We put electric motors
in old trucks.

There's no single number, because a conversion is a pile of separate line items and every vehicle moves them around:

• Battery pack — usually the biggest one, and it scales directly with the range you want. Whether you go new or salvage changes the number a lot.
• Motor and inverter — sized to the vehicle and how you plan to drive it.
• Labor to strip the ICE out — engine, exhaust, fuel system, radiator. On a rusty New England truck this takes longer than people expect.
• Transmission — if it's already a manual, you keep it and adapt to the existing bellhousing, which is the cheap path. An automatic means swapping a manual in or going direct-drive, and that's real added cost. Our Ranger came as an automatic, so we've done this swap ourselves.
• Everything the engine used to run — power steering, vacuum brakes, heat, AC. Each one needs an electric replacement or it goes away.
• Charging — onboard charger, charge port, and the HV wiring to support it.
• Fabrication — motor mounts, battery boxes, and brackets are vehicle-specific and almost never off the shelf.

Tell us the vehicle, whether it's a manual, and how far you need to go, and we'll put a real quote together instead of guessing here.

Light ones that aren't rotten. Older pickups and small trucks are easiest: there's room for the pack, the wiring is simple, and there's no computer to argue with. Anything newer with a lot of electronics in it gets harder and more expensive, sometimes a lot more. More on truck conversions and classic cars.

Depends on pack size, how heavy the vehicle is, and how badly it pushes air. We'd rather work it out for your vehicle at the spec stage than put a number here that turns out to be wrong.

If you already have a manual, you keep it — that's the simplest path. The motor mates to the existing bellhousing and the gearbox stays. Most conversions end up driving in one or two gears once you get used to the torque.

If it's an automatic, the usual answer is to pull it and put a manual in. That's what we did on the Ranger. It came as an automatic, the old transmission came out with the engine, and a manual went in. It costs more and it's more work, but plenty of people have done it and so have we.

In Rhode Island, what the DMV told us is that a conversion needs sign-off from a licensed electrical engineer and a licensed mechanical engineer, both based in the state. It's handled like an engine swap with extra steps, not a rebuilt vehicle. That came from a phone call rather than published guidance, so confirm it for your own build — we'll tell you what we know and point you at the DMV for anything we're not sure of. See our notes on registering a converted EV.

We're based in Rhode Island. We take full conversions from across New England and the Northeast — Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, and New York. Build consulting and parts sourcing can happen anywhere. More on our service area.