Volkswagen is electrifying classic VW Beetles

Man. I hope this electrofitting catches on. Because a 93 Supra with two big electric motors up front would be something special.

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While it would be a fun ride the classic beetle is a death trap for safety.

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People have been converting classic Beetles to EV for years. Welcome to the club, VW.

From the actual makers. This is not just a concept:
https://www.retrokaefer.de/de/index.php

€39900 will buy a complete undercarriage to build on yourself,
for €49900 you can bring in your Käfer and they’ll mate it with a new undercarriage,
€99000 will get you a complete “new” Käfer Cabrio.

A couple of eKäfer already exist and can be rented, link on the site posted above.

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True - but I made it through driving one years ago - and a squareback. If I win - I could get a historic car tag & take it out for fun from time to time.

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Not with mass-produced motor/battery/drivetrain-combos that are used in other mass-produced cars, which can be serviced at the local dealership.

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Ok - but not actually Volkswagen themselves, then. Fair enough.
Aber meine Deutsch nicht sehr gut ist - so they might sell a few more, especially in the US, if they had a site in English and offered some export/shipping costs. But I’d guess they may be at capacity just fulfilling local orders…

Seamus’ post is a bit vague, he only quoted snips from VW’s press release - which says that VW supplies the components and the conversions are done by Retrokäfer.

Retrokäfer doesn’t seem to have an English website yet, but that shouldn’t take long, I think.

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True, but they probably won’t need servicing for the electric drivetrain.

Huh, it only took about 2 decades of owners doing this themselves for VW to catch on.

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anybody got a price yet?

This is one of those cases where the government could (and should) absolutely allow the classic license with the electric powertrain for the good of the planet.

Frankly, this kind of conversion is going to be necessary, and subsidized, for most ICE-powered cars. Why build all-new electric cars when companies could create drop-in electric powertrains for all currently-running vehicles?

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See @FGD135’s post earlier. Prices in euros and a link to the German site.

Even the 0-80 km/h times? :flushed:

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I’m pretty sure the original VW type one is the most user-modified car of all time: dune buggies, the Baja Bug, fake MG (and other sports car) copies-- they made all sorts of kits for the Bug, plus they were easy to work on and relatively cheap on the used market back in the 70’s.

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May I remind you of one more thing?

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Zoinks! Sounds like winning one in a fundraiser is the only way this makes any sense…

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Come on megamillions!

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I remember rear-engine Volkswagens as being ridiculously loud

No nostalgia for that particular characteristic

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