Why not develop an axel with an integrated motor? It’d be easily scaled to any vehicle with a solid rear axle. Fill the engine bay with batteries… It seems like an easy approach to get a widely applicable EV conversion kit. Offer a few widths and diameter axles… Is it bad to have the motor in an unsprung position?I see hub motors, so I think not. I guess air conditioning would be another thing.
That’s what the Mitsubishi Outlander basically is.
The thing is, electric motors just don’t wear out. Not like engines. So, the best source for motors isn’t to go buy a new one. It’s to just buy up one that lasted longer than its donor vehicle.
You can pick up a Prius transaxle for like, $150 picked and palleted from a wrecker. You can barely buy a fuckin’ oil change for that price these days.
Likewise with the Outlander, a few hundred, maybe a thousand bucks for the whole assembly.