EV swapped Mazda Miata MX5 // The Late Brake Show

hmm i'm johnny smith aka car pervert and it's  time to slow down for the late break show   so i'm back at zero ev but i wanted to come  and explore this car in detail because it's   only just when it's not actually finished is it  strictly speaking strictly speaking now it's still   prototype testing nearly finished nearly so mx5  mark two it is mark two isn't it two point five   two don't i never know don't say two points five  just yeah because people expect me to know loads   about mx-files and i don't know loads all i know  is it's the best-selling two-seater and it's   yellow convertible in history and it's arizona  edition but if you wanted to know in detail what's   gone into this build this conversion you can go  on to xero ev's youtube channel where chris is   expertly documented its entire transformation i do  love the mx-5 but now i hate it just a little bit   what this started off as a what 1.8 1.6 1.6 okay  and it's known as being a really well balanced   quite a simple car so what first of all what  made you want to do an mx-5 um they were cheap   i've known mx-5s i've actually had a couple of  them so it was a known car to start with at least   we knew what we were starting with yeah 50 50  balance yeah front engine rear wheel drive you   can get loads of parts from and the other thing is  there's so many people that love the mx-5 we knew   we'd get the following on it so we get the support  from the community because it's a classic already   it's worth spending the time to do an mx-5 because  you know in the future people are going to want it   yeah rather than do something that they only  need a couple of and will never get done again   yeah so basically this is like a test mule  for you guys yes anything front engine rear   wheel drive it's just sort of giving us  a really good test bed to work through   and it's actually got our new reduction gearbox  in on the hyper 9. okay that's a just single   speed reduction which means you can put engine and  gearbox in the tunnel leaving the whole front free   for batteries which is good especially in a small  car like this yeah you've got no other space yeah oh well the first thing i'm going to say is it's  a lot more open than i expected i was expecting   to be crammed and it's not crammed no it's really  clean to be honest if we could say so ourselves   um yeah we've got our 26 kilowatt hour batch  pack with battery management system and all   the contacts that we're in that one box in this  box here everything's in this box so 26 kilowatt   hours right okay so that's 100 mile range real  day i mean if you did really nicely you might get   120 okay yeah something like this is ideal yeah um  and we've managed to get it set back as far as we   can so it's not overhanging out the front um we've  got some crash protection is that what this is for   this is intentional i'm going to say yes in case  you stuff it in case you stuff it but i suppose   it's it means there's scope to increase this if  you ever wanted to yeah if you ever needed to   in the future yeah and the big benefit with this  is they've said the end the gearbox and motor is   in the tunnel down there so it's not taking  off so this is batteries only batteries   yeah and the control system and then we've got our  vacuum assist system that has original braking but   we've got a vacuum assist unit there to keep  the brakes working which is basically a little   mini vacuum pump and a reservoir and that just  kicks in and out when the vacuum pressure drops   right so it's not on all the time yeah which is  what you hear on some of the other old conversions   you've always got this buzzing running and then  all the only other thing we've got then is our   throttle cable that comes in here and then our  throttle part is there it's just a cable pull   that's nice he didn't he didn't really want me  to come and drive it today because he said it's   not quite finished yet so there's a few little  you know bits of overspray here and there and he   desperately wanted to paint the front bumper he  didn't want me to mention it but i'm going to   mention it because i know chris is a perfectionist  so this is in the final stages of completion uh   we've got prototype gearbox in this at the moment  so it's not as quiet as the finished article will   be yeah but it's it's still going to give you  full performance and stuff so let's let's talk   performance so volts just over 100 volts kilowatt  hours is 20 26. then the motor is a single motor   so motor is single motor hyper nine so it's 80  kilowatts which is about 120 brake horsepower   and 230 newton meters of torque okay that sounds  alright maximum 8 000 rpm 8000 rpm and then   there's a little there's a reduction gearbox in  the middle yeah so the bigger they they're that   okay it's as narrow as the hyper nine so it's just  basically you end up with one unit that long which   is the motor and the gearbox that's that comes out  to a yoke which is constructed to the prop shaft   okay so it still has a prop still has a prop so  the gearbox is a one point eight to one reduction   yep which is the standard production to our  standard read read different stack mx five   rear end attached rear end exactly as standard as  it was no modification and then underneath here   where the fuel tank was we've got charger and dc  to dc with some fuses uh which does mean when we   put the scales we're still at 50 50. oh yeah  we're at 50.2 and 49.8 or something so we're   oh seriously 50 50. you've kept that we've kept  it original which was a bit of a concern a lot   of our sort of youtube viewers had are we going  to keep it 50 and we have yeah yeah yeah stayed   surprisingly i'm bit quite surprised how close  it actually is and it stayed 50 50. that's pretty   good yeah it's come out really well does it still  have a boot who has a boot look at that as was as   was as was you've still got a spare wheel hidden  under here that's amazing so actually you've done   a pretty good job of kind of keeping it you won't  know really no um and then just there you have tada oh type two yep so that's in the original  aperture original aperture and then we're a 6.6   kilowatt hour charger so four hours full charge so  that's your standard home standard charging 32 amp   like you have on your wall yeah yeah uh seven  kilowatt i think they're classes aren't they on   the type two yes is there the option of being able  to charge faster if you wanted to on this one not   on this one because of the voltage right so you  need to be over 200 volts to do fast charging with   the uk network some of them do slightly less but  they're really hard to come by right so this is   more of a city sort of car i suppose yes sunday  driver yeah 120 miles it's weekend thing yeah   weekend thing but ideal for built up cities and  stuff the weight distribution is almost the same   what about the weight 1000 1070 kilograms what is  the original i think 980. 40 50 kilos in it that's   it's one person not even a big person sat  in the seat yeah or some luggage in the back   okay that's really good that's really good yeah  it's mainly down to the range though so if we   went for more range then obviously you're going  to be over on your weight yeah so something like   this you're going to have to stay lower range to  keep your weight the same so if someone's watching   this and they go i've got an mx-5 and i'd love to  ev it but i would want more range you could say   it is possible yeah but you'd have to put maybe  either some batteries in there or and a little bit   more bigger pack there yeah and those but then you  can end up adding say 150 kilos to it so you're   still going to be within its limits of the car  on paper but you're obviously going to be heavier   which is not ideal we've got regenerative braking  as well but we've got to be careful how much we   do because obviously it's only on the rear so  you don't want too much braking on the rear   and making it unbalanced you want to lock the  back up yeah so there's some regen it braking   okay well i am not an mx-5 aficionado but i'm  going to say it looks pretty much stock apart from   there's no lever there's no a knob there's now a  knob yes there's now and that is is that the only   difference i can see here we have different gauges  oh they're all different they're all different so   this is actually a set speed hut setup basically  they've supplied to us okay um and what we've done   is we've changed out so we've got amps instead of  our rpm okay and then we've got motor temperature   and battery temperature and we've got state  of charge in the middle so they're the same   sort of layout as original yeah it focused me  i didn't know but they are eevee specific now   um with also some cool little extra things like  uh if you're charging the green light flashes   little things like that and some extra temperature  warning lights just to make it a bit better for   people and it has a low state of charge case  when you get to 10 that light comes on and   says you're getting low yeah just all the little  bits that people would expect on their petrol   vehicle yeah try to keep everything as standard as  possible and yeah get the nice it's just r n and d   what i like about that is it's faithful to the  mx-5 there's no touch screens and fancy pants   stuff because mx-5s aren't are they what  kind of um zero to 62 we talked to we're   currently about eight seconds roughly okay and  we're maxing out just over 80 miles an hour   okay the current setup there is a little bit more  tuning to do but that's sort of a comfortable   performance i think yeah because you've not got  gear changes it seems a lot quicker than it is   yeah i think that's what people seem to forget  you've just got instant power all the time yeah   also because it's an mx-5 and there's a  massive following they've sold millions of them   there's loads of aftermarket bits available  so if you wanted to you could go to town on   extra suspension bigger brakes again so at this  stage with this car you're not necessarily trying   to sell a kit to people as yet as yet no if we  had a number of people yeah then we'd probably   do a run a production run on kits yeah just  gauging interest engaging interest uh yeah this   was mainly the the test bed so we could do classic  british vehicles yep ngbs and spitfires this gives   a really good base to move into those now there's  and there's loads of them yeah and there's loads   of really really high-end little niche garages  around the uk and europe which all they do is   those niche yeah like i just do triumph stags and  they do them beautifully so we're trying to enable   them to to then offer an ev converted version of  there already it's a specialist vehicle that's a   great idea i'm going to take it for a drive now  chris this is the bit where i say thanks but bye   obviously i've got me in that seat for that  otherwise it's just weird and pointless this just feels pleasantly mx5 zero ev hasn't forgotten the point the attraction  of these cars and that's a compliment indeed   because what it means is hasn't tried to  add a load of power that it's not capable   of handling yes you could do that absolutely  you could do that then you change the recipe yeah one wheel peel but of course you can put a  limited slip diff in it some mx-5s respect with   them we can buy an aftermarket one it's just  got that lovely body control and that balance   the mx-5s to have out of the box and it doesn't  feel any heavier normally evs give away their   mass quite early on no this isn't doing that  and that's because it's not really any heavier   than the original car the mx-5 was never a fast  powerful car but what it was is exceptionally   playful and balanced and that's what this is  in fact if i had earphones on or earplugs in   it would just feel like an automatic  mx5 but this is possibly the only   automatic mx5 that i would recommend  you buying now you're probably going   johnny this is all lovely but talk to  me talk to me about money turkey well chris says a kit like this would cost in the  region of 20 000 pounds including the 20 v80   i feel like something's missing though no true  mx-5 owner goes anywhere without a cat it felt   completely mx-5 and i mean that in a  complimentary way good because it felt   just like an mx-5 has done it felt no heavier than  an mx-5 it didn't behave differently didn't grip   in an unusual way it was really really good what  it means is i don't think you've sport the recipe   which is probably what people are always scared  of for cars like this especially with the electric   conversion side of things yeah because it can  be really weighty in the wrong place and that   was the first thing is usually with an ev when you  start to push it you can feel where that mass is   it wasn't there brilliant it's really good  really pleased with it bloody hell yeah no   i enjoyed it i think it was a lot it's just nice  to be honest it's nice to be back out in an mx-5   and it's also nice to see knowing that you've used  the components you've used because you thought   it doesn't need a long range necessarily it  doesn't need to have a sledgehammer of power   because you're just trying to replace the  equivalent piston power with eu pack and yes you   could change that if you wanted a 500 horsepower  one of course you can do that but i just i've   really enjoyed it i thought it's great and it just  goes to show what can be done and i know this is   pretty much a prototype for you so and i've  never thought actually the mx-5's best bit   was the engine so to me i wouldn't miss  that but i fully expect to be trolled now so first thing we'll start  with is the tesla selection   drive units see you probably get blase about  seeing all these drive units just sitting on racks   yeah i remember the first time we bought  them in and we had a cup like two or three   and we was like oh it's amazing we've got  a couple of drive units and now i think   there's probably at least 20 scattered around  in the workshop yes and then how we get them   in that state but we'll strip them bearings  re-test them all put them on the dyno check   everything's good and they leave us leave us  all tested and good for another you know 100   000 miles or so that's incredible so we're buying  in eight tens at a time a couple of pallets loads   from companies um and tesla won't sell a brand new  motor now so these are all salvaged all salvaged   yeah yeah yeah all salvage motors well what's good  this is this is a broken inverter just yeah it's   not how we keep them stored um are they still the  best motor i mean you've got for the money yeah   yeah and the amount of abuse we've given these  motors over the years and testing and pushing them   to their limits in the skyline these are still our  go-to solution there is going to be other motors   coming along like probably the thai cam motor and  stuff but they're going to be in such low numbers   that they're never really going to make it into  the conversion market and with the model 3 stuff   coming out as well and the performance you're  getting out of them i think tesla will stay at   the go-to motor-wise i don't think they were  battery-wise because the new batteries are   difficult to work with so a bit like in the 50s  when chevy brought out the small block v8 yes and   then people took the what was a brand new v8 and  put it in older cars yep the hot rod yes was born   you're basically hot rodding elon's bits that  just sounds wrong but you know what i mean   do you do stuff other than tesla motors we do  um we've got the hyper9 stuff which obviously   everyone's used for years we do some bits  for the hyper 9 but we've actually got   a new range coming out which we're calling  the zonic which is still up for debate so   we've got a 120 and a 180 so we've got  120 kilowatt and an 880 kilowatt hour   a kilowatt version yeah um and that's going  to come in a sort of couple of variants the   120 is a motor with inverter on the back very  similar to sort of hyper nine yeah but it's 350   volts nominal so it's high voltage wow and then  we've got the 180 which is same voltage but it has   like our our new gearbox as such which does  prop drive so front engine rear wheel drive cars   absolutely perfect to put in the tunnel yes that's  our 180 that's going to be coming out as well and   this is your own development this is our own stuff  yeah okay that's what the mx-5 is for that sort   of testing the gearbox and some of the other bits  for that system these cars look like they're being   restored but in but in this instance you're not  restoring this it looks like we've got loads of   cars we're converting but actually they're all in  relevant stages of being prototype test vehicles   yeah motor one side a motor central gearbox and  then inverter on the other side yeah they're a big   thing though aren't they yes but then when you can  push on the sports 650 brake horsepower out of one   and you consider how big a engine and turbo  you'd have to have on a combustion engine yeah   and what's the weight of that uh 130ish kilos  roughly that's not a lot so it's not that much   not that much at all wow okay what's next what's  next danger high voltage let's go in oh it feels   like a vip club situation you know where you got  your own separate little area you get your special   drink this is a battery build room basically this  is where we basically assemble our battery packs   we've got our rigs to help the guys make our lives  easy and what's this going into so this is going   in is it secret this is going porsche porsche 911  911 this is our new 911 kits basically um which   are doing the the old g-body i think they call  it and then the 964s yeah um so basically it's a   standardized kit with a couple of tweaks and  it fits in in both models basically so it's a   replacement for the air cooled yeah but it's  a complete bolt in so it picks up on all the   original engine mounts not modified anything  you've dropped in a gearbox yeah and this   this has basically some metal work that comes  across here it picks up on the gearbox mounts that   would have been there yeah test the drive unit  and then the rear here picks up on the original   rear mounts um so reversible yes yes completely  reversible you don't cut looms you didn't modify   any part of the car yeah also means when it  comes to uk legislation you've not made any   chassis modifications the point system in the  uk is as soon as you do chassis mods you've   five points gone you've got eight points in total  so by doing it that way you you go nowhere near   your point system yeah dbla is happy it's just a  log book change yeah and that's it and it's good   from i guess the if you ever want to change your  mind or the car changes hands yes and you think   how much these porsches are now they're just going  up and up in value the last thing you want to do   is to cut it to modify and then 10 years down the  line go oh there's new tech out i want to change   it you didn't need to do that asking for a little  trouble this is very neat so this is an aluminium   steel steel we looked at aluminium but once you  go thicker with the aluminium and all that stuff   there's just not a huge amount in it so built into  here is all the basically all the high voltage   junction box system is all inside of it battery  management system inside of it so you've not got   anything external it's this sealed box once it's  in unless you lift the engine bay yeah you can't   tell no it doesn't stick down underneath the tool  so if you look at the car visually you apart from   missing the exhaust you'd have you'd have no idea  that it's been converted brilliant and then that   one fits in the front uh where the fuel tank was  yeah so your your spare wheel still fits where it   was so actually once you put your engine your  cover back over you've still got your original   front because they call it so 53 kilowatt  hours yeah in total in a 911 range of about   we're saying 180 but that's real world we know  it's more okay that's what we're that's what   we're putting on paper and ability to rapid charge  yes we've got we will have ccs fast charging so we   can do up to in theory 120 kilowatts an hour wow  ccs we're sort of saying you know 80 charge within   an hour and that's plays it safe that's sort of  a repeatable thing um that's news that's news the   ability to ccs on a yeah it's not true yeah it's  not been done before that will be available for   other conversions as well not just this not just  911s not just 911s it would be if you're running   certain bms's and you've got liquid calling then  you can run ccs so if i order my 911 kit today   yeah and it has today's tech in it yes but in two  years i've done x miles in it and i'm thinking or   maybe i want more power maybe i want more range  the chances are we can take it out and actually   just replace the modules themselves rather than  having to rebuild everything and change the entire   structure okay that's cool yeah spell calling  fans i've i've used them before they're good   um so we've got dual cooling so batteries  motor yeah but then what we've done is we've   stuck with off-the-shelf bits so these are  actually out of vw's like the mark six sevens   they sit in the sides so the most common  things we're trying to keep standardized   so any service garage can replace a radiator yeah  you don't have to find an ev specialist somewhere   the other side of the country to you to to swap  it's just a golf so if you're watching this and   you're a company that wants to start converting  classic cars not even classics used cars   to ev mass-produced popular used cars consider  these guys because they've been doing it a little   while you know what they're doing i'm going to  get hundreds of emails i wouldn't say that that's   you're making out that i'm an influential popular  person you're trying i'm trying it and it pays to   try apparently uh next room which room it's the  futuristic zone bloody love the crystal maze now i know that's yours yes and it's got  an exhaust and it's keeping an exhaust   is it yes so this is the thing you're obviously i  know you're into cars in general but this is not   going to get the ev treatment not this one i might  do one at some point you totally got to do all of   it but i'll have to buy a bit of a wreck i think  and start from scratch yeah yeah yeah yeah this   is this is nice this is nice so judging by the  rear suspension this doesn't have an engine this   is stripped ready to convert so this is actually  a 964 but it's back dated why body but old bumpers   old bumpers old grills all of the chrome trim  wow and the italian leather interior and yeah   it's stunning all the trim and trimmings shall we  say and this is going to have what the tesla based   yes so the the kit we looked at yeah that's what's  going in this basically that's going to be really   good yeah and quick and quick so about 200 mile  range 180 to 200 mile range and you're looking   at 450-ish break so sub four and a half seconds  zero to 60. but it's the torque as well we know   we can do less we could do a lot quicker 060s but  for supply to customers it's got to be sensible   because these were scatty enough as it they  were scatty enough as it is yeah this is great   that's that's a bit nice what's that from it says tesla on it it does  but it's actually from a b-class mercedes and   on paper 28 kilowatt hours but actually they're 36  kilowatt hours of the pack they're just restricted   really restricted really really restricted the   g-whiz fits four of those modules in as they are  as they can so you can upgrade a g whiz like that   with just and have a few bits and twelve kilowatt  hours just over there gee whiz which is ideal   i nearly hot rodded a g whiz for lolz and i and i  valued my life and i was like nah the g wizards i   mean these are far superior to g wizards i'm used  to small fast cars but the g whiz i can found that   johnny has a standard here the g whiz is just  the oh there's two things that i won't go below   morris marina which is ironically i've seen my  outside the last thing i was expecting to see   outside zero ev and gee whiz just can't you're  tempted to you're going to play with one of these   aren't you is this going to be this one we've  sort of started but he's finding the time now   outlander rear motor right in there and a golf gte  hybrid pack should just about fit that's probably   100 horsepower 100 brake horsepower because it's  not classed as a car is it it's a quadricycle yeah   you need to do it you need to find time yeah we  need to find time can stop buying stuff off zero   ev these are tesla batteries aren't they yes still  desirable though still very desirable yeah um the   issue we found if we're doing kits is trying to  find tesla packs because everyone wants them all   the solar guys want them all the little converters  want them yeah and with the hyper 9 systems once   five of them yeah so as much as they're really  good they're also really hard to get hold of in   large quantity which is why you're developing the  other stuff i want to know what's going on in that   chamber there chris what is  going on you're not allowed in   oh no no is that a secret that's secret well  it's that's ccs development i can see the plug   yes there's a ccs plug and there's a big  battery pack and a ccs fast charger which   is great because you know for me especially you  know having a classic car that can ccs charge   what means you can run a smaller pack yeah that's  the other benefit is you don't have to put the car   over weight and you don't have to spend extra  i don't know five six seven thousand pound on   batteries that you're nev you're only going to use  once to go a long distance yeah so you can just   top it up quicker yeah so it means that car that  can do 100 miles on a charge is actually perfect   for all your round town stuff and if you do want  to do a longer trip you can fast charge it yeah   super quick anyway so you don't necessarily need  to be lugging around extra pile of batteries   everywhere for no reason this is a model three  that's a model three yep a bit of a mess obviously   completely well something we messed around  with took apart looked at how it was designed   and it's just sort of sat here ever since um  we have got some dashboard bits for the model 3   which we've got something coming out but i'm not  telling you about really for the actual model   3. um don't tell me an actual speedo that you  can look at that's in the line of vision maybe   just going to put that out there yeah possibly  possibly it might be nice and round oh wow   and have some retro sort of skins really maybe  but you can't tell me i can't say it yeah yeah   these are quite difficult to use because they're  four long modules inside but i don't know how long   it's going to be until they stop doing modules  and they just do direct to pack and it's just one   solid pack model s is going to probably transition  across at some point to the model 3 style and then   there's going to be no model s batteries left yeah  and we can start getting everyone in the market   into the newer modules now to start transitioning  away from tesla long term we've heard that maybe   tesla set up to allow it to do battery to grid  there's talk of it around i don't know how true   it is but if that's the case and someone does  hack this potentially you might just take it as   a complete unit i was going to say i could buy one  of those and vertically put it in a cupboard yeah   so that that time will come i think yeah yeah  yeah just a matter of time weird isn't it how   these things happen how these things evolve  but this is sort of some rough design phase   so that is a that is a laser scanned engine bay is  it the front end of a 911 yeah cause we can just   do a production run and have a batch of say ten  of them yeah purchase it get shipped to them say   in a couple of weeks they spend 60 hours something  like that converting the car and done yeah there's   sort of and you haven't got to break the news  that you've got to grind off the brackets for   the fuse box or anything with days as it was yeah  which is the main thing so 911 is a big kit for   you guys isn't it yeah there's so many of them and  they're quite high value so it's a really good one   to start with yeah to perfect the system i suppose  and there's going to be lists of other cars expect   oh you've got once we get this system we've got  a hit list and we get the production side in it   means we can bring costs down we're buying large  volume we're hoping we can start looking at in   some more the budget vehicles long term yeah like  mass production budget stuff but that is you know   going to be at least a year or so away okay i'd  expect this is this thing we can't talk about   um this is the thing we can't talk about okay  yeah this is yeah this is all stuff we don't   know oh yeah yeah so that's the steering column  that like slots into there you can't show me   any of this actually yeah you you can't see  any of this obviously you can't see and then   you look in your model 3 and you'll have like  a nice oh wow obviously this will be all billet   aluminium and it'll be like the iphone screen so  that'll be like a just a glass bezel there won't   be any of this this is just for prototyping i see  i see i see a really nice just a glass circle plug   and play add-on okay but like you said it  likes that i can't show you that so sorry it's just too interesting for me i just love it  it's mad isn't it like 15 years ago having this   sort of technology in a small business was out of  the question out of the question and now you've   got 3d laser scanners cnc machines plasma cutter  there and this you can do it all from a quiet   farmyard so i've noticed this one when we were  in the workshop merck sl presumably this is in   for a bit of surgery so this is actually going  to be a bolton kit for the sr range but this is   going to take a while because everything has to  be perfect and this is a car where the values of   like the porsche they've hit a certain level where  owners will yes entertain a um a conversion i mean   and everything with us will be full bolt in fully  reversible no cutting nothing you keep all your   original dashboard bits and everything so you can  always revert it back because the value in these   is with matching engine numbered cars yeah so if  someone keeps our engine somewhere in storage they   can always either sell it with the engine as  converted or converted back if the value goes   through the roof and you guys have bought what  a product basically a restoration project it   doesn't matter if you scratch it because the paint  frankly is quite off anyway yeah it's quite bad i don't want to ruin his concrete   oh this the electric skyline drift car i  haven't forgotten about it i'm just saving   it for another video you see i've got a friend  who i think might appreciate it stay tuned as i said before if you haven't already been on  xero ev's youtube channel you should really have   a look it documents every single nut and bolt of  the conversion of this particular car um and if   you haven't subscribed to my channel why haven't  you come on it's just cruel as usual thanks for   watching i'm johnny smith this has been the late  break show and that is chris in xero ev thank you hello

Channel: The Late Brake Show

Views: 368,394

Keywords: Carpervert, electric classic car conversion, why we bought a jdm import, electric car conversion, the late brake show, jonny smith car review, most popular japanese classic car, favourite jdm import, tesla swap, mazda mx5 miata buying guide, mazda miata restoration, classic mazda jdm import, best 2 seater car, modifying a mazda mx5, mx5 miata project car, zero ev, miata mx5 engine swap, how to convert car to ev, tesla model 3 battery removal, worlds most popular roadster, mx5

Id: VZws7kE3U5k

Length: 30min 56sec (1856 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 27 2020