alt.hn

5/4/2026 at 6:17:22 PM

Chevrolet Performance eCrate package (400v/200hp)

 https://www.chevrolet.com/performance-parts/crate-engines/ecrate

by mindcrime

5/7/2026 at 11:53:44 AM

" only available through approved installation centers."

This won't sell; people will just buy a crashed EV for 1/10th the cost and salvage the motor and battery. This is more of an insult than a product. It reeks of "you're not qualified to work on our premium electrons until you pay $10k and pass our one-day eCourse"

by 1970-01-01

5/7/2026 at 1:25:22 PM

I was excited until I read this and the price. I would love to try and drop this into a 90s Miata for a fun garage project.

by oompydoompy74

5/7/2026 at 1:47:56 PM

The battery weight alone exceeds the load capacity of a 90s miata by 2x. And i wonder how well it would handle with the 1000 lbs of battery under the hood or in the trunk, my guess is not very well.

by yourusername

5/7/2026 at 5:09:27 PM

IIRC my NB (2002) Miata had a load capacity of 340lbs. I pretty much exceeded it any time I had a passenger, let alone anything in the trunk!

by rconti

5/7/2026 at 4:10:20 PM

The battery size really surprised me. I can see this working well with 1/3 the battery, but 1000lbs is crazy. The lighter motor and removal of the fuel tank will help a little, but replacing a heavy engine in the front with a heavier battery in the back can't possibly work.

by chrisBob

5/7/2026 at 5:09:39 PM

How heavy do you think the average medium sized EV battery is? Batteries are heavy.

by idiotsecant

5/8/2026 at 10:51:21 AM

Yeah I uh… didn’t really think about that haha. Maybe with some frame reinforcements, heavy duty coilovers, and performance brakes?

by oompydoompy74

5/7/2026 at 7:32:48 PM

I'm quite keen to get the battery and motor out of a scrap Leaf to fit to something.

The motor package from a Leaf is about 90kg so probably in the same ballpark as the fuel tank, rear axle, and gearbox. You'd then need to get a lighter battery because a Leaf's battery is about 350kg, or twice the weight of an MX5's engine.

There would be a lot of surgery involved on the back end but since it's a subframe with the diff in the middle you're halfway there.

And for once, the project car's totally rotten boot floor won't be a problem because you're cutting all that away anyway!

by ErroneousBosh

5/7/2026 at 5:53:11 PM

This, the price, and the power level.

Meanwhile, Ford has been selling the Mach-E motor as a crate motor for years; but it's useless, because they sell nothing else for it. No battery pack, no controller, no regenerative brakes. Pretty much a PR sham. Why bother?

I have a Mustang with a half-disassembled engine that needs major work, so I thought hey this might be cool. Nope.

by MoonWalk

5/7/2026 at 4:29:27 PM

Big brand crate engines have always been obscene. Almost every LS swap you see was someone pulling a motor out of a junker.

by giantg2

5/7/2026 at 4:46:39 PM

Only because they will charge a premium if you don't return the "old core". Nobody wants the hassle, or the upfront cost for not having one to give them.

by nubinetwork

5/7/2026 at 5:05:15 PM

Even with a core, their "performance" engines have still been absurdly expensive.

by giantg2

5/7/2026 at 5:12:58 PM

You're underestimating the complexity of doing what you're describing. There is a market for a $10k package where the communications busses are documented, everything has square plumb mounting, no fabrication is required, etc.

I have done several EV conversions using parts as you describe and there is a healthy amount of reverse engineering, defeating or replicating functions you didnt think of until it doesnt work right with modules that are expecting other modules to exist on the bus that no longer exist, and a million other things.

That's fine for a personal hobby project, but that is a very, very, very small project. The target for this kind of product is conversion shops that want to be able to offer customers tight turnarounds on vanity EV conversions with warrantees. 10k is pretty minor on that kind of project, the lead time and integration complexity is way more important.

by idiotsecant

5/7/2026 at 1:46:35 PM

Some of that might be to satisfy the EPA since it's technically against their rules to do engine swaps in many cases or delete or modify emissions devices.

by rascul

5/7/2026 at 4:09:43 PM

I don't know about the federal level, but in NY State, the rule on engine swaps allows for a newer engine to be installed in an older car as long as the newer emissions equipment is installed as well. So swapping a 2010 k series motor into a 90s civic would be legal if you also bring the ECU (because obd counts as emissions) and the catalytic converters. At least that was my read of the law.

by tmerc

5/7/2026 at 5:20:47 PM

My buddy and I did a California BAR swap of a k20a2 into a civic EG. The things a ripper.

We also had to bring over all the emission EVAP stuff, for the evap on the RSX tank (plastic irrc) we bought a new EG tank and welded all the necessary fittings to get it to work.

Very engaging car to drive.

by roflchoppa

5/7/2026 at 6:47:31 PM

I was looking at buying something similar on cars and bids a couple of years back that didn't have cats, so I looked into the law in ny. I've been in a stripped eg with a similar motor at an autocross and it does rip. Loose rear and front grip with an 8200rpm redline? Heck yeah. Would recommend looking up your nearest scca and going out for a day to see what it does at the limit

by tmerc

5/7/2026 at 1:54:40 PM

Then why are they able to provide a 500hp gas crate motor?

by Tostino

5/7/2026 at 2:02:49 PM

There's probably a disclaimer that it's not for street vehicles.

Note in the eCrate link it's explicitly claimed to be legal when done correctly.

by rascul

5/7/2026 at 2:48:43 PM

When you do that you're supposed to classify the vehicle as an OHV, or off-highway vehicle. Problem is a lot of states don't actually do emissions testing, others don't do vehicle status inspection, and some don't do either. You ever wonder why Indiana has such a huge number of drag racing cars in the Prostock and Superstock classes? There's no emissions testing outside the capitol.

by Tanoc

5/7/2026 at 3:09:40 PM

>> You ever wonder why Indiana has such a huge number of drag racing cars in the Prostock and Superstock classes?

I can honestly say I've never wondered that. It's so oddly specific lol.

by 83

5/7/2026 at 9:03:39 PM

Having grown up in Indiana, and having watched a lot of drag racing, and even crewed for a friend drag racing motorcycles, I have not once wondered that, either. I, of course, just assumed it was that way everywhere. “What, your small nowhere town doesn’t have its own drag strip or dirt oval? How odd…”

(And when I say “nowhere”, I mean go look up Bunker Hill, IN as a go-to example. It’s a fine town as far as small towns go, but a long way from any major metro.)

by mikestew

5/7/2026 at 3:13:59 PM

Back when people still watched cable Street Outlaws was Discovery's biggest show for a while. It is an oddly specific thing, but a question I heard a lot about ten years ago. The two places where drag racing are biggest are Oklahoma and Indiana.

by Tanoc

5/7/2026 at 4:34:44 PM

Isn't it true that you can also be emissions exempt if you drive under 5k miles a year?

Edit: and off road motors still have standards, just different standards.

by giantg2

5/7/2026 at 4:56:26 PM

That's done on a state-by-state basis. The EPA knows nothing of how many miles you drive nor does any yearly emissions testing.

by olyjohn

5/7/2026 at 5:58:10 PM

Of course, the emissions testing is a state issue. Even the federal regulations say that federal government vehicles have to be tested in the state they are stationed in.

by giantg2

5/7/2026 at 12:00:58 PM

As it should be.

I'd rather that reality than the EV conversion hobby be plagued and slandered with "this guy bought official parts and his baby perished in the resulting home fire".

by dotancohen

5/7/2026 at 12:54:53 PM

Disagree, premium parts should have premium fail-safes and be robust to reasonably foreseeable misuse.

In so many markets manufacturers are antagonistic to repair and customization; project cars remains this wonderful little niche where DIY excellence is enabled and encouraged. That shouldn't end with ICEs.

We have hobbyist mechanics out here taking their engine blocks to the machinist, rebuilding hydraulic automatic transmissions on the workbench, not to mention safely handling literal buckets of combustibles. They'll be fine.

by randusername

5/7/2026 at 1:07:32 PM

I think there's a reasonable concern about supply chain here given the complexity of the components. The hobbyist ICE market has had generations of experience, and the risks are better known then with EV power trains, and it's much more difficult to inspect components that are battery or chip-controller based over a standard ICE engine. I'm sure there's also a profit motive, but I also think there's a strong concern around reputational damage and a desire to control the entire pipeline to make sure that doesn't happen.

by james_stin

5/7/2026 at 2:59:55 PM

The valvetrain and fuel injection systems of any given internal combustion engine vehicle made since the 1980s are far more complex than the voltage controller of an EV drivetrain. The difference is that those mechanical components are in a system that can have multiple minor fail states before ceasing to function and contain far less energy than what's coursing through the voltage controller. The reason EVs are more dangerous currently is because they haven't gone through the decades of regulations and testing needed to provide multiple diagnostics and failsafes the way mechanical components have. That's easily fixed by just giving them a few years and letting people develop folk knowledge they way they did with internal combustion engines. Even now hobbyists are developing new ways to test for unbalanced cells, impedance hotspots, and integrating new monitoring systems that don't require costly proprietary sensors.

Most of this limitation from Ford and GM about their EV drivetrains is because they want control over deployment for monitoring, and so they can cover their asses legally if something like a manufacturing defect becomes widespread.

by Tanoc

5/7/2026 at 1:33:12 PM

Reasonably foreseeable misuse is a fallacy. The only really possible way to know how users are going to misuse a product, is to get it in the hands of the users. How does the saying go? Design something to be idiot-proof and nature will present you with a better idiot.

by dotancohen

5/7/2026 at 5:08:17 PM

It's shitty to just say "you might not do it safely so you can't do it at all". We don't do that when building houses for example - anyone can build a house; you just need to get safety inspections at certain points in the build process. Why not do the same for cars?

by IshKebab

5/7/2026 at 10:47:30 AM

A “crate” motor you can’t install yourself.

by thedougd

5/7/2026 at 11:52:44 AM

Can't believe I had to scroll for this. Trust the OEMs to do something very close to what enthusiasts might want, then immediately torpedo it with "but we won't sell it to you."

This level of conversion isn't exactly trivial but it also isn't rocket surgery for the kind of person who pulls an engine out for rebuild on a classic car project.

by thrtythreeforty

5/7/2026 at 2:12:44 PM

>This level of conversion isn't exactly trivial but it also isn't rocket surgery for the kind of person who pulls an engine out for rebuild on a classic car project.

If you saw the "quality" of electrical work otherwise very smart car enthusiasts do you might think otherwise.

by SkyeCA

5/7/2026 at 2:41:21 PM

Not sure if it was intentional or not but "isn't rocket surgery" might be one of my new favorite phrases of all time.

by FishAngular12

5/7/2026 at 3:40:36 PM

"isn't rocket surgery" has been a comedic phrase for years.

by Sohcahtoa82

5/8/2026 at 2:39:54 AM

We had a teacher in high school that said “it isn’t rocket scientry.”

by Auracle

5/7/2026 at 1:36:42 PM

Also look at the "DRM" controls: " Q. Can I increase horsepower? a. The first-ever Chevy eCrate conversion kit has a locked system that does not allow you to increase horsepower at this time. "

... so you're buying into a locked, digital control system, akin to what John Deere puts out.

This ranks right up there with BMW wanting to charge a monthly fee for heated seats - building in physical abilities, with digital lockouts. You know, you can buy a LS engine, and do whatever horsepower changes you want to it. For those more akin to computers than cars, this is called a "LS swap" and is common with restomods.

This is disappointing to hear and tarnishes a brand like Chevy. Fortunately, we're in a free market; I'll vote with my dollars.

by davsti4

5/7/2026 at 2:25:30 PM

Modern gas crate powertrain swaps which include engine management usually have the same restrictions; GM Connect and Cruise, Hellcrate, Ford Performance, etc. What you’re describing with LS swaps is unique to kits that come with no engine management; it would be as though this kit were sold with no inverter and motor controller. Of course, reverse engineered aftermarket tuning is more readily available for gas ECUs, but that’s just a matter of market forces, not the OEMs.

by bri3d

5/7/2026 at 1:50:58 PM

Make a friend who works at a GM dealership.

by SoftTalker

5/7/2026 at 1:39:50 PM

I think there's a lot of independent startups that provide these kind of kits?

by Gravityloss

5/7/2026 at 7:27:32 AM

I was excited about this idea until I found out it's $27k

by novafacing

5/7/2026 at 8:01:07 AM

yesterday post here about Tesla-fied Mustang - $40K of parts https://electrek.co/2026/05/02/tesla-1966-mustang-ev-convers...

Buying motors and batteries from Aliexpress you can probably get under $15K-$10K even ( and that is probably BOM of Chinese car manufacturers for such the engine and batteries), yet having it as a US factory package $27K doesn't look that bad for me.

by trhway

5/7/2026 at 10:06:59 AM

I didn’t have any context, so I went shopping and it looks like you’re right https://www.gmperformancemotor.com/category/ENG.html

Which is a bit wild to me because I looked into adding a supercharger to my 2010 Camaro last month and it was 7-9k DIY.

by tclancy

5/7/2026 at 11:48:54 AM

This package is for people who already have money to burn. It's intended for classic car restorations, which is also a money burn hobby. A full classic car restoration can exceed 100k if you're having it done professionally.

by SecretDreams

5/7/2026 at 7:37:47 AM

I get this is a pretty nice product that they won't sell in huge volume, but that is really steep, was expecting something <20k

by OliverGuy

5/7/2026 at 9:39:43 AM

It includes a 66 kWh battery. This might be a strategy for offloading all the Bolt EV batteries they had to refurbish.

by fgfarben

5/7/2026 at 12:37:18 PM

Maybe? It's a 400V architecture, and honestly that's my criticism... 400V seems low at this point. Particularly for something requiring an "Authorized Installer" I'd have expected 800V architecture, if not pushing higher. Minimum 600V though... so IMO huge miss on GMs part. I do think GM does have an opportunity if they really wanted to do what you're suggesting and just make drop on chassis for square bodies etc.

by leeter

5/7/2026 at 1:07:32 PM

I'll bite.

What's the point of 800V with a battery this small? 400V already enables around 200 kW of charging, which is 3C with a pack this small. So charging is not limited by the voltage level, because the pack assuredly isn't reaching 3C. At 200hp the efficiency gains are marginal if they exist at all. So what would the benefit of 800V be, apart from higher costs?

by formerly_proven

5/7/2026 at 6:16:02 PM

Let's be realistic. GM is not interested in burning R&D money to make a good 800V electric crate kit. They only want to burn R&D money to make new profitable trucks.

They are doing this because they have a billion dollars of refurbished batteries sitting in warehouses that they need to dump.

by fgfarben

5/7/2026 at 4:07:59 PM

400V DC on a 66KWh battery will fry you in an instant if you don't know what you are doing or get careless with your tools.

by SoftTalker

5/7/2026 at 2:22:39 PM

As a Bolt EUV owner, I'd like to just offload my Bolt.

(Not because it's a bad car in itself, but all of the electronics shit is falling apart.)

by nozzlegear

5/7/2026 at 4:09:25 PM

How old is your Bolt. I've been toying with the idea of getting a used one. What has failed with the electronics?

by SoftTalker

5/7/2026 at 4:53:49 PM

It's a 2023 Bolt EUV, I bought it new at the end of 2022. My issues with it only started last year; it was a great car up until then, easily my favorite vehicle out of all the ones I've owned. The issues with my car are the rear cameras, which have stopped working, and the touch screen, which no longer responds to touch.

The repair techs couldn't find anything wrong with the cameras, and their diagnostic tool reported that they were apparently functioning. They ended up replacing the cameras and the cabling, but it didn't help at all; the new cameras just stopped working again within a couple of weeks. When I took it back in, they told me straight up that they didn't know what to do about it if replacing the cameras and cables didn't work, so there was nothing left to do.

The touch screen broke around the same time[†] as the cameras, and this is worse than not having cameras IMO. The Bolt is nice because it has a good amount of physical buttons to control things, but there are still some critical functions tied to the touch screen that you just can't do if it's not responding to touch. Examples: I can't look at the front or side cameras; I can't adjust the defrost at all in the winter (it's tied to the touchscreen unlike the rest of the climate controls); I can't select a destination or add stops in Maps without opening my phone; and I can't install or decline software updates for the vehicle, which nag with a very loud chime every time the car is parked.

The dealership offered to replace the touch screen, but only as a replacement for the entire head unit which was going to be $2500 or more. I couldn't justify the cost on a car that's only worth $15k now, especially after they couldn't fix the cameras.

[†] Makes me think the two things are related, but there's no practical way to debug it on my own.

by nozzlegear

5/7/2026 at 5:04:35 PM

Touch screen out of warranty in only 3 years?

by SoftTalker

5/7/2026 at 5:15:52 PM

For me it was, unfortunately. It falls under GM's standard 3 year/36k mile warranty as far as I can tell. I bought it in November 2022, and the issues started popping up toward the end of summer 2025 (edit: wait I can't math, that's just under 3 years). I've also put a lot of miles on it (at 49k right now), so it was likely over that mileage warranty by then as well.

by nozzlegear

5/7/2026 at 5:31:29 PM

You can buy head unit parts on eBay. It sounds like you have rodent harness damage.

by fgfarben

5/7/2026 at 7:38:13 PM

I've thought about buying a replacement and trying to do it myself, I might still do at some point. Not like I can break the touch screen any more than it already is lol.

I'm not sure about rodents. I keep the car in the garage at all times and have never seen any sign of rodents at our house, but it could be possible.

by nozzlegear

5/8/2026 at 5:57:21 PM

I don't know Bolt touchscreen specifics, but a lot of electronics in newer cars are paired to the id in the cars BCM or security module and installing replacement parts requires activation/re-registering using proprietary dealership tools.

by 83

5/7/2026 at 4:11:05 PM

Can you elaborate? Genuinely curious.

My family has a small fleet of bolts, and we could not be happier with them…

In fact, if cars get mixed up and I’m driving my wife’s much “nicer” Audi etron, I find that I always wish I were driving one of the bolts instead.

by rsync

5/7/2026 at 4:56:31 PM

I answered in more detail here (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48051714), but mine has two major issues: the rear cameras stopped working even after a full replacement, and the touch screen stopped responding to touch. The Bolt is nice because it has a bunch of physical controls for climate, music, etc., but there's still some critical stuff tied to the touchscreen that has made using it without touch really difficult.

by nozzlegear

5/7/2026 at 5:13:55 PM

Looks like it, or just clearing inventory. All the specs are identical to the 2020 Bolt EV batteries: energy, weight, dimensions.

by pavon

5/7/2026 at 8:45:16 AM

I’ll be honest 200hp doesn’t exactly blow up my skirt

by cbdevidal

5/7/2026 at 3:23:32 PM

Yeah, agreed. And I suspect the motor/battery combination will be too heavy for the type of car in which the 200hp/260lbft would be fun (Miata, vintage VW, etc).

But for a restomod muscle car? Gimme that LS V8 goodness with the sweet sweet brumble brumble brumble noises and smoky burnouts (on private property only, obv).

by alistairSH

5/7/2026 at 9:05:40 AM

But the extra torque might sizzle your drizzle

by speed_spread

5/7/2026 at 9:36:21 AM

266 lb/ft? Nah. Maybe for a go kart.

by someguyiguess

5/7/2026 at 10:03:27 AM

Electric motors don’t have torque curves. It’s all available right away. As a kid I remember reading in Wired about an electric car scene in California where they had to learn things the hard way and one guy’s maiden voyage ended still in his driveway with the backend split in two.

by tclancy

5/7/2026 at 11:09:43 AM

This is essentially the "area under the curve" argument. But it's been polluted to absurdum by Internet fanboys with an agenda so now everyone thinks EVs are some magical thing that don't abide by the laws of physics.

No amount of fanboy screeching is going to change the fact that it's only 200hp. Compared to a bone stock 70s/80s car that made 200-250hp from the factory this will 200hp EV will be a riot. But at $20k that's not what it's being compared against. The 500+HP LS crate motor and transmission combo (i.e. what this is being cross shopped against) are going to make more than that from ~2500rpm on up.

If you graph power available at a given output RPM with an electric motor you get a line. With an ICE you get an upward and then tapering off curve. When you add transmission gears to the ICE it's a series of essentially overlapping saw teeth except on the first gear where it goes all the way down to whatever power you make at 1500-2000rpm (so like a little under 100hp for a ~500hp engine, probably like 30hp for an ICE that makes ~200hp stock).

Basically even with a flat curve there comes a point where the taller curve is so much taller it still wins.

When comparing to cars of about the same horsepower the EVis gonna win every time, because flat curve. Even if comparing to a more powerful ICE car where the areas are approx. equal you don't have to pull back to shift (even CVTs "shift", it's for longevity reasons) and the ICE is probably not geared deep enough for best initial acceleration (though for "modern" power levels both cars have more than enough to roast the tires) the EV is still probably better.

And as an side I think it's dumb that they make you replace the transmission. There are tons and tons and tons of cars out there that either still have the original transmission or someone swapped an SBC into them in 19-whatever. Being able to just replace the engine would make the swap a ton more accessible because you don't have to also add transmission mounting, controls, driveshaft, etc. to the list. Most older transmissions can handle "muh EV torque" just fine. It's the shifting under torque they don't like.

Basically this is cool but I think it's too expensive for the specs it has.

Edit: Not calling you a stupid fanboy, just saying you've been mislead by them.

by cucumber3732842

5/7/2026 at 11:46:08 AM

There will be torque multiplication by the transmission in 1st through 2nd so it won't be as much of a dog as you think. Race car, no. But it'll hold it's own in modern traffic unlike a lot of older cars.

Out of curiosity I looked up the ratios for the mentioned 4L60 transmission: 1st is 3.059:1, 2nd is 1.625:1, 3rd is direct drive at 1.00:1 and 4th is overdrive at 0.696:1. Then you'll have the ratio in your rear differential, whatever that happens to be.

My high school car was a 1975 Impala with the 350 cubic inch small block V8. Because of the Malaise Era emissions laws, it only produced 145hp but still had decent torque at 250ft·lb. It had a huge amount of space under the hood so perhaps this could fit both the motor and battery in there? (F/R weight balance being ignored)

Your point about people comparing this against the LS crate motor is correct IMO. This will be an expensive low-volume kit until (if!) economies of scale kick in. Only bought by people who want something different to show off to their friends at the weekend car shows.

by chiph

5/7/2026 at 1:54:43 PM

> hold it's own in modern traffic

A 90HP Volkswagen will do that. Nobody needs 200HP to keep up with traffic.

by SoftTalker

5/7/2026 at 4:18:19 PM

The people who drive performance cars do. I never had a problem in my old Geo metro making 50hp - except when following a corvette - they always waiting until the end to accelerate and I needed the whole ramp to get up to speed. It works for them because they had enough power for that trick.

by bluGill

5/7/2026 at 9:44:12 PM

People get worse at merging when they have more power on tap. Saw it in my own household.

by cucumber3732842

5/7/2026 at 9:43:22 PM

50hp per ~1000lb is just about the minimmum it if you want to hold highway speed on inclines

by cucumber3732842

5/7/2026 at 2:04:22 PM

Being conparable to the original performance might be a feature on it's own.

Insurance companies don't care what mods you do to your car, even EV swapping, except performance mods. If you tell them you've been doing performance mods, they'll drop you.

by NathanielK

5/7/2026 at 9:44:54 PM

In Europe maybe. In the US they just don't cover those parts or value.

by cucumber3732842

5/7/2026 at 11:51:37 AM

> Edit: Not calling you a stupid fanboy, just saying you've been mislead by them.

No worries at all and I should have been clearer that I wasn't saying it was just as good, more that it wasn't "Oh well, 200hp" like a ICE engine. I also think raw horsepower is overrated in street driving. As a single data point, a couple of weeks ago I got to run three laps in a GTR "Godzilla" at Loudon on the interior track. It was a blast but after I'd come down off the high I realized that 585hp did not feel wildly different from the ~400hp in my Camaro. And I rarely get to use much of that (other than some of those lovely overly long onramps around here).

by tclancy

5/7/2026 at 8:28:09 PM

As somebody who used to race FB RX-7s and NA Miata, I can say with complete certainty that somewhere north of 120rwhp would have been nice. 200 in either car would have been a hoot, especially with the EV flat power curve. And in neither would I have wanted more than ~300hp because I have no need to go more than 150mph surrounded by other amateur car nerds. I gave up instructing because cars are just too darn fast - when I started, Miata and Rabbits and Civics were the norm, then came the E36 and E42 M3s, and then boost buggies, and then the C6, and NOPE NOPE NOPE I have a wife a mortgage don't need this anymore.

by alistairSH

5/8/2026 at 4:59:56 PM

Ha, my next-door neighbor spent COVID rebuilding his CTS-V engine and the next time he went to a track day they told him he had to wear a flame-retardant suit from now on because he broke 10 seconds over whatever the standard time/distance is.

by tclancy

5/9/2026 at 10:59:22 PM

Ah yeah, drag racing (1/4 mile usually) has time/speeds they require upgraded safety. Helmet, roll bar, full cage, etc.

I was racing on a road circuit. We all had full safety kit in the race cars. But instructing in fast street cars is what effectively scared me off. I wasn’t required to instruct, but it did offset the expense some.

by alistairSH

5/7/2026 at 5:10:29 PM

Doesn't the GT-R usually weigh significantly more than a Camaro?

by olyjohn

5/7/2026 at 8:03:32 PM

No. I double-checked because I was going to be stunned if something could be heavier without having gravitational pull and they're pretty close.

- GT-R (R35, 2009–2025) generally ranges between 3,700 lbs and 3,950 lbs (approx. 1,680–1,790 kg)

- 2010 Chevrolet Camaro curb weight ranges from approximately 3,719 to 3,913 pounds (1,687–1,775 kg)

I will say that must make Godzilla denser.

by tclancy

5/7/2026 at 8:20:58 PM

and you cant even buy one your self.

by mmmlinux

5/7/2026 at 5:25:40 PM

Thanks, I couldn't find the price.

I've been looking for 200+ hp engine swaps for my 100 hp, 125 lb-ft of torque lifted 1986 Toyota pickup with 31" tires (like the one on Back to the Future but 1 year newer and not extended cab).

For comparison, my 2013 Nissan Leaf has 107 hp, about 200 lb-ft of torque, weighs the same 3300 lbs, and does 0-60 mph in about 7-10 seconds depending on the weather.

So even accounting for the 300-500 lb weight of the 22r engine and accessories vs 1000+ lbs of electric motor and batteries, doubling the hp would be ludicrous speed (0-60 mph under 6 seconds), by all but 2010s era EV times.

I just looked up the price of Nissan Leaf battery swaps:

  24 kWh (refurbished): 84 miles of range, $3,500-$5,000
  40 kWh (upgrade): 125 miles of range, $6,500-$8,000
  62 kWh (advanced upgrade, requires reshaping): 195 miles of range, $12,000-$14,500
  
  Labor: Approximately 5-7 hours of labor at $100-$150/hour, adding $500-$1,500 to the total.
Found this page of 200 hp motors:

https://electricmotors.com/200-horsepower-electric-motors.ht...

  ($23,579.99 + $19,657.99 + $20,611.99 + $22,267.99 + $27,199.99 + $27,199.99 + $13,383.99 + $13,029.99 + $15,159.99 + $10,989.99 + $10,819.99 + $13,469.99 + $13,469.99 + $13,851.99 + $13,851.99 + $14,259.99) / 16 =
  $17,050 (200 hp average price)
  
  $14,500 + $1500 + $17,050 =
  $33,050 (200 hp full swap price not counting charger/inverter etc)
So while $27k is a lot, it's probably close to the going rate.

Also I feel that these numbers are inflated, due to the US's current 100% import tariff on Chinese EVs:

https://www.utilitydive.com/news/joe-biden-china-tariff-hike...

I'm part of the "radical center" politically (the opposite of centrist/moderate, popularized by Thom Hartmann and others), so this disappoints both sides of my sensibilities.

An electric motor is far easier to build than a gas engine, so should cost less than a crate engine (which are typically $2,000-7,000). Of course that's limited by copper and aluminum prices (not to mention lithium for batteries). Edit: wouldn't want to forget rare earths like neodymium either!

I believe that the decades-long delay in EV manufacturing (see Who Killed the Electric Car) was a supply chain problem, not a tech problem, since we've known how to do this since the 1980s and arguably for more like a century since the first cars were EV/biofuel powered and we've had nickel-iron and sodium-sulfur batteries forever that could have done the job, but I digress.

If/when the economy crashes in 2027/2028, and after voters demand better, I'd expect a cottage industry to open up again that builds EV parts for 1/2 price or less.

by zackmorris

5/7/2026 at 8:54:05 PM

It remains to be seen what they actually end up selling for, but it seems like Slate intend to offer a 200 hp motor, 52 kWh battery ... and the rest of a whole vehicle for $28k. That makes $27k for this "eCrate" package (which, granted, comes with 14 kWh more battery) seem like an absolutely terrible price.

by cibyr

5/4/2026 at 6:34:14 PM

For anyone looking to do an electric conversion. Chevy have a "crate motor" package based on one of their electric motors.

by mindcrime

5/7/2026 at 11:38:54 AM

Would you happen to have a link to that?

by stavros

5/7/2026 at 11:59:57 AM

The post links to what they’re referring to.

It took me a second to put it together that they’re the submitter.

by DANmode

5/7/2026 at 3:15:30 PM

Yeah, for some reason, HN disallows a top-level comment on a submitted link (but you can do a top-level comment on a stand-alone/no-link post). I always found that odd - as a submitter, I generally want to provide some commentary on what I found something interesting.

by alistairSH

5/7/2026 at 4:51:10 PM

Worse, their submission form looks like you can provide top-text, and indeed that same form field is used as top-text for Show HN, but for a normal submission it puts that text in a normal comment which almost always reads weirdly in that context.

by pavon

5/7/2026 at 7:26:01 PM

I don't think it does? Eg https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48038271

by stavros

5/7/2026 at 7:57:33 PM

Huh, something must have changed. At one time, if you entered a URL and title, you could not enter a comment.

And of course I submitted a junk test to see what it does today but there's no "delete" function for submissions. Le Sigh.

by alistairSH

5/7/2026 at 8:21:34 PM

Yeah I think this was changed recently, a few months ago I remember the text being a comment.

by stavros

5/7/2026 at 12:03:41 PM

Damn, now I have extra egg on my face because of the snark. It really is a double-edged sword.

by stavros

5/7/2026 at 3:56:29 PM

Heh. Don't sweat it.

by mindcrime

5/7/2026 at 11:13:33 AM

... that's what the link is talking about?

by LorenDB

5/7/2026 at 11:58:10 AM

They are the submitter ;]

by DANmode

5/7/2026 at 8:59:58 AM

Cool idea for vintage cars that were unremarkable when it came to driving characteristics or where only the frame and/or body survived with no drivetrain and hard to source donors.

by asimovDev

5/7/2026 at 10:03:50 AM

First thought was this should make for some fun resto-mods.

by tclancy

5/7/2026 at 11:01:44 AM

If I had infinite time and money, I would do this to a DeLorean.

by reverius42

5/7/2026 at 11:47:23 AM

Where is your sense of adventure? If you do it to a DeLorean, you might wind up with infinite time. Plus, pretty much every local car show I've been to has a handful of DeLoreans that I'd assume the owners are probably over maintaining. Actually, scratch that, let's go into a 3D printing business for DeLorean replacement parts to get the money thing down.

by tclancy

5/7/2026 at 12:03:11 PM

Many DeLorean parts - famously excluding the left fender - are still available as NOS from the company that bought John DeLorean's factory.

In fact, there are still complete, servicable engines _and chassis_ available. And the chassis are already registered with a VIN, so when built can be sold as a new 1984 model year vehicle.

by dotancohen

5/7/2026 at 8:01:11 PM

Just to be clear, you really stomped on my Back to the Future joke, weak as it was.

by tclancy

5/7/2026 at 8:49:11 PM

Great Scott! This is heavy. If we go back 60 minutes, maybe your joke still lands.

by dotancohen

5/7/2026 at 1:36:18 PM

Curious what's the issue with the left fender

by raverbashing

5/7/2026 at 1:52:34 PM

Probably a frequently damaged part, it's the part that will be hit first if you pull out into the path of another car.

by SoftTalker

5/7/2026 at 4:06:11 PM

If I remember correctly, it was the next part to be manufactured en mass before the factory shut down. They'd do a few days of X part, another few days of Y part, etc, in rotation. Another part of the factory was assembling the complete vehicles from the parts in stock.

by dotancohen

5/7/2026 at 7:56:45 PM

> vintage cars that were unremarkable

Yeah, I thought of the first corvettes that had catalytic converters:

1974 models had the last true dual exhaust system that was dropped on the 1975 models with the introduction of catalytic converters requiring the use of no-lead fuel. Engine power decreased with the base ZQ3 engine producing 165 hp (123 kW; 167 PS), the optional L82's output 205 hp (153 kW; 208 PS), while the 454 big-block engine was discontinued.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Corvette

by m463

5/7/2026 at 4:48:39 PM

[dead]

by spankalee

5/7/2026 at 7:49:45 PM

Man, I’m jealous of those of you who have the skills to do an ICE/BEV conversion. I have this total baseless fantasy that when I retire, I will open a little boutique shop doing conversions of old ICE vehicles into BEVs. Sadly, I have none of the skills, connections, or talent for such a thing. But in another life, it’s something I could see myself getting a real kick out of for many, many years. Having the neighbourhood kids drift in and out, call me “Old Man”, learn a thing or two.

My dad used to rebuild and flip old Daimlers and MGs back in the day on our suburban front lawn in Australia. For reasons of space, gentrification, economics, labour market changes, technological shifts, etc, that’s sadly far less common than it used to be. Such a loss.

by darkteflon

5/7/2026 at 8:35:08 PM

When you retire... Assuming you do, You can do anything. There is no magic Just practice. There is always a mechanic who needs space to work, and can help.

by pomian

5/7/2026 at 3:53:08 PM

Am I missing something or are there no clear pictures of what this actually looks like form factor wise? It seems to be going for a literal motor form factor in the pictures, with a 4-speed transmission and the batteries in the trunk? I went through the catalog [1] and it didn't really give me much of a better idea of what this is supposed to look like. I can take a good guess but you'd think they'd have a few clear pictures of the individual parts as-is.

[1] https://indd.adobe.com/view/a055533b-ed9a-4d56-84cb-5a416287...

by mynameajeff

5/7/2026 at 2:25:28 PM

Everyone is talking about how only licensed installers can work on this, but the battery is also ~1.5m square. How many cars have room for that? You'd basically have to rebuild the chassis from scratch, right? I guess you could put it in the bed of a pickup...

by fwipsy

5/7/2026 at 2:31:15 PM

Pinto just received its long-overdue trunk safety upgrade!

by DANmode

5/7/2026 at 6:55:12 AM

But they keep the 4-speed transmission? For what purpose?

by Animats

5/7/2026 at 8:15:06 AM

This is a straightforward way of electric conversion. You plug in the motor in the place where torque is expected and let the rest do its job.

Gearboxes in EV conversions are usually locked in the highest gear with clutch and lever removed.

by egorfine

5/7/2026 at 10:35:09 AM

How much friction loss do you get going through a transmission compared to direct drive?

by imglorp

5/7/2026 at 1:13:53 PM

Very few / almost no EVs are direct drive. The industry-standard layout is an integrated package of transverse motor with two-stage reduction and final drive, giving something like in the general vicinity of a 10:1 overall ratio (longer ratios are directionally more efficient, while shorter ratios are usually more cost-efficient). That's the ballpark of 2nd gear in many cars (final drive 3-4:1, 2nd gear often around 2-3:1).

So if you mount just the electric motor from an EV (insofar as it exists as a separable part) to a manual gearbox and weld that into 2nd gear you have something which broadly matches the design envelope of that motor. You could reduce gearbox losses by also removing the now unneeded but still idling gears.

by formerly_proven

5/7/2026 at 10:40:29 AM

Negligible. Roll the windows up if you want that range back.

I still think it's dumb and they should package it to replace the transmission and stuff all the batteries where the engine would go.

It would be "easy" to make the motor replace the bellhousing and midsection of a 4L80 and then simply provide the same output so you can stick whatever tailhousing you want on it. Put shifter on the side in the same spot, etc, etc. Could've packaged the batteries to fit in the same place as a SBC longblock.

I can't really come up with a "good" reason they did it the way they did. The problems the transmission solves are pretty trivial. Like either replace the engine so it can work with "any" transmission that can handle the torque (i.e. most of them) or replace the transmission too. Don't replace the engine and then mandate a particular trans. The only reason I can see to do that is if it's some sort of wink and nod deal where they know that it's easy to make it work with other transmissions but they're not touting it as compatible to cover their asses.

by cucumber3732842

5/7/2026 at 12:37:40 PM

[dead]

by imglorp

5/7/2026 at 10:48:07 AM

I'm not sure a direct drive is possible with EV conversions. You still need to match effective RPM range with diffs. And replacing transmission with a simpler specialized diff would cost much, much more than just using the existing transmission in place.

by egorfine

5/7/2026 at 5:12:17 PM

Most 2wd drivetrains lose between 15-20% of the power. But that includes the driveshaft, differential, and axle as well.

by olyjohn

5/7/2026 at 8:31:39 AM

Presumably so it's an easier conversion - you replace the motor but don't have to replace the rest of the drivetrain, and maybe you want the gearstick inside for the look of the thing (although I imagine you likely wouldn't have to use it most of the time).

by CamouflagedKiwi

5/7/2026 at 7:40:03 AM

Probably to interface with existing cars by replacing the engine, retaining everything after, including the existing transmission, differential(s), and suspension.

by jakogut

5/7/2026 at 12:49:27 PM

It's so you can obliterate your tires by sending all 260 ft/lbs through first gear from a dead stop, or pull entire buildings up hills.

by yabones

5/7/2026 at 9:02:51 AM

It says:

"The current eCrate kit requires a GM 4-speed automatic transmission with an external mode switch (e.g., 4L60, 4L65, 4L70, 4L75 Transmissions). This helps to make the eCrate conversion easier for vehicles that already have a conventional driveline, plus it provides extra torque in lower gears and extra speed with overdrive. We are working on bringing a direct drive variant option to our eCrate portfolio."

by tecleandor

5/7/2026 at 7:04:19 AM

Reduction ratios, greater comparability due to interfacing links, attachment points, just a few guesses. Most ev conversions I've seen keep the gearbox.

by consp

5/7/2026 at 5:09:05 PM

Interesting. This past weekend, I got a chance to speak with Corvette's chief engineer Josh Holder at Chevrolet's Corvette Corral for the IMSA race at Laguna Seca.

I asked him if we'd see an all electric Corvette in the C8 timeframe, or would have to wait until the C9?

He confirmed (to the group) there would not be an all electric C8.

GM has long done "crate" engines, where people swap their cars OE engine for one of GM's small block v8s (an "LS or LT swap") frequently found in Corvettes, Escalades, and probably Silverado/large trucks/SUVs.

Seeing an electric crate engine from GM shows me that they plan to do the same with an electrified power train. Cool.

by ndesaulniers

5/7/2026 at 5:58:00 PM

It hasn't turned out that way with Ford, who's been selling the Mach-E motor for years. It's useless because they don't sell any of the other necessary hardware. A battery, for instance.

by MoonWalk

5/7/2026 at 1:57:27 PM

The worst part of the EV transition is that EV's naturally lend themselves to computer control, which means manufacturers can software the ever living fuck out of it, and put hard locks on everything. Even now moving to encrypted CANs so you cannot even see what your vehicle is doing.

Maybe you can make some kind of case in their defense, safety or whatever, but what makes it truly indefensible is that once the car is out of warranty, out of their liability, they're just gonna chuck the software keys in a pit and leave you with an eternally immutable half-baked design.

So unless this comes with a fully open source software package, or even no software at all and just documentation, it's a bad product and I wish the worst for it.

by WarmWash

5/7/2026 at 4:11:57 PM

Sorry, you can't clear your check engine light until you upgrade to our "Hobbyist" tier subscription.

by k12sosse

5/7/2026 at 1:23:52 PM

Even if someone could buy this off she shelf and install themselves- I don't see a single use case that would make this cool at this power level (eg. EV conversions- 200hp is slow in almost anything!)

by jgbuddy

5/7/2026 at 3:21:16 PM

The instant torque would be fun esp for old square bodies.

by Zhenya

5/7/2026 at 7:26:24 PM

My 2013 Passat TDI would like a word with you...

by superxpro12

5/7/2026 at 1:32:48 PM

How much would something like this cost from BYD, and could we even buy it/install it?

by Cedarwolf

5/8/2026 at 1:42:19 AM

Listed price for this thing gets you whole brand new BYD Seal or eMAX 7, same spects of motor/battery, plus you get whole car around it.

by rasz

5/7/2026 at 12:34:55 PM

https://www.thedrive.com/news/42974/fords-281-hp-electric-cr...

by actionfromafar

5/7/2026 at 1:50:48 PM

They never released a single piece of supporting hardware for this, or even much documentation. Really a rather baffling release. You have to spec and source a controller, inverter, and battery yourself (and then figure out how you're going to integrate the rest of the car's systems with said controller you spec'd yourself). You're better off grabbing the whole shebang out of a wrecked Bolt or Leaf.

It's also only the front motor from the Mach-E and the concept truck Ford made with this crate motor at release includes the rear motor to make it functional, which they don't sell...

by pchew

5/7/2026 at 11:40:07 AM

American automakers - good engineering, good designers but politicians i.e protecting the jobs & Wall Street short-term thinking get in the way.

though GM seems to be the only american automaker that hasn't really given up on EVs

by dzonga

5/7/2026 at 2:19:27 PM

The politicians are just the cogs in the system. It's the CEOs and shareholders that are paying them that are the problem.

by thesuitonym

5/7/2026 at 2:13:54 PM

Politicians are the reason they only sell this to authorized shops?

by DangitBobby

5/7/2026 at 4:46:28 PM

Interesting that it's designed to connect to a 4 speed transmission. That's incredibly ancient by gas transmission technologies, even heavy duty pickups are on 10 speeds now.

by GenerWork

5/7/2026 at 5:20:56 PM

It is designed for 4L60 transmission so 1993–2005 S-10 Blazers/Astros, 1994–2002 Camaros, 1994–1996 Fleetwood/Roadmasters, and 1999–2006 Escalades.

by slaw

5/7/2026 at 2:04:18 PM

[dead]

by junglistguy

5/7/2026 at 7:53:09 AM

I wouldn't be excited when their cars comes with a spy package that sells every information when your are in it.

It won't take years for they to think that they can pry in private conversations in the car for whatever purpose they want

by motbus3

5/7/2026 at 8:19:43 AM

Your comment seems off topic. I think the conversion package is great and should come with all the available cars. If we really care about ecology (but apparently we don't)

by p0w3n3d

5/7/2026 at 9:12:26 PM

I don't think so. The whole car is a predatory platform. I do the best I can to avoid doing business with people who thinks such practices are acceptable.

I don't really care if the package itself is cool or anything... I think people incentive too much this sort of anti consumer practices

by motbus3

5/7/2026 at 8:44:16 AM

You wouldn’t want a newer gas car then. Pretty much anything these days has the ability to track you or disable you remotely.

Got OnStar? https://www.onstar.com/features/location-sharing

by cbdevidal

5/7/2026 at 11:55:19 AM

> or disable you remotely.

I thought the kids were calling it “unalived”.

by DANmode