They’re a long, flat piece, so we’re getting creative as to how we fit them in the camper vans. We used 10 Tesla Model S batteries for our electric conversion on Frida, one of our rental vehicles. I believe most of the Tesla cars have 15-16 Model S batteries in them, but 10 works great for the air-cooled vans.

How long on average does the converted camper van go before needing a recharge? 

We were hoping to get 100 miles on the last set we did, but we’re around 80 right now. You can easily charge these at your home with a 110 wall outlet. The 110 charger takes a bit to charge if the vehicle is fully flat, but it’s totally doable. It does also have a standardized plug where the gas fill was, so it will fit into a charge station no problem. The van only charges at 30 amps so if it’s hooked up to a charge station, it can take a little bit of time to reach full.

Why convert your vehicle to electric? What are the benefits of doing something like this?

It’s much simpler than the gas motor. There’s less moving parts once it’s all set up, so that means less maintenance—no oil changes, sparks plugs, air filters or any of that. The only thing that moves is the rotor and the motor. There’s not much of anything really! It’s just a matter of keeping the vehicle charged. You never have to buy gas again, so there’s major cost savings there. I’d say the power is the same as the stock gas motor, so you really don’t lose any performance. And it’s better for the environment with the low emissions—that’s a pretty good reason to do it overall! 

Is there any concern about not having enough power to drive on mountain roads?

We haven’t noticed that degrading with our conversions—it’s about the same as the gas motors. As technology evolves, I’m sure more power will come.  

Converting a camper van to electric, is it less or more complicated than converting a smaller car to electric?

I don’t think there’s a huge difference. A lot of interior space is used up in the camper van, so our biggest challenge with these is where to put the batteries. Really, there’s not a huge difference between converting a camper van and a smaller vehicle to electric. 

What else should folks know about converting their camper van to electric?

The components are north of $20k, so it’s a fairly expensive project. If you want to do short camping trips or tool around town, it definitely makes sense for you. I do think some sort of electric car is the future of transportation, and you’d be getting in at the beginning of that. 

During your time as a mechanic, how have you seen electric vehicle technology evolve?

The very first electric vehicle I saw was probably 10 or 12 years ago—it was a Beetle. The motor wasn’t that much different but the batteries totally were. It had a lot of these lead-acid batteries that basically took up the whole back seat, trunk and passenger seat—crazy! The car probably weighed 1,500 pounds more than it should have—you were just surrounded by batteries and wire, and it only had a 30-40 mile range. 

Battery technology has come a long way with lithium batteries. The power up is probably double or triple and the range is double, so the battery part alone has made it a lot more viable. I think as the batteries develop, the big car manufacturers are really starting to put money into electric technology. As this continues to move forward, it will become not just a novelty—it will be beneficial financially to get rid of gas motors. 

That makes sense. We’re seeing more and more major cities set goals to curb greenhouse gas emissions and tackle climate change. Do you see electric cars as an important part of this? 

I think what’s going to happen is cars moving forward will pretty much be driven by an electric motor—what’s up in the air is how the electricity will get to the motor. Will it be just strictly batteries? Will it be a fuel-cell like a hydrogen type car? Will they be almost like a diesel-electric, where you have a small diesel or gas motor and a generator? I think it will be some version of one of those. What it will be exactly, I'm not totally sure yet. It may be a fuel-cell type vehicle with small batteries, but the electric motor will be the one constant.  

What’s the most fulfilling part of doing these electric conversion projects for you?

You spend the time, you get everything together, and then it works—and it works at least as good as the original van did, if not better. That’s probably the most fulfilling thing. Seeing people’s reaction to it is awesome—when I’ve driven around town and stopped places, people are pretty excited to look at an electric van. 

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