It's not really a new problem. It's always been hard to find someone interested in buying a conversion, except, perhaps, from with your local EV interest group.

One of the members of our local EAA chapter converted a 1998 Ford Ranger in 2007. 120 volt, 24 6-volt lead-acid batteries, Russco Charger, DCP Raptor controller and 9" motor. He spent about $15,000 including the truck and used it to commute 22 miles to work. In the winter, though, his range was insufficient so he had to drive his ICE car. He replaced the pack in 2012 for another $2500 or so. When the Leaf came out he bought one and it served all his commuting needs to he put the truck up for sale for $12000. 18 months later I bought it for $6000.

I have no interest in lead-acid weight, I drove it for a few months then took it apart to put lithium in. While I thought it would be easy--take out one set of batteries and put in another--in the end I ended up replacing everything except the motor, controller and vacuum pump and added a lot of things to make it much less of a science experiment. I've invested about $10,000 above the purchase price.

Would anyone here give me $16,000 for it? Even $10,000? Sadly, I doubt it. And while it's a very nice near-factory-quality EV now, it's still 17 years old. Last week I had a brake line fail and when I pulled the rear drums off I found one full of oil from a leaking axle seal. $1300 later I have brand new brakes and lines on the whole rear of the truck. But who knows what's next.

--Rick

On 06/14/2015 08:42 PM, Lawrence Rhodes via EV wrote:


This is the state of used home built EVs.  No interest.  The parts in
this vehicle are worth 10 k.  What a shame.  With the right pack this
vehicle out range and perform any factory EV.  It will also be better
when the factory EV is broken as it will be fixable by the owner or
any ev converter.  The factory ev will cost big bucks to fix.  When
people realize this conversations will rise in value.  Lawrence
Rhodes
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