Classic VW Karmann Ghia Becomes An EV

The car’s owner goes through the entire EV conversion process

By: Andrei Nedelea

Apr 17, 2020 at 10:30am ET

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There’s just something so special and romantic about the look and feel of old cars, like the iconic and quite good looking Volkswagen Karmann Ghia coupe. And there’s nothing really wrong with how it came from the factory, although the rear-mounted flat-four engine (very closely related to the one that powered the Beetle) is noisy and very slow by modern standards.

The solution? Rip it out, of course, and put a far peppier electric motor in its place. That’s what YouTube user Botts Fine Vids did and he documented the entire process, then compressed everything into a 13-minute long video.

What’s nice about this particular video compared to others that detail EV converting classics is that it really goes through the entire process, from stripping down the car, fitting all the new components, then actually driving it. It’s all in a single video that is sure to help some people who are considering tackling this as a personal project in their garage as it makes the entire process seem less daunting.

The video has great feedback and over 300,000 views, in spite of the fact that the channel has under 4,000 subscribers. YouTube has clearly been recommending this video and for good reason.

If you’re thinking of doing the same kind of conversion to your old VW, it probably won’t be too different if you have an old Bettle, an old T1, T2 or T3 bus and even a Porsche 356, although those are so valuable that you might want to think twice about converting it. The same process applies to other cars, but the models mentioned above are very similar from a mechanical standpoint and therefore the process of turning them into EVs will be quite similar.