I have always wanted an electric car, and someday I'd like to take out the engine
of my MINI Cooper and replace it with an electric motor and controller.

I've done tons of research on converting cars and trucks to electric, and some of
the local yahoos have actually done it and are driving around town gas-free.

So, does anyone have any idea what just the engine weighs? Not the transaxle,
just the engine.

Maybe someone had it out to do some work, and could guess?

Here is the car to beat: Remember, this is an ELECTRIC car!!! 1/4 mile at 114 MPH!!!

 

It all comes down to battery weight in the end. I just don't know if the MINI is big enough to stuff enough batteries into to make a practical electric car. Hopefuly in the next few years where will finaly be some progress in battery design, car batteries have not really changed much since the late 70's, so that they can shrink the size of car batteries down.

 

>> I just don't know if the MINI is big enough to stuff enough batteries into to make a practical electric car.

Oh, I didn't mean practical.

But if these guys can do this for an RX-7 which is not real big, could it be done in a MINI Cooper?

For practical here in MN you just take a pickup truck and load the bed with batteries, and you can
get 75-mile range pretty easily.

 

Some of the MINI's used in the Italian Job were electric....

So it is Possible.