Clean Green Cars: Want an electric Trabant? It's already here

Want an electric Trabant? It's already here

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Green Culture, Green Daily, Germany

DIY electric Trabant conversion - click above for high res gallery

While we were enjoying the look of the updated and all-electric Trabant nT concept that made its debut in Frankfurt, reader Nikki made sure we knew that an electric Trabant is already here. As we can see in the before and after pics, the car looks wonderful (if you, like us, are a fan of the original Trabi’s iconic lines) in its new gorgeous blue paintwork. We love it.

Underhood, the old two-stroke engine has been replaced with an EV system that uses ten 58 Ah Odyssey Lead acid gel batteries, a Zapi controller with regen and speed limit to move the old Eastern Bloc vehicle to 70 mph (the old petrol Trabant topped out at about 62 mph). DIY mechanic Martin, in Bristol, UK, needed to work around a lot of interesting issued to make the Elektrotrabi, including finding only one place to put the controller and needing to plug holes created by the conversion with an aluminum plate. Find more pictures over on Flickr.

Gallery: DIY Electric Trabant