When I bought the Syncro in 2020 my plan was to enjoy it for 5 years, and then replace the petrol engine with an electric one. The likelihood of success in converting an EV is really low even when you are in a country with a lot of EV support. Attempting it in a country with virtually no EVs will be even harder. Because of this, I decided to take the ‘slow but persistent’ approach, to expect many setbacks, and to solve them one by one. Tortoise wins the race.

I am hoping that this post will serve as a bit of a record of what I needed to do to get this done. Perhaps it’ll be broken up into separate posts if it gets too unwieldy.

This post isn’t static. I will append information to it as the project evolves.

Background

Ok, so I discovered pretty early on that there are three main sources of EV conversion parts.

1. Components designed for conversions (WarP, Hyper9, Zonic). These tend to come with good support, be lower voltage, and cost between $5000 and $12000 for the motor, inverter and controller.
2. Salvaged OEM components, packages by EV resellers as turnkey kits. Somewhat good support, high voltage, cost between $5000 and $12000 for motor, inverter and controller.
3. Salvaged OEM components, picked from a junk yard, wired together by yourself using open hardware. Zero support (but strong communities), cost between $150 and $3000 for motor, inverter and controller.

The few EV conversions I’ve seen in SA use (1). Sourcing and shipping any of (1-3) to South Africa are a nightmare, and shipping costs are around $1000-2500 depending on the source country. To keep my costs low I opted for (3), and tried to buy as much as possible in one go.

First purchase

I only planned to buy my components in 2024, but in early 2023 a really great deal came up on the Openinverter classifieds, and I jumped at it. What was attractive about it was that it was all the componentry from a virtually complete build, from a reputable converter, for a good price. This meant that I would be able to rely on the seller to include all the ’little bits’ that you need but nobody mentions. High voltage cabling, shielding, housings etc. I’m writing this in early Sept 2023, and expect the good landed in mid Oct 2023. I opted for sea freight as it took longer, but was waaay cheaper (about 1/2 price of air freight).

All told, my components come to 280kg boxed. Note - the box needed to come with fumigation certificate otherwise it would not be allowed into SA.

Here is my component list:

• 3 x 3kw Eltec Volvo AC-DC High Voltage chargers
• 1 x Tesla DC-DC voltage converter
• 2 x 70kw Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV Rear Drive Units with diffs
• 2 x Outlander Rear Drive Unit Inverters
• 4 x Outlander drive shafts
• 1 x Programmable CANbus display - CanChecked MFD28
• 1 x Zombieinverter Electronic Control Unit
• 1 x Outlander DC water heater
• 1 x Outlander DC air conditoner compressor
• 50mm2 orange silicone cable, high quality and very flexible, 10 Meters, 4 meters, 2 meters, 3 meters
• 1 x Contactor Box with Precharge circuit
• 1 x Safety Plug

In retrospect, I could probably have dispensed with 2 of the 3 Eltek chargers, and the CanBUS display. Just those components came to about 40% of my purchase cost.

An alternative

An alternative to my approach would be to import an actual running EV from Japan or the UK to a neighbouring country (Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho or Swaziland), strip it, and drive the components across the border. That would mean to get everything in one go, but would cost quite a lot - maybe $10000 for a runner. If you do this, it looks to me like 2015-2019 Nissan Leafs have the most support in terms of third party controller suppliers.

Stuff I still need

That said, the above list appears to be everything I need for a conversion, except for the following:

1. Battery with BMS
2. Pedal
3. Car mounts fabrication
4. Power steering pump
5. Brake vacuum pump

The pedal should be easy - I can use a Prius one from a junk yard. Power steering pump - use a Volvo one, also easily available. Brake vacuum pump - these are easy as well, I can get an VAG one. I guess if I’m feeling fancy I could look for an iBooster.

Car mount fabrication is hard, but I need to find someone local to do this anyway. I think I’ll end up using a direct transmission mount from Brat Industries.

Batteries are really tricky. They are very hard to ship. Basically my options are:

1. Buy from batteryhookup.com and eat crazy high shipping costs (about $2500 in mid 2023)
2. Buy from Alibaba, and pay for shipped to JHB and then fetch and drive to CPT.
3. Make a pack out of salvaged LifePO4 solar cells
4. Use a small hybrid pack and use the second Outlander motor as a generator, a bit like the Nissan ePower drive train.

If I had the skill, I think I’d prefer (4) because it would suit the rugged nature of the vehicle, and it would be cheaper. But I don’t think I can pull it off. I can’t really decide on which route to take yet because I need to have a greater handle on what i will use hte car for, and how I will address range issues on long trips.

Shipping lessons

I haven’t received my goods yet. I found that air freight was about EUR1500 from Germany to SA for a 200kg box, and sea freight was about EUR1000. I needed to find someone who would also do the customs clearing as well. That means they need an importers code. I also needed to apply for a permit from ITAC to allow me to import the goods, as they are used components. Apparently this has been much easier because none of my components have plugs on them.