Hi guys I am a new member. I am Andre Kriel and live in Worcester, South Africa. I bought a half restored and incomplete Vespa 400. Missing items are: taillights, soft top, badges, wheel covers, instrument cluster, engine and possibly some other stuff. Someone intalled an incomplete Goggomobile engine which never ran as far as I know. Please don't crucify me for the next words: I am going to convert the car to electric! The reasons is: 1.I will never find an original engine. 2.Fuel in this country is very expensive. 3.The car is perfect for that. It's very light and cute. 4.I always wanted to do such a project and believe electric cars is the future. 5.I have the knowledge and ability. 6.I have the stuff. I have a nice 48V forklift motor, a 1000Amp IGBT and and other stuff. I have not decided on batteries yet. Don't worry, except for converting it to electric, the rest will be as original as possible. I will have to mount most of the batteries in the nose and the rest at the back with the motor. I aim for a top speed of 80Km/h and about 10 sec to get there and a range of 50km as we live in a small town and I don't want to add more than a 100Kg of batteries. Any comments? Andre Kriel https://web-cars.com/phorum//read.php?4,33347,33347#msg-33347 Fri, 09 Oct 2026 19:55:18 +0000 Phorum 5.2.23 https://web-cars.com/phorum//read.php?4,33347,33347#msg-33347 https://web-cars.com/phorum//read.php?4,33347,33347#msg-33347
I am a new member. I am Andre Kriel and live in Worcester, South
Africa. I bought a half restored and incomplete Vespa 400. Missing
items are: taillights, soft top, badges, wheel covers, instrument
cluster, engine and possibly some other stuff. Someone intalled an
incomplete Goggomobile engine which never ran as far as I know.

Please don't crucify me for the next words: I am going to convert the
car to electric!

The reasons is:
1.I will never find an original engine.
2.Fuel in this country is very expensive.
3.The car is perfect for that. It's very light and cute.
4.I always wanted to do such a project and believe electric cars is the
future.
5.I have the knowledge and ability.
6.I have the stuff. I have a nice 48V forklift motor, a 1000Amp IGBT and
and other stuff. I have not decided on batteries yet.

Don't worry, except for converting it to electric, the rest will be as
original as possible. I will have to mount most of the batteries in the
nose and the rest at the back with the motor. I aim for a top speed of
80Km/h and about 10 sec to get there and a range of 50km as we live in
a small town and I don't want to add more than a 100Kg of batteries.

Any comments?

Andre Kriel

]]> Electric Vespa Vespa Microcar Forum Sat, 02 Sep 2006 20:13:32 +0000