Washington: A Southern California man is turning old Beetles into clean-running all-electric plug-in cars and is giving an electronic makeover to classic VW beetle.
David Bernardo, who has given himself the official title of RetroFuturist and Director of Research and Development at Zelectric Motors, starts working on Volkswagen (VLKAF) Bugs from between 1958 and 1966 and pulls the noisy air-cooled gasoline engines from the back replacing them with electric motors, CNN reported.
He bolts a battery pack under the hood, while another set of batteries is attached behind the back seats, adding 350 pounds, but maintaining the original car`s balance.
Bernardo has also retained is the original four-speed manual transmission and the electric conversion makes the lightweight Beetle a surprisingly fun, quick little car to drive, making it feel more stable on the road, while the electric motor is both much quieter (of course) and stronger than the original engine.
He said that one of the biggest benefits of the electric conversion, he said, is that it makes the car easier to own. Besides being quiet and odorless, electric motors require almost no maintenance compared to a gasoline engine.
The car has a 90 to 110 mile driving range on a charge and a top speed of over 90 miles an hour and a complete car will cost about 45000 dollars.
