Electric cars and the 240 future avlues.
 

I have been cogitating a little today. Sorry for that.

240 values are gradually increasing. But. Hybrid and electric cars will become far more common. Petrol will become harder to find to buy. This will creep up upon us .... what value will a 240 have then?

I reckon a sound 240 is a good car now. One should not hope for it to remain a viable ownership long term. Only a few will make it in to the future. I am not aiming that far ahead for mine. But it might do OK because the "winners" will have cars with sound bodywork, and a known trouble free history mechanically.

The forum becomes a double edged sword? Some owners have posted their car's intractable problems .... for all to see.

I meander....as per usual



Stephen

Stephen:~

Stop meandering! Just get one and enjoy the difference today.
Bob.

Wot's that Bob? You want me to drive along a Roman or USA straight road in an electric car? :)



My point is there for anyone who wants to think about how 240 values might really rise or fall in future.

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I remember from some years back somebody made an electric conversion for a 240, I wonder if the thread is still accessible. I also read somewhere that Aston Martin have produced an electric conversion for their classic models. It probably costs a small fortune but the technology must be available surely, and could be used to convert any vehicle, rather than scrapping all IC engine vehicles and replacing with new electric ones.

I think in 15-20 years time, when there is a 'tipping point' towards electric vehicles, and it's started to get hard to find a service station which does unleaded... by then, there'll be a whole industry in 'crate' electric motors, and batteries. There'll be breakers yards with piles of half-knackered batteries and motors.

By then, it will be apparent what the conversion options are for retrofitting RWD cars. All the classic car communities will be dealing with the same thing. This will become a significant part of the vehicle industry - retrofitting electric engines to IC vehicles. It seems to have started already with air-cooled rear-engine VWs and others, and exactly the same technology will be applied to other makes and models.

I'm sure for cars like RWD Volvos, there'll always be a high value attached to original, unmolested examples - but then there'll also be these 'recommissioned' electric versions which look the same but are mechanically unrecognisable - and will be worth a fair bit as well. Unfortunately those will be the ones to have if you still want a 240 as a daily driver by then.

Is this how others see the situation?

John

Greg Sievert converted a 240 several years ago:

http://volvovic.org.au/blog/2016/06/...-greg-sievert/

http://www.evalbum.com/2356

One or two points struck me:

First one is the batteries take up a great deal of space - I hadn't fully appreciated that. Taking out the back seat is a lot - I'm not sure there's much point in a 2-seater Volvo estate :)

No motor to run the power steering

No hot water for a heater

No vacuum for the brake servo

There's a Youtube article on a classic short wheelbase Landrover conversion, and the electric motor was so small they fitted all the batteries where the old engine had been.
Acceleration was incredible - far too quick for safe ordinary use, and much faster than ordinary IC cars. He usually left it in top gear. I can't remember what its range was, but I think it was greater than the 40 miles of the Volvo conversion.

Just a thought that if you went for direct drive and no gearbox you could fit the motor under the floor near the back axle and free up the whole engine/gearbox space for batteries. (Or turn the axle back to front and use the space under the boot floor)

It's a fascinating subject anyway, and I'm sure there will be design improvements over the next 10 years. Or else electric cars will be superceded by something else anyway. :)

It looks like Greg Sievert started his project in 2009. There have been changes in cost and technology since then.

Here's a low cost, short range conversion:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcRGqd8VSms

This one has batteries in the engine bay and rear. Not much information on the conversion -- a lot of the video is about how sexy the car is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlDXqgaJ5lQ

This dutch 240 conversion already dates back couple of years. That one runs around 150km. I Will be looking into something similar somewhere in near future. By than it Will all be more practical with more parts from scrappy and more efficiënt battery pack....

I've done quite some digging about this whole conversion thing.

The 240 shown here is quite an old conversion, with older tech.

You could cram quite some batteries in a 240 !

Putting batteries where the fuel tank is, under the hood also and you could sure put smaller packs in the spare wheel well.

You could get a solid 350km of range out of one of these, but boi the price.

For now its not worth it. But i'd love to see a 240 with more "modern" electric powertrain. No electronics tho, just a nice Tesla motor and battery.