By Abbey Cannan
A Noosaville mechanic has taken a step forward into the future after successfully creating his first electric powered vehicle.
AM Auto Services owner Miles Stinton custom made a VW buggy built from a ‘72 Beetle floorpan.
The engine removed was a two litre “Pancake” motor from a Type 2 bus married to the beetle gearbox, Miles said.
“The decision was made to retain the gearbox with the new electric motor and just have the driveline clutchless, this works beautifully,“ he said.
“The car is a blast to drive and it puts a smile on my face every time I drive it, unfortunately I had to hand it back to the owner though.“
Miles said the project was special to him as it had never been requested before.
“It is something that is fairly unique, there’s not a lot of people that are doing stuff with it and it’s special to me because I wanted to learn something new,“ he said.
“It was special to the customer because he wanted something different and it’s still a fairly niche market.
“It had its challenges but I would definitely do one again.“
Miles said Australia was yet to catch on to the electric vehicle trend.
“In America it seems to be quite popular so it is a lot cheaper to do this project because they have everything they need locally,“ he said.
“As time goes on and it becomes more popular, hopefully there will be companies in Australia that will start importing components in bulk, so they are able to sell them at a more reasonable price.“
Despite the inevitable growing trend, Miles doesn’t believe electric vehicles will ever replace the conventional motor vehicles.
“I think if it was going to happen, it would be happening a lot faster than what it is because the technology is there,“ he said.
“Manufacturers have already proven that they can do it and do it well, so if it was going to take over the world I think it already would have.
“It’s definitely going to become more common.“
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