Guilt-free, silent sand driving in a Baja Bug is made possible with one of Australia’s finest EV conversions.
When a lifted, bull-barred VW Beetle with underbody bash plates and mud terrain tyres starts barrelling towards you, you always – always – expect it to be accompanied by the metallic, rattly beat of an air-cooled four-cylinder.
Yet this fascinating Baja Bug approaches me in utter silence. I eventually detect some feint whirring, which turns into cosmic zooming as it launches past at serious pace.
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From a distance you’d naturally expect this mad Volkswagen was going to be a fuel-sucking carbon-emitting funster. But get closer and the truth emerges. The old flat-four’s long gone, replaced by a single electric motor and Tesla battery pack to create one of Australia’s finest electromods.
The electromod movement has snowballed in recent years, with numerous businesses and backyard mechanics converting classic cars to run only on electrons. It’s a polarising game. Some insist classic cars should retain their original heart, but others point out the benefits – environmental and reliability-wise – of utilising the latest EV technology.
Electric boogaloo
Working mechanics have little choice but to accept that electrification – hybrid and full electric – is part and parcel of most new cars today. If you’re new to the trade or mid-career, there’s little choice to upskill or be damned.
Being able to work with high voltage and understand the nuances of electric drivetrains appears unavoidable. Tragically, we may need to say a prayer for the Ferrari V12, Mercedes-AMG V8, BMW straight-six and even a VW’s classic air-cooled four-pot.
Best bet’s to embrace it, as Brisbane-based David Elliott’s done in creating his electric VW Baja. Here’s a man renowned for meticulous attention-to-detail, as is required to succeed in his 40-year career as a marine trimmer. His work’s won numerous national and international awards, and states his goal “is always perfection.” Peer over this Baja Bug and you soon believe it.
His apprenticeship was in Coach and Motor Body Trimming, and he soon found customers from Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar and BMW car clubs. As you’d imagine, such owners are a particular lot. David was running the workshop in his final year, and started his own business a week before graduation.
This was the early 1980s, and cheap Beetles were ideal test beds, especially for David’s family’s holiday home on Moreton Island – the world’s third largest sand island a short ferry ride off Brisbane’s coast.
“You could buy them (VWs) for $60-100 out of Saturday’s paper back then,” he said. “I’d just buy one, get a gas axe, cut the guards and bonnet off and take it over to Moreton. When they rusted out with no floor left, we’d drive them to the tip, park up with keys left inside, then buy another one and do the same. They’re just so easy to work on and not rough to ride in.”
You sense younger David and his fellow islanders had a pretty wild time modifying and enjoying these throwaway VWs in their sandy element back in those carefree days. But he was also learning.
German electric
David was a founding member of the VW Drivers Club of Queensland, and has built numerous high standard custom specials, including street and beach-bound Volkswagens. He and his wife currently keep two Baja Beetles at their home on the southern end of Moreton Island.
A negative is having to boat over drums of fuel to feed these old air-cooled Bajas, so an electrified version tickled David’s creative fancy. “I started this thought process as our house batteries are fully charged by eight in the morning, and that’s running full solar on the house,” he explained. “So why not build a Baja I can plug in?
“Most of the time we’re travelling within 10 kilometres, and more than likely just two kilometres. We head out, have a bit of a fish, then plugging it in it’ll only take an hour to charge.”
The EV Baja’s soon setting sail for island duties, but I first sampled it at David’s Brisbane home workshop, where he’s basically crafted it single-handedly. Under the custom tray back (there for the fishing catch and garden mulch) is a 170hp (127kW)/230Nm NetGain HyPer 9HV electric motor driving the rear wheels. It’s been sourced from Queensland EV converter Traction EV, which provided parts, advice and final motor programming.
Baja blast
The floor pan’s a 1971 VW Beetle, and the project started with extending the suspension arms to give longer travel. The front features VW’s Country Buggy spindles, which are a 75mm raise, giving much better articulation with the height.
There are adjustable torsion bars front and rear, and current ground clearance is a soft sand-friendly 300mm, helped by monstrous 305/70×16 Kumho Road Venture off-road rubber.
Any electromod presents the challenge of getting hold of batteries, and where to place them. You’re ditching the weight of a combustion engine and its oily bit accoutrements, but lithium-ion batteries have serious mass. Ideally, they’re placed low down and evenly spread for best weight distribution.
David bought a wrecked Tesla Model X at auction, and despite being told he’d need a four-post lift and a scissor lift to get underneath and pull out the batteries, he worked his own plan.
“If someone says to me ‘you can’t do something,’ I say: ‘watch me,’” he explained. “In the backyard I had the whole thing pulled apart in four days. I ended up sliding the body off.” He measured the batteries and crafted an alloy floor with triangulation side impact protection.
The Beetle’s skin was fully stripped ahead of significant custom work, not least adding a fibreglass bonnet (cut in half and widened by 40mm) and crafting the hefty front guards and nose cone by hand. Paint is Audi Nardo grey.
The rear section has been taken from the back end of a 1937 Dodge, which had been in David’s garden for 35 years. “I did some measurements, cut it off and grafted it on,” he said, as if it’s as simple as you or I putting on a shoe. It creates a cabin with a rear dicky seat (for David’s dogs), which lifts to reveal the high voltage electric work.
“The side steps and bull bar are powder coated 6.7mm alloy,” said David. “Everything else is 2-pac painted, with each part prepared and primed properly. All welds have been ground out clean.”
Black and orange wheels are 16×7-inch up front and fatter 16×8-inch at rear. He runs tubes in the tyres let down to just 6psi. “The tubes mean you don’t roll them off the rims, and it’s just like a big bit of jelly, but the footprint is more than double like that.”
There are disc brakes all round, Toyota Prius electric power steering, a Toyota HiLux steering wheel and modified Suzuki Vitara front seats. A custom padded dash mixes old (VW speedo and switches) with the new, such as an LCD readout for electric vitals, plus a digital GPS speedometer.
Beetle juice
The vehicle tips the scales at 1230kg, which is roughly 150kg over David’s petrol-powered Bajas. “I’ve over-engineered with thicker components than necessary,” he explained.
You’ll notice the proper licence plates on this EV VW, which landed after securing an engineer’s approval. This involved welding inspections using ultrasound, a torsional twist test and a lane change test, performed by a professional driver in NSW.
A manual gearbox remains – it’s a 1976 Beetle four-speed – with a 200mm Stage2 pressure plate and 6-puck solid centre disc.
Fourth and reverse gears have been removed, the latter being resolved by fitting a reverse switch on the dashboard.
“With the gearing, at 110km/h in second, we’re doing 5500 revs,” he explained, “and in third about 3000rpm. You really only need to use first if you want to do someone at the lights. Normally I’m just cruising away in second gear, and you can go up to 120km/h+ and pop it into third gear if you need to.”
The giant tyres impact the EV range of this VW, as will sand driving. “But even if I only get 100km range after softening the tyres, that will definitely get me around Moreton Island,” he said. “It’s got plenty of range for what it needs to do.”
David’s adapted quickly to everyday EV driving. “I’m taking it everywhere because it’s just so easy and quiet,” he said. “I’ve stopped driving my normal (combustion) VW van. And I’m noticing at a set of traffic lights all the other cars’ fumes. I never really had before.”
The EV Baja project’s taken two and a half years from start to finish, but there could be more. David’s wife’s taken a shine to EV life, and fancies a street Beetle with electric conversion.
“I believe classic car EV conversions will be a bigger movement in future,” he said. “I’d advise those interested to be as meticulous as you can. Google has a lot of information, but you must filter out the correct from the false and get multiple opinions.”
This electric Baja Bug has wowed locals and the ever-enthusiastic Volkswagen fraternity. There’s a lot of love for this outrageous EV, even from those who worship at the altar of air-cooled. The perfect fit – surely – for silent and pollution-free beach running.