This is going to horrify some of you, but I also see elsewhere some discussion about electric cars/conversions, so others may have seen the light. I'm really not looking here for a discussion about the rights/wrongs/desirability or otherwise of the push to electric power. It's all been said before and we all have our own opinions. But please don't voice them in this thread, that's not what it's about.
I love my (R230) SL500. Apart from when needing to tow etc, it is almost the perfect car for me. Beautifully comfortable and quiet, hard and secure top when needed and wonderful 'wind in the hair' motoring when the weather's nice and hot, and it always looks great. But…
Petrol is not cheap and despite my minimal actual mileage, the UK government want to charge £600 pa just for the pleasure of it being mostly parked in my garage, while a smaller engined car can make use of 100K or more miles of road per year at no cost. This is nonsense. It doesn't even address the problem they claim they're trying to address.
Then a year or so ago I had a special test drive in a Jaguar I-Pace and decided there and then, I wanted electric power. So I have a conundrum. I love the SL, but want electric power. What to do?
Well, there's lots of work being done on electric conversions and so it occurs to me that an electric SL would actually satisfy all my requirements. An SL that would perform even better, with all the desirable features of the SL, but basically free to run. What's not to like.
So I made some enquiries, but the response was not encouraging. Basically the problem is, the R230 is too new. Its electrical and electronic systems are so complex that pulling out that V8 and dropping in the electric motor(s) with some batteries and interfacing it all to the rest of the car is more than even the experienced conversion companies want to take on.
However, it occurs to me that this is probably surmountable if there's more than one SL up for conversion, so the cost of working it all out can be amortised amongst all the donors involved in the conversion project. This might make it worthwhile for owners and conversion companies alike.
So the big question is, has anyone else considered this and/or would be willing to look into some sort of joint project to enable such a conversion?
I love my (R230) SL500. Apart from when needing to tow etc, it is almost the perfect car for me. Beautifully comfortable and quiet, hard and secure top when needed and wonderful 'wind in the hair' motoring when the weather's nice and hot, and it always looks great. But…
Petrol is not cheap and despite my minimal actual mileage, the UK government want to charge £600 pa just for the pleasure of it being mostly parked in my garage, while a smaller engined car can make use of 100K or more miles of road per year at no cost. This is nonsense. It doesn't even address the problem they claim they're trying to address.
Then a year or so ago I had a special test drive in a Jaguar I-Pace and decided there and then, I wanted electric power. So I have a conundrum. I love the SL, but want electric power. What to do?
Well, there's lots of work being done on electric conversions and so it occurs to me that an electric SL would actually satisfy all my requirements. An SL that would perform even better, with all the desirable features of the SL, but basically free to run. What's not to like.
So I made some enquiries, but the response was not encouraging. Basically the problem is, the R230 is too new. Its electrical and electronic systems are so complex that pulling out that V8 and dropping in the electric motor(s) with some batteries and interfacing it all to the rest of the car is more than even the experienced conversion companies want to take on.
However, it occurs to me that this is probably surmountable if there's more than one SL up for conversion, so the cost of working it all out can be amortised amongst all the donors involved in the conversion project. This might make it worthwhile for owners and conversion companies alike.
So the big question is, has anyone else considered this and/or would be willing to look into some sort of joint project to enable such a conversion?