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First Drive: The 2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS450+ Is A Beautiful Electric Porpoise

I Don’t Know What To Do With All This Tech

My husband used to be a sales associate at a Mercedes-Benz dealership in Montreal, and he’s spent the entire duration of our marriage telling me that no automaker is as luxuriously high-tech as Mercedes. I have never discounted this observation. I’ve just also never felt the need to drive an extremely tech-heavy car. I still have a hard time dealing with a tiny infotainment screen.

So I think it’s probably a little bit of an understatement to say that the EQS’s offerings are a bit overwhelming. After I laughed out loud at the exterior, I also laughed out loud at the absolutely massive Hyperscreen. I wanted to ask it if it was compensating for something. I wanted to ask why such a cute fella needs such a big screen.

Functionally, the Hyperscreen is great. A single piece of curved glass, it’s a gorgeous feat of technological innovation that works with rapid speed due to an eight-core processor and 24 gigabytes of RAM. You tap on anything, and there’s not going to be lag. You’re immediately transported to the place you chose to go in the infotainment system.

The graphics are also gorgeous, but again, it’s a little bit Much. There’s a screen for the driver, one of the passenger, and a tall screen in the center, and in those latter two, you can access everything from radio controls to vehicle settings to satellite maps to photo galleries to video games. I did poke around the Tetris game and found it took a while to load but was otherwise fun. I still can’t imagine myself using an infotainment screen instead of my phone for gaming, though.

Even worse, you still get a lot of glare, despite the fact that Mercedes tried its best to avoid that. There’s not really anything you’re going to be able to do about the reflection of the sun when it’s especially bright.

You can also navigate with conversational commands after saying, “Hey Mercedes.” As in, you can say something like, “Hey Mercedes, I want coffee,” and your car will find you the nearest coffee spots. I used to hate voice commands because it was next to impossible to actually get what you were asking for, but this modern iteration that you see on luxury cars has really changed the game. I don’t have to think up the robotic command I’d need to change the radio station. I can just say it.

The digital dashboard was also one hell of a feature. You can cycle through tons of different displays, most of which are just mind boggling. You can literally have your navigation map displayed on your dashboard — and I don’t mean you get a little box that has navigation. The whole screen turns into a map. I’m sure some folks will enjoy it, but it was massively overwhelming for me.

As was the augmented reality navigation, which feels a little bit more video game-y than anything else. Maybe I’m just too old to appreciate these things.

The Verdict

It’s difficult to offer a verdict for a car that I can’t compare to the other vehicles in its class, I can say that the 2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS450+ is a delightful vehicle that transforms much of what makes Mercedes special into a flagship luxury sedan — but it does feel like the German automaker couldn’t decide what it wanted to do. It tried to combine modern austerity with Benz’s traditional elegance, and it works… but it’s probably not going to work for everyone. It didn’t work for me, but it could very well work for you. And you know what? I respect a delightfully polarizing car.

At $16,500, Is This 1965 Citroën 2CV Beaucoup Cute?

Fairfield, New York, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.

H/T to Bert Hoff for the hookup!

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At $30,900, Is This 2006 BMW Z4 M Coupe With Modest Mileage A Marvelous Deal?

At $30,900, Is This Low Mileage ’06 BMW Z4 M Coupe A Good Deal?

Seattle, Washington, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.

H/T to David G. for the hookup!

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Something About Tesla’s Model S Plaid Nürburgring Run Doesn’t Sit Right

Musk May Have Lied About Modifications For The Plaid’s Ring Run

Twitter user @Benshooter later walked back the accusation of Musk lying about the record. Tesla posted onboard video to its own YouTube channel of the record run, and it appears that the only modification made was to put an aftermarket digital gauge readout in front of the driver, even retaining the stock yoke steering wheel. The video was also posted to The ‘Ring’s YouTube channel, corroborating the authenticity of the record. The official lap time for this onboard video is 7:35.579.

So what gives? What’s with the other time listed, a 7:30.909? Clearly Tesla has more speed up its sleeve. Judging by the onboard video being set in a red car, it appears Tesla may have had two red cars on hand, one stock and one seriously modified. There was also at least one black car on hand as well. Maybe Tesla ran several iterations of the Plaid at the track, including some future track-focused version with carbon ceramic brakes and a round steering wheel.

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With the results having been certified as a record by the necessary officials, Tesla seems to have gone through the motions of getting this done the right way. There’s no reason not to be a little skeptical of Elon Musk claims, but at least this time it appears that everything is on the up and up. It’s a little sketchy that Elon didn’t explain the actual “record” was the slower of the two lap times he posted on Twitter, but it’s entirely possible he doesn’t know the difference.

What Carmaker Has The Widest Range Of Vehicles Under The Same Name?

Yesterday afternoon I played hooky from work to go check out my local Pegaso dealership, which is just a short drive from my house to a pill I found on a park picnic table that lets me transcend space and time. At the dealership, I was able to see the full Pegaso product line, which is really quite bonkers.

Pegaso is interesting because the same company made, under the same name, beautiful, sleek sports cars like the Z-102 and Z-103, and also innumerable huge trucks, buses, and big military, tank-like vehicles. That’s a pretty remarkable breadth.

But there’s other companies with similarly vast breadths of vehicles, right? I mean, Tatra made advanced, aerodynamic luxury cars and huge trucks, and Honda makes tiny city cars and mopeds and even jets. And doesn’t Hyundai build container ships under the same name brand as they sold the Veloster?

So, of all the carmakers that make wildly divergent vehicles, which divergence is the most wild? Tell me, tell me now, dammit.

Real-World Video Of The Tesla Yoke Steering Wheel Is As Bad As You Think

We’ve discussed the refreshed and technically impressive 2022 Tesla Model S before, and especially some of the UX decisions made, including the inclusion of the cut-down, yoke–style steering wheel that now comes standard on the Model S. While we’ve had a grand time speculating about how shitty using such a steering not-wheel might be, we haven’t really had any direct, empirical evidence. Until now. Yes, someone has driven a brand-new Model S with the yoke, and, yeah, it looks like it kinda sucks.

After last week’s post about Elon Musk equating of human input and error, you’d think I’d have had enough of dead-eyed Muskovites berating me on social media and via-email, but it’s become so common now that I think my body is starting to crave it, like a drug.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at this little neighborhood drive with the yoke:

…and, a part two! This time with verbal commentary:

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He does say that it’s getting easier, and he has to think about it less, especially when you stop using “round wheel steering techniques,” or, as many of us like to call it, “all of your previous driving experience.”

At best, I’d say this looks awkward. The elimination of control stalks in favor of those little buttons for turn signals I just can’t see as an improvement, especially because the orientation and location (though I guess your thumb is always near them, or should be, but the whole side that thumb is on can change) of the signal buttons changes as you move the wheel, something that just isn’t a problem with a column-mounted indicator.

Why is this a good idea, again? Because stalks are bad?

Incidental controls aside, it’s the main function of this thing — steering, arguably a big part of driving a car — that seems difficult.

I know there’s an argument that F1 cars use yoke-type wheels, but, remember, F1 cars are set up so that lock-to-lock turning can happen without the hands crossing. F1 cars themselves don’t move the front wheels more than 14 or 20 degrees even on the tightest tracks. F1 designers also don’t want drivers putting hand-over-hand like they’re parallel parking, so F1 cars make do with steering wheels that don’t even do one full turn from lock-to-lock. Again, even on the tightest tracks, they only move between 300 and 400 degrees at most.

The Model S wheel turns about two and a quarter full rotations, or around 800 degrees lock-to-lock according to one owner, which is pretty close to the standard 900 degrees/2.5 turns for most cars, as Jalopnik’s own automotive engineer David Tracy tells me. That is not what a yoke is designed to do.

The only car I’ve driven with a yoke was this:

…which you might recognize as being from a dragster, a car specifically designed to just go straight as much as possible. A yoke is a wheel design that’s shaped that way to discourage a lot of turning, which is why for cars that may need to do a lot of low-speed maneuvering and turning, like a normal street car, a yoke is a pretty crappy design.

I’m sure it’s something a driver could eventually get used to, but that’s very much not the same thing as a new design that actually makes the operation of the machine better.

Here’s a dramatic example of why yoke-type wheels aren’t great for a lot of turning, as demonstrated by installing a yoke in a drift car. If you click the link you can watch and see why it’s not ideal, particularly for the structural integrity of your thumbs.

The yoke design also forces crossed arms a lot, which would be bad if the airbag deployed, and while that’s possible to happen with any wheel, the design of the yoke exacerbates it. The yoke precludes letting a wheel slide back into position and forces your hands to be locked onto the 9 and 3 positions. (I know a lot of track driving demands this, but there aren’t airbags there in track cars and, come on, the Model S is a street car.)

It’d be one thing if this was just an option you could decide to get or not, and I thought that might be the case, but if there’s a place on the Tesla build-and-order-your-Model S section of the website that lets you pick your wheel, I haven’t been able to find it.

Most of the tweets commenting on the video aren’t particularly positive, save for the sprinkling of Tesla apologists and evangelists, but I’d encourage you to watch it and come to your own decisions.

Ideally, you should be able to test it out yourself to see, but in the interim, I guess you could hacksaw off the upper half of your steering wheel and decide if this path is for you.

Oh, and my editor-in-chief (I want to say Ronnie somebody?) all but demanded I make you aware of his yoke bon mot, so here you go:

I’m all for innovation and novel approaches to things we take for granted; often, great new solutions can be found that way. The yoke, though, is different. It’s not really new, as cars with yokes (even sentient cars) have been around for decades. If drivers really wanted a yoke, they could have had a yoke, long ago.

The point is, nobody wanted one. Because for most normal driving, they suck. That seems to be the part Tesla forgot.

Battery Swap Stations Are Gaining Momentum In China

The simplest and most genius-brain solution to charging times and range with EVs isn’t one you’ll find in America. In China, though, it’s gaining ground. All that and more in The Morning Shift for June 2, 2021.

1st Gear: China Is An Alternate Universe For EVs

China is like the American car market in so many ways. It’s huge, for one, (the biggest in the world while we’re number two) and filled with people inexplicably buying sedans and not hatchbacks or wagons. It’s also the biggest market for electric cars in the world, and you see as many Teslas bopping around Shanghai as you do here in New York or Los Angeles.

But China also offers us a market where GM builds small, adorable, unbelievably popular EVs as opposed to 9,000-pound hulking Hummers for the rich. It feels like an alternate reality where everyone takes EVs as a given, not as a radical tech.

This is a long intro to the point that battery-swapping stations are taking off there, as noted in this overview story by Automotive News China:

Until 2019, state-owned BAIC Motor Co. and EV startup Nio were the only two automakers offering battery swap services for customers.

[…]

Competition from Tesla and Nio’s success in gaining customers with battery swap services have prompted other Chinese EV makers to take bold steps.

[…]

While Geely is constructing battery swap stations on its own, other Chinese automakers have opted to build facilities along with domestic companies to share costs.

In September, state-owned Changan Automobile Co. launched its first battery swap station in Chongqing along with a consortium of other major domestic companies.

The partner companies include CATL, China’s largest EV battery maker; Aulton New Energy Vehicle Technology Co., a Shanghai-based battery swap station operator; and State Grid, a state-owned power grid operator.

In March, SAIC Motor Corp., another major state-owned automaker, also teamed up with Aulton to kick off operation of the first battery swap station for its EVs.

Aiways, an EV startup, tapped Blue Part Smart Energy, an EV charging facility operator under BAIC, in April to offer battery swap services.

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This is all interesting to see from an American perspective, especially one based out of New York City. Around the turn of the century, NYC was home to the largest electric car company in the world, the Electric Vehicle Company, and it operated using battery-swapping stations right in the middle of Manhattan. The tech is basic. We could go down this route if we wanted to.

2nd Gear: Another Tesla Recall

Some 6,000 Tesla Model 3 and Model Ys are getting recalled for loose brake caliper bolts, as Reuters reports:

Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) is recalling nearly 6,000 U.S. vehicles because brake caliper bolts could be loose, with the potential to cause a loss of tire pressure, documents made public on Wednesday show.

The recall covers certain 2019-2021 Model 3 vehicles and 2020-2021 Model Y vehicles. Tesla’s filing with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said it had no reports of crashes or injuries related to the issue and that the company will inspect and tighten, or replace, the caliper bolts as necessary.

Tesla said that loose caliper bolts could allow the brake caliper to separate and contact the wheel rim, which could cause a loss of tire pressure in “very rare circumstances.” The company said that, in the “unlikely event” there is vehicle damage from a loose or missing fastener, it will arrange for a tow to the nearest service center for repair.

Hey, at least they got the bolts on there this time!

3rd Gear: Everyone Is Copying How Elon Talks

Another interesting Tesla story comes from Bloomberg, which has taken notice that everyone is not just copying Tesla’s plans to make attractive and desirable electric cars, but also how Tesla talks them up with ever-grander terminology. Per Bloomberg:

Many of the words speak to the sheer scale of Musk’s ambitions, which are always far grander than people realize initially. A battery factory isn’t just a battery factory, it’s a Gigafactory. (Giga comes from the Greek word “gigas,” or giant.)

A fast charging station for Tesla’s electric cars isn’t just a charging station, it’s a Supercharger. (Tesla has more than 25,000, giving them the largest network in the world.)

The battery packs that Tesla sells to utilities that promise “massive energy storage?” Megapacks.

There are no signs of him stopping. At Tesla’s “Battery Day” in September 2020, Musk talked about reaching “Terawatt-hour” scale battery production. “Tera is the new Giga,” Musk said on stage.

We’ve now reached the point where every battery factory — even those being made by competitors — is called a gigafactory, regardless of its physical size or planned output. “Nissan in advanced talks to build battery gigafactory in UK,” reported the Financial Times. “Stellantis discussing conditions with Rome to build gigafactory in Italy,” said Reuters.

Would Tesla be where it is if everyone just called gigafactories what they are? (They’re just regular factories.)

4th Gear: Toyota Scaling Back Olympic Plans

The Olympics in Japan seem to be still on somebody’s schedule, even if the people of Japan seem less than stoked on a global travel-fest in the midst of a still-ongoing global pandemic. Of course, this has huge implications for … high-profile industrial manufacturing that hopes to use the Olympics as a sales and marketing opportunity! Reuters has a broad report on it, and I’ll just take out this little section on Toyota:

For global sponsor Toyota Motor Corp., the Games were a chance to showcase its latest technology. It had planned to roll out about 3,700 vehicles, including 500 Mirai hydrogen fuel-cell sedans, to shuttle athletes and VIPs among venues.

It also planned to use self-driving pods to carry athletes around the Olympic village.

Such vehicles will still be used, but on a much smaller scale — a “far cry from what we had hoped and envisioned,” a Toyota source said. A full-scale Olympics, the source said, would have been a “grand moment for electric cars.”

A Toyota spokeswoman declined to comment on whether there were any changes to its marketing.

5th Gear: Biden Blocks Trump Plan For Arctic Drilling In Alaska

This is not a total win for climate, but it’s something, as the Financial Times reports:

The Biden administration has announced it will suspend the Arctic oil drilling rights sold in the last days of Donald Trump’s presidency, reversing a signature policy of the previous White House and handing a victory to environmentalists.

[…]

Tuesday’s decision marked a victory for environmentalists and activists, a pillar of Biden’s support in last year’s election, who have begun to grow impatient with some of the White House’s climate actions. The administration recently opted not to intervene to force the closure of the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline and has supported a major Alaska oil project approved during Trump’s term in office.

“In general the Biden administration is acting vigorously on climate change,” said Michael Gerrard, founder of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University. “This action on ANWR is quite consistent with that. The actions on the other two projects do not seem so consistent.”

I’ll take anything I can get at this point!

Neutral: How Is Your Car?

My Bug refused to start the other day just as I had loaded the car up for a multi-day road trip. With rain coming down, it refused to start even when I flagged down a ‘90s Infiniti for a jump. I ran out and got a new battery and it did start, but was running like shit until I found a half-bare wire leading to the coil. Some electrical tape later and we were on the road, though I’m still finding the car getting hot and leaking oil around some seals I know I just replaced. Stopping after one mountain pass I saw vapor rising out of one of the two carburetors. Time for a tune-up!

Here Are Some Tips To Navigate What Might Be The Worst Car Market In History

For buyers looking for a new ride before the summer Memorial Day weekend is, historically, a pretty good time to buy. Most automakers and dealers would be clearing out previous model-year inventory with competitive discounts. This year is different, and you should probably just stay home. If you insist on buying a car this summer, follow these tips.

Our friends at Lifehacker did an excellent breakdown of how this might be the absolute worst time to buy a new or used car. It’s worth a read, but the short version is that inventory is down and prices are up. There also doesn’t seem to be any relief in sight with some analysts predicting that a market correction may not happen until 2023.

Furthermore, there is a pretty good chance that the car you want isn’t even available. Several major automakers including Subaru and Toyota have closed factories due to the microchip shortage. Therefore, the likelihood of you finding a “deal” on this holiday weekend is slim.

If you can’t put off getting a new ride for a while and you are going to be in the car market this summer, here are some tips to keep in mind.

Don’t be picky: If you have to have a specific car in only one color with a narrow set of options you are setting yourself up for a world of frustration. I was speaking with a buyer looking for a RAV4 TRD in Lunar Rock. I ran a search and there are only 50 RAV4 TRD trim models available in the entire country, only a handful of those was “grey” and an even smaller number were the Lunar Rock. The greater your level of flexibility on the model of your choosing the better your chances of success.
Consider other model alternatives: The truth is that it is very hard to find a “bad car” nowadays. While some models may be better than others, building in some cross-shopping between a few brands is going to give you more options to find a competitive price. The inventory shortages are impacting everyone, but some cars are much easier to find than others. You may want to think about buying a “hold-me-over” car if you need something now. This is a vehicle that will do the job but might not be something you love, but it can get you through this transition time, and when the market changes you can trade it in for your preferred model.
Cast your net wide: This one is obvious, but don’t think you only have to shop within your market region. If you open up your search within several hundred miles of your location you are more likely to find a match, and you have more leverage to get the best price. I recently helped a client in the DC metro with a WRX STI, and the dealers in FL and Ohio were surprisingly competitive with their deals. Even with shipping costs, he was still saving money over the local stores.
Understand that a “deal” is relative: You can’t compare prices this year to last year and you definitely can’t compare what you paid for a similar model a few years ago to what you may pay today. In some cases for some cars, full sticker price might be the “best” deal you can get if many dealers are charging over sticker for a popular model. As always you want to compare the out-the-door price for new cars to see who is offering the lowest total transaction cost. The key here is to have a frame of reference when it comes to your pricing. I recently was working on a brand new Honda Odyssey deal and the discounts ranged from nothing, with a few dealers offering only $500 or $1,000 off the MSRP. One dealer came down $2,800. Based on previous years, $2,800 off a $40,000 van wouldn’t seem that great, but when compared to the rest of the field that was the deal.

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Of course, before you step foot into a dealership you should have a handle on your budget and your credit. Running the math ahead of time and knowing what you can and cannot afford, is the best way to avoid being ripped off.

Ferrari Is Finally Getting Off Its High Horse And Is Embracing Electric Cars

Ferrari has read the room. The Italian carmaker is finally admitting that electrification is where cars are heading — in its case, more like being dragged kicking and screaming. Nonetheless, Ferrari is now pushing its battery electric car release up by five years, according to a report from Bloomberg.

That means the Prancing Horse will adorn a fully electrified car by 2025, rather than 2030. This is a significant course correction for Ferrari who had been dismissive of EVs in the past. The Bloomberg report calls it reluctance.

I think that assessment is a little generous when you consider the remarks from Ferrari’s previous leadership. The carmaker’s last chief executive officer, Louis Camilleri, all but claimed that its customers didn’t want a fully electric Ferrari. I think that attitude had very much to do with not going against the image Ferrari wanted to project, which under Camilleri was all about a certain lifestyle.

The problem is that attitude relegated EVs to something less urgent and necessary than they really are. It reinforced the notion that the wealthy are above any crises we collectively face. As if the electrification of the auto industry is beneath supercar buyers.

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It’s quite a pretentious notion and I’m happy that Ferrari’s current chairman, John Elkann, has addressed the importance of getting an all-electric Ferrari on the road sooner. Elkann spoke to Ferrari’s EV plans on an investor call during Ferrari’s annual general meeting, from the Bloomberg report.

Besides sharing the new projections for the electric Ferrari, Elkann also elaborated on why the company is embracing EVs:

We are continuing to execute our electrification strategy in a highly disciplined way.

…

Our interpretation and application of these technologies both in motorsport and in road cars is a huge opportunity to bring the uniqueness and passion of Ferrari to new generations.

That’s a more sensible approach, and possibly a more lucrative one, too. New generations being the giveaway. The Camilleri approach feels silly because it tethers the company to an aging demographic.

Just think of storied companies and their reluctance to change for the sake of what, brand integrity? OK, Camilleri. Go ahead and ask Harley-Davidson what brand integrity is worth. Even Harley has had to course correct, and it put itself on the path to electrification with the LiveWire.

And it’s not like Ferrari hasn’t done anything at all in this arena. Though, the effort Ferrari has put into electrification has yielded only the SF90 Stradale so far, which feels like a tepid entry into the EV segment with it’s whopping eight mile electric range. But it is a Ferrari, for what that’s worth.

So, let’s see more, Ferrari, but stick to red and yellow; I actually do mean that one. Whatever BEV Ferrari debuts in 2025, I hope it puts zero EV accents on the car.

Two BMW Electric Cars: One From The Factory And One Converted At Home

One thing that I’ve been curious about is how homebrew electric car builds compare to OEM efforts at EVs, especially as we’re still in the early days of widespread manufacturer adoption. Jalopnik reader Allan has both: a 1983 E21 he converted himself and 2014 BMW i3 that doesn’t even want to see a wrench.

Welcome to EV Ownership Stories! Every week, we’ll be posting an interview with an owner of an electric vehicle. We’re here to show that people have been living with EVs for longer than you’d think, in stranger places than you’d imagine. If you’d like to be featured, instructions are at the bottom of the article.

1983 BMW 320is And 2014 BMW i3

What Car Do You Own?

An old BMW (’83 320is, E21 chassis) conversion built mostly from scrap EV conversions and a ’14 BMW i3 rex

Where Do You Live With It?

Eugene, Oregon

How Was Buying It?

I have a thing for (addiction to) E21 BMWs. Those are the ’77-’83 3 Series cars, mostly numbered 320i. I’ve had one sitting around here since 2011 that was too nice to part out but not nice enough to build up. The perfect solution? Electrify it on the cheap! […] For me, although the conversion car makes utterly no financial sense, (I’ve got more money in batteries and the battery management system alone than I paid for the entire i3!) it’s by far the most satisfying car to drive of the fleet.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU HAD IT?

The origins of this project go back almost 30 years to when I converted cars to EVs as part of my auto repair business.

HOW HAS IT LIVED UP TO YOUR EXPECTATIONS?

The i3 does everything well but cost less than the E21! It has a 650cc range extender engine, adaptive cruise control, automatic braking, one-pedal function, programmable everything and it drives like a dream BUT I probably can’t fix it. […] The E21 drives great because it’s 200+ pounds lighter than it was leaving the factory and because it now has nearly perfect balance front to rear and left to right. And, you NEED to shift it because it’s DC powered, not AC as all modern EVs are.

As you can probably tell by this point in the series, I adore featuring stories about classic cars converted to electric vehicles. It’s so satisfying to look through my inbox and find the cars I grew up adoring given a new lease on life as modern hot rods.

And that brings us to this week’s pair of EVs owned by Allan, both bearing the roundel of the Bavarian Motor Works, but with vastly different execution. The first is his ’14 BMW i3 with a range extender, which of course comes chock full of creature comforts like adaptive cruise, one-pedal driving and smartphone connectivity, as well as the usual BMW fit and finish (albeit packaged in a much more quirky package than, say, an X3). The 650cc engine works as a gas generator that kicks on when the batteries are getting low, to eliminate range anxiety without needing to add a full ICE drivetrain like in a traditional parallel hybrid. Allan says quite simply, “the i3 does everything well, but I probably can’t fix it. I can’t even buy a manual to read about fixing it.” Basically, it makes a good daily driver, but it doesn’t satisfy his urge to wrench.

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Now we get to the second BMW in his EV collection, and this one can be wrenched on. Allan’s other electric BMW is a 1983 320is coupe with a DC motor, a five-speed manual transmission, and a 21 kWh battery system that provides over 60 miles of range “while driving any way [Allan] feels like.” He enjoys the E21 BMWs a lot (as he put it, to the point of mild addiction) and he’d had this specific one sitting around for a while. It was too nice to part out, but too rough to restore, and he immediately gravitated towards a budget EV build. It was a good way to do it justice and enjoy it. He’s been converting EVs on and off as part of his repair business for nearly 30 years, so he had the skills to build it. All he needed was a refresher on some of the more modern solutions available.

The 320is is, as a result, an entirely homebrew conversion, built with fresh LFP batteries for juice and an Orion BMS2 from Shift EVs for power management. The rest of the system is cobbled entirely together out of other old, broken conversions Allan would find on EVFinder.com and purchase for parts. A BMW 2002 that had been converted to a DC motor helped him get his power plant, engine mount, and transmission adapter situation set up, and a converted ’90s Toyota Pickup donated its DC/DC converter, battery charger, and many other parts to the build.

Because he used other used builds for parts and sold off the non-EV components like the BMW 2002 shell, the conversion without the batteries was actually in the black. With the batteries and management system he bought new, the overall cost of the project came out to roughly $7,500. That’s the most cost-efficient homemade EV I’ve seen thus far, and it’s giving me really bad ideas about what I’d like my next project to be. I could maybe swing that cost.

The E21, as Allan puts it, drives great:

“its entertainment value as an EV is just limitless. I can shift and hot rod if I want or just leave it in third gear and be lazy. And it’s a beast for pulling a trailer!”

The conversion actually allowed the car to lose 200 pounds, move the center of gravity backwards and downwards, and improve the weight balance of the car. Because it’s a DC motor powering it, the manual transmission is actually needed and the car has the fun of shifting with the linear response and quiet ride of a modern EV. Allan actually uses the E21 to test out differentials and transmissions he sells or puts into other cars. As he explains, “It is perfect for this job. No exhaust, heat shields, or fuel pump in the way, and it’s utterly silent. You can really hear any drivetrain noise!”

His verdict on the two cars is that they are a perfect pair: the i3 for a reasonable daily, capable of puttering around town in comfort, with a warranty, and no worries about range, and the E21 for pure fun and towing. He does admit he finds himself in his E21 more often than the i3 (or any of the other ICE cars he owns and works on, for that matter) and I really can’t say I’d blame him at all!

Thank you so much for sharing, Allan! We’d love to hear from more readers about their EVs, modern or classic, factory or otherwise.

We want:

Your name

What car do you own? (If you owned a car in the past, let us know what years!)

Where do you live with it?

How and where do you charge it?

How was buying it?

How long have you had it?

How has it lived up to your expectations?

A photo of your car

If you want to be interviewed, please let us know an email with an re: EV Ownership Stories to tscott at jalopnik dot com!