This is how you turn a gorgeous old Volvo P1800 into an electric car

EV conversions for classic cars are becoming big business these days: familiar looks matched up with cleaner, greener propulsion. But what exactly does the transformation process look like?

To understand, we sat down with Ben Bament, chief engineer at Silent Classics. That company may ring a bell, because we drove their 240Z restomod last summer and were pleasantly surprised. The team’s latest commission takes the form of a Volvo P1800 - a simple car by nature, but as it turns out, far from simple to convert. 

“We started by looking at the car’s weight, gear ratios and so on to figure out how much power it needed. We then stripped out the engine and everything else that’s ICE-related and scanned for possible spots to fill with batteries. 

“The P1800 is actually a horrible car to try and convert in this sense; it’s as if the designers constructed it purposely to make it difficult to put a battery box anywhere. In the end, we settled around the fuel tank area.”

As for the e-motor, Bament says the team decided to source one from a Nissan Leaf. Stopping oohing sarcastically, we can hear you from behind that screen. “It’s far from exciting, I know. But it works for what the customer wants. 

“Anyway, we disassembled the motor from the stack and squeezed it in just ahead of the transmission tunnel to provide drive to the rear. We then plugged the inverter in just ahead of the tunnel, and after that it’s a case of wiring things up and putting everything else back in its place.” 

The whole process could be completed in a matter of days in some instances, but with a project as complex as the P1800, Bament says the team are looking at five months all in. At least four of those months were probably spent wondering how on earth Volvo’s engineers couldn’t foreshadow the rise of EV conversions…