Mid to long term ownership plan.

Yes it should be possible under current legislation. What's not clear is how deep your pockets need to be, or if something ready made is the cheaper or better alternative for day to day use.
​​​Hopefully the price will drop and more opportunities / companies spring up offering conversion services. Already happening to classics, I can even get a DIY kit for my 2CV if I wanted.

Anyone for a hover car conversation?

The cost of diesel is a concern in the future, it's already close to £2 a gallon but that won't affect Jimny owners.

There was a few videos of someone converting a gen3 to electric. Below is a link to the final outcome. He has a few other videos about the conversion.



I plan to convert mine once I get a better understanding and some cash. But that won’t be for a long time.



 

Have to say I'm still not convinced electric will be the answer. We are being warned of power cuts now with only a relative handful of EV's on the road, let alone converting 30 million vehicles to electric.

We also still have no cohesive plan on how people can charge EV's. If you don't have a driveway or off road parking, your choices are non existent for a daily driver.

As for converting older cars. It seems hugely expensive..... toys for the rich I suspect or projects for those gifted with enough skills but still expensive.

I drove an electric MINI last year, had it on a 24hr test drive. I really like it. And I guess the MINI is similar size/weight to a Jimny. But from the factory it had a claimed 170 mile range, which in reality was 100 miles between charges.

This is too low and if you wanted to go laning in a Jimny would be almost dangerous. Hardly any range to get to your start point. With current technology all EV's with good ranges are BIG and heavy and need a vast amount of batteries.

I suspect the near future probably lies more in synthetic fuels and hydrogen. Either could be used to directly drive a vehicle by an IC engine or be used in a hybrid setup where you have electric drive and an IC engine instead of a battery for onboard power generation.

JCB have already built IC engines that run directly on hydrogen. And there are lots of ways of 'growing' forms of bio fuel.

EVs do anywhere between 5m/kW (Tesla under ideal conditions) to 2-3m/kW (less efficient EV under real world conditions).

A Jimny is far from economical, so if it was an EV, expect it to be lower - mid range (not the Tesla end), lets say 3m/kW, so that makes it about 10p/mile at current prices.

Petrol on the other hand is £1.64 per L, lets say 7-8m/L, that makes it about 20-23p per mile, so about double.

However, the cost of electricity is likely to go up (may be 50p/kWh) and then the battery life might only be 5 - 10 years, batteries are expected to balance out at £70/kWh when they become mainstream, they are around £110-£150 per kWh at the moment.

Let's assume 10 year life span and 100kWh, that is £7k over 10 years or £700 per year. At average mileage of 12k miles, that is another 5.8p/m.

I found this company who make electric conversions for Land Rover Defender, probably a good comparison
www.electrogenic.co.uk/cars/land-rover-defender-agricultural

It must be a little old (Nov 2020) as they say diesel running costs were 21p/m and 3.8p/m for electric. Using current figures, electric would be nearer 17p/m. The conversion is £24k + VAT.

Yomper now offer an EV option (Spark EV) for their Jimny conversions, see

www.yomper4x4.co.uk/services

No details of cost, says you have to ask about range etc.

Hi, I have done just over 20k in our E Tron, and it will do around 2.7m/kw. However, a lot of this is motorway, which drains the battery quicker. Unlike a geared ICE, where a motorway is better for consumption, electric is better suited to just pottering around, which may well suit most Jimny owners.

I've been ruminating on this, too. I only just got my Jim this year and I've no intention of ever parting with it if I can keep the maint up but I haven't done the welding and waxoyl and that yet. Intend to do it after Xmas. I'm glad to hear that people are keeping them up and running for so long, all the same. As for electric motors, I think you're wise to be thinking about it. If I could keep my M13A or even upgrade it to an M16A, I'd like to do that, but I think some kind of alternative power source is probably inevitable. I'm clinging onto the hope that some mechanical alternative to electric will find its feet. I know it's daft but I think taking the vroom out of our vehicles will really hurt their personality. Make them harder to love. It's a lot harder to anthropomorphise something that doesn't growl and roar. We'll see, anyway.

This might be of interest, short version is French company converting small cars to electric for 5K Euro after grants 7K before, range 100Km.

Obviously early days but I do think there will be a lot of companies starting to offer similar stuff and prices will get better.