Man Converts Grandfather’s Hyundai Santro Into An EV [Video]

Slowly, a number of state governments are banning cars older than 10 years. This is being done to help in keeping the environment clean. However, this has upset a lot of people. The government, however, has allowed people to convert their old cars into electric vehicles. Taking on this challenge by himself, a man from Gurgaon has shared a video of him converting his grandfather’s Hyundai Santro into an EV. He explains the entire process that he had to go through to finish this conversion.

This conversion of an old Santro from ICE to EV was undertaken by Making With Mihir. He shared the entire process of this task on his YouTube channel. It starts with him mentioning that this particular Hyundai Santro belongs to his grandfather. He stated that he went to school in it, learned how to drive in it, and spent his childhood with it. Mihir then states that he has now successfully converted this car.

How did he convert this Santro?

Before diving deep into the conversion aspect of this car, Mihir explains how an internal combustion engine works. He then shows a scale model of a four-cylinder engine. In a standard engine, the pistons, after combustion, turn a crankshaft, which converts power into mechanical power.

Next up, he explains that a normal ICE engine, along with wheels, also powers other components of the car. These are the steering pump, AC compressor, and a few others. So he then mentions that replacing the ICE engine directly can cause it to lose all of this functionality.

He then added that these components can be powered by electric motors. But that would require him to make custom brackets, which could easily rack up to the cost of this conversion. So to bypass this issue, Mihir explains a new method. He states that he removed the top half of the engine, which comprised the combustion portion.

Behind the scenes of this conversion

The video then shows the behind-the-scenes part of this conversion. He states that they removed the engine and added the electric motor on top and it now runs the lower portion of the engine. After this, he shows the lithium phosphate battery placed in the rear.

He mentions that this battery offers 72V to the electric motor at the front, which helps to run the car. Next up, he mentions the two other problems that he had to solve with the car.

Problems with setup and their solution

Mihir mentioned that as the car now weighed 900 kgs, it became hard to stop the car. The standard car used a brake booster powered by the engine which helped in stopping it. But as the engine was removed, it became difficult to solve the car.

So to remedy this issue, he added an external electrical brake booster which was powered by the 12V battery of the car that is placed inside the bonnet. He added that this battery powered the headlights, power windows, and central locks of the car.

Now the other issues faced during this conversion was that this 12V battery also needs to be charged. In an ICE car, this process is taken care of by the alternator of the car which is powered by the ICE engine. However, here he had to add a 72V to 12V converter to charge the battery kept ahead.

Range of this car

Mihir then mentions that after everything is done, this Hyundai Santro offers a range of around 80 km on a single full charge. He added that there is a significant reduction in power and it can now only go up to 60 kmph. However, the overall cost reduction in cost per km has now also come down. It now only costs Rs 1 to drive per km in this converted Hyundai Santro.