There are few DIY electric vehicles out there, the main reason being that the conversion is harder than any engine swap available on the market, the car in making being required to change literally almost everything, only the chassis and the interior remaining untouched, in this case, not even those.
You can love Tesla or hate it, however, it’s hard to deny the impact the corporate has had on electrical vehicles. The California-based company has shown there’s a marketplace for EVs as different automakers announcing their own electrification plans over the last few years. The prevalence of electric vehicles has additionally spurred a movement in the aftermarket and tuning scene, too, with tuning shops, do-it-yourselfers, and others converting gasoline-powered vehicles into electric ones. One such person will be this gentleman named Sam who, according to him, has the world’s 1st Tesla-powered Audi S5.
Sam started the project with the intent to make one thing nobody else has done. He was able to find a high-mile Audi S5 with a pristine body and a salvaged 2014 Tesla Model S P85D. Once he started, he had no plan however he was aiming to match Tesla’s larger battery pack into the smaller vehicle, nor did he know how he was going to keep Audi’s Quattro all-wheel-drive – one thing other EV conversions usually discard. One Audi drivetrain half the new electric-powered S5 kept was the transmission housing that currently houses the custom gear reduction.
Sam and therefore the team he picked to assist him design and build the electric S5 had a lot of hurdles to overcome for the project to work. They had to work to get the motor control unit to talk with both the powertrain and the vehicle itself, which features a fully-functional 10-inch touchscreen on the dashboard that displays vehicle and powertrain info. Horsepower and torque are dependent on the battery’s charge with the official numbers being 416 (310 kilowatts) and 450 pound-feet (610 Newton-meters), severally.
The electrified Audi S5 may be a marvelous piece of aftermarket work. Within the year that Sam has owned it, all he’s had to do is rotate the tires. No oil changes, timing belts, or different worries we often associate with gas-powered vehicles. Battery longevity remains unclear, but for now, it seems Sam is enjoying the machine and all that torque.
