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Chevrolet Performance eCrate package (400v/200hp)
- mindcrime 5mo agoFor anyone looking to do an electric conversion. Chevy have a "crate motor" package based on one of their electric motors.
- LorenDB 5mo ago... that's what the link is talking about?
- DANmode 5mo agoThey are the submitter ;]
- stavros 5mo agoWould you happen to have a link to that?
- DANmode 5mo agoThe post links to what they’re referring to. It took me a second to put it together that they’re the submitter.
- stavros 5mo agoDamn, now I have extra egg on my face because of the snark. It really is a double-edged sword.
- mindcrime 5mo agoHeh. Don't sweat it.
- alistairSH 5mo agoYeah, for some reason, HN disallows a top-level comment on a submitted link (but you can do a top-level comment on a stand-alone/no-link post). I always found that odd - as a submitter, I generally want to provide some commentary on what I found something interesting.
- pavon 5mo agoWorse, their submission form looks like you can provide top-text, and indeed that same form field is used as top-text for Show HN, but for a normal submission it puts that text in a normal comment which almost always reads weirdly in that context.
- stavros 5mo agoI don't think it does? Eg https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48038271 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48038271
- alistairSH 5mo agoHuh, something must have changed. At one time, if you entered a URL and title, you could not enter a comment. And of course I submitted a junk test to see what it does today but there's no "delete" function for submissions. Le Sigh.
- stavros 5mo agoYeah I think this was changed recently, a few months ago I remember the text being a comment.
- stavros 5mo agoI don't think it does though, I've done it on a few submissions, eg https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48038271 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48038271
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- Animats 5mo agoBut they keep the 4-speed transmission? For what purpose?
- consp 5mo agoReduction ratios, greater comparability due to interfacing links, attachment points, just a few guesses. Most ev conversions I've seen keep the gearbox.
- jakogut 5mo agoProbably to interface with existing cars by replacing the engine, retaining everything after, including the existing transmission, differential(s), and suspension.
- egorfine 5mo agoThis is a straightforward way of electric conversion. You plug in the motor in the place where torque is expected and let the rest do its job. Gearboxes in EV conversions are usually locked in the highest gear with clutch and lever removed.
- imglorp 5mo agoHow much friction loss do you get going through a transmission compared to direct drive?
- cucumber3732842 5mo agoNegligible. Roll the windows up if you want that range back. I still think it's dumb and they should package it to replace the transmission and stuff all the batteries where the engine would go. It would be "easy" to make the motor replace the bellhousing and midsection of a 4L80 and then simply provide the same output so you can stick whatever tailhousing you want on it. Put shifter on the side in the same spot, etc, etc. Could've packaged the batteries to fit in the same place as a SBC longblock. I can't really come up with a "good" reason they did it the way they did. The problems the transmission solves are pretty trivial. Like either replace the engine so it can work with "any" transmission that can handle the torque (i.e. most of them) or replace the transmission too. Don't replace the engine and then mandate a particular trans. The only reason I can see to do that is if it's some sort of wink and nod deal where they know that it's easy to make it work with other transmissions but they're not touting it as compatible to cover their asses.
- novafacing 5mo agoI was excited about this idea until I found out it's $27k
- OliverGuy 5mo agoI get this is a pretty nice product that they won't sell in huge volume, but that is really steep, was expecting something <20k
- fgfarben 5mo agoIt includes a 66 kWh battery. This might be a strategy for offloading all the Bolt EV batteries they had to refurbish.
- leeter 5mo agoMaybe? It's a 400V architecture, and honestly that's my criticism... 400V seems low at this point. Particularly for something requiring an "Authorized Installer" I'd have expected 800V architecture, if not pushing higher. Minimum 600V though... so IMO huge miss on GMs part. I do think GM does have an opportunity if they really wanted to do what you're suggesting and just make drop on chassis for square bodies etc.
- formerly_proven 5mo agoI'll bite. What's the point of 800V with a battery this small? 400V already enables around 200 kW of charging, which is 3C with a pack this small. So charging is not limited by the voltage level, because the pack assuredly isn't reaching 3C. At 200hp the efficiency gains are marginal if they exist at all. So what would the benefit of 800V be, apart from higher costs?
- SoftTalker 5mo ago400V DC on a 66KWh battery will fry you in an instant if you don't know what you are doing or get careless with your tools.
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- motbus3 5mo agoI wouldn't be excited when their cars comes with a spy package that sells every information when your are in it. It won't take years for they to think that they can pry in private conversations in the car for whatever purpose they want
- p0w3n3d 5mo agoYour comment seems off topic. I think the conversion package is great and should come with all the available cars. If we really care about ecology (but apparently we don't)
- motbus3 5mo agoI don't think so. The whole car is a predatory platform. I do the best I can to avoid doing business with people who thinks such practices are acceptable. I don't really care if the package itself is cool or anything... I think people incentive too much this sort of anti consumer practices
- cbdevidal 5mo agoYou wouldn’t want a newer gas car then. Pretty much anything these days has the ability to track you or disable you remotely. Got OnStar? https://www.onstar.com/features/location-sharing https://www.onstar.com/features/location-sharing
- DANmode 5mo ago> or disable you remotely. I thought the kids were calling it “unalived”.
- asimovDev 5mo agoCool idea for vintage cars that were unremarkable when it came to driving characteristics or where only the frame and/or body survived with no drivetrain and hard to source donors.
- tclancy 5mo agoFirst thought was this should make for some fun resto-mods.
- reverius42 5mo agoIf I had infinite time and money, I would do this to a DeLorean.
- tclancy 5mo agoWhere is your sense of adventure? If you do it to a DeLorean, you might wind up with infinite time. Plus, pretty much every local car show I've been to has a handful of DeLoreans that I'd assume the owners are probably over maintaining. Actually, scratch that, let's go into a 3D printing business for DeLorean replacement parts to get the money thing down.
- dotancohen 5mo agoMany DeLorean parts - famously excluding the left fender - are still available as NOS from the company that bought John DeLorean's factory. In fact, there are still complete, servicable engines _and chassis_ available. And the chassis are already registered with a VIN, so when built can be sold as a new 1984 model year vehicle.
- raverbashing 5mo agoCurious what's the issue with the left fender
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- thedougd 5mo agoA “crate” motor you can’t install yourself.
- thrtythreeforty 5mo agoCan't believe I had to scroll for this. Trust the OEMs to do something very close to what enthusiasts might want, then immediately torpedo it with "but we won't sell it to you." This level of conversion isn't exactly trivial but it also isn't rocket surgery for the kind of person who pulls an engine out for rebuild on a classic car project.
- davsti4 5mo agoAlso look at the "DRM" controls: " Q. Can I increase horsepower? a. The first-ever Chevy eCrate conversion kit has a locked system that does not allow you to increase horsepower at this time. " ... so you're buying into a locked, digital control system, akin to what John Deere puts out. This ranks right up there with BMW wanting to charge a monthly fee for heated seats - building in physical abilities, with digital lockouts. You know, you can buy a LS engine, and do whatever horsepower changes you want to it. For those more akin to computers than cars, this is called a "LS swap" and is common with restomods. This is disappointing to hear and tarnishes a brand like Chevy. Fortunately, we're in a free market; I'll vote with my dollars.
- bri3d 5mo agoModern gas crate powertrain swaps which include engine management usually have the same restrictions; GM Connect and Cruise, Hellcrate, Ford Performance, etc. What you’re describing with LS swaps is unique to kits that come with no engine management; it would be as though this kit were sold with no inverter and motor controller. Of course, reverse engineered aftermarket tuning is more readily available for gas ECUs, but that’s just a matter of market forces, not the OEMs.
- SoftTalker 5mo agoMake a friend who works at a GM dealership.
- coreyh14444 5mo agoI watch a couple of great YouTube channels that do these types of EV conversions. In Wales/UK: https://www.youtube.com/@ElectricClassicCars https://www.youtube.com/@ElectricClassicCars In Utah: https://www.youtube.com/@electricsupercar https://www.youtube.com/@electricsupercar In California: https://www.youtube.com/@EVWest https://www.youtube.com/@EVWest (seems dormant right now though)
- dzonga 5mo agoAmerican automakers - good engineering, good designers but politicians i.e protecting the jobs & Wall Street short-term thinking get in the way. though GM seems to be the only american automaker that hasn't really given up on EVs
- wffurr 5mo agoFord is still very much at it: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/05/how-do-you-design-a-30000-electric-pickup-inside-fords-skunkworks/ https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/05/how-do-you-design-a-300... Rivian and Lucid are both American automakers, as is Tesla.
- DangitBobby 5mo agoPoliticians are the reason they only sell this to authorized shops?
- thesuitonym 5mo agoThe politicians are just the cogs in the system. It's the CEOs and shareholders that are paying them that are the problem.
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- 1970-01-01 5mo ago" only available through approved installation centers." This won't sell; people will just buy a crashed EV for 1/10th the cost and salvage the motor and battery. This is more of an insult than a product. It reeks of "you're not qualified to work on our premium electrons until you pay $10k and pass our one-day eCourse"
- dotancohen 5mo agoAs it should be. I'd rather that reality than the EV conversion hobby be plagued and slandered with "this guy bought official parts and his baby perished in the resulting home fire".
- randusername 5mo agoDisagree, premium parts should have premium fail-safes and be robust to reasonably foreseeable misuse. In so many markets manufacturers are antagonistic to repair and customization; project cars remains this wonderful little niche where DIY excellence is enabled and encouraged. That shouldn't end with ICEs. We have hobbyist mechanics out here taking their engine blocks to the machinist, rebuilding hydraulic automatic transmissions on the workbench, not to mention safely handling literal buckets of combustibles. They'll be fine.
- james_stin 5mo agoI think there's a reasonable concern about supply chain here given the complexity of the components. The hobbyist ICE market has had generations of experience, and the risks are better known then with EV power trains, and it's much more difficult to inspect components that are battery or chip-controller based over a standard ICE engine. I'm sure there's also a profit motive, but I also think there's a strong concern around reputational damage and a desire to control the entire pipeline to make sure that doesn't happen.
- Tanoc 5mo agoThe valvetrain and fuel injection systems of any given internal combustion engine vehicle made since the 1980s are far more complex than the voltage controller of an EV drivetrain. The difference is that those mechanical components are in a system that can have multiple minor fail states before ceasing to function and contain far less energy than what's coursing through the voltage controller. The reason EVs are more dangerous currently is because they haven't gone through the decades of regulations and testing needed to provide multiple diagnostics and failsafes the way mechanical components have. That's easily fixed by just giving them a few years and letting people develop folk knowledge they way they did with internal combustion engines. Even now hobbyists are developing new ways to test for unbalanced cells, impedance hotspots, and integrating new monitoring systems that don't require costly proprietary sensors. Most of this limitation from Ford and GM about their EV drivetrains is because they want control over deployment for monitoring, and so they can cover their asses legally if something like a manufacturing defect becomes widespread.
- actionfromafar 5mo agohttps://www.thedrive.com/news/42974/fords-281-hp-electric-crate-motor-costs-3900-and-you-can-buy-one-now https://www.thedrive.com/news/42974/fords-281-hp-electric-cr...
- pchew 5mo agoThey never released a single piece of supporting hardware for this, or even much documentation. Really a rather baffling release. You have to spec and source a controller, inverter, and battery yourself (and then figure out how you're going to integrate the rest of the car's systems with said controller you spec'd yourself). You're better off grabbing the whole shebang out of a wrecked Bolt or Leaf. It's also only the front motor from the Mach-E and the concept truck Ford made with this crate motor at release includes the rear motor to make it functional, which they don't sell...
- jgbuddy 5mo agoEven if someone could buy this off she shelf and install themselves- I don't see a single use case that would make this cool at this power level (eg. EV conversions- 200hp is slow in almost anything!)
- Zhenya 5mo agoThe instant torque would be fun esp for old square bodies.
- superxpro12 5mo agoMy 2013 Passat TDI would like a word with you...
- Cedarwolf 5mo agoHow much would something like this cost from BYD, and could we even buy it/install it?
- rasz 5mo agoListed price for this thing gets you whole brand new BYD Seal or eMAX 7, same spects of motor/battery, plus you get whole car around it.
- WarmWash 5mo agoThe worst part of the EV transition is that EV's naturally lend themselves to computer control, which means manufacturers can software the ever living fuck out of it, and put hard locks on everything. Even now moving to encrypted CANs so you cannot even see what your vehicle is doing. Maybe you can make some kind of case in their defense, safety or whatever, but what makes it truly indefensible is that once the car is out of warranty, out of their liability, they're just gonna chuck the software keys in a pit and leave you with an eternally immutable half-baked design. So unless this comes with a fully open source software package, or even no software at all and just documentation, it's a bad product and I wish the worst for it.
- k12sosse 5mo agoSorry, you can't clear your check engine light until you upgrade to our "Hobbyist" tier subscription.
- junglistguy 5mo ago[dead]
- fwipsy 5mo agoEveryone is talking about how only licensed installers can work on this, but the battery is also ~1.5m square. How many cars have room for that? You'd basically have to rebuild the chassis from scratch, right? I guess you could put it in the bed of a pickup...
- DANmode 5mo agoPinto just received its long-overdue trunk safety upgrade!
- mynameajeff 5mo agoAm I missing something or are there no clear pictures of what this actually looks like form factor wise? It seems to be going for a literal motor form factor in the pictures, with a 4-speed transmission and the batteries in the trunk? I went through the catalog [1] and it didn't really give me much of a better idea of what this is supposed to look like. I can take a good guess but you'd think they'd have a few clear pictures of the individual parts as-is. [1] https://indd.adobe.com/view/a055533b-ed9a-4d56-84cb-5a4162877ac0 https://indd.adobe.com/view/a055533b-ed9a-4d56-84cb-5a416287...
- k12sosse 5mo agoI'll stick to my Edison conversion, but thanks Chevy. https://edisonmotors.ca/trucks/pickup-kit/ https://edisonmotors.ca/trucks/pickup-kit/
- GenerWork 5mo agoInteresting that it's designed to connect to a 4 speed transmission. That's incredibly ancient by gas transmission technologies, even heavy duty pickups are on 10 speeds now.
- ndesaulniers 5mo agoInteresting. This past weekend, I got a chance to speak with Corvette's chief engineer Josh Holder at Chevrolet's Corvette Corral for the IMSA race at Laguna Seca. I asked him if we'd see an all electric Corvette in the C8 timeframe, or would have to wait until the C9? He confirmed (to the group) there would not be an all electric C8. GM has long done "crate" engines, where people swap their cars OE engine for one of GM's small block v8s (an "LS or LT swap") frequently found in Corvettes, Escalades, and probably Silverado/large trucks/SUVs. Seeing an electric crate engine from GM shows me that they plan to do the same with an electrified power train. Cool.
- MoonWalk 5mo agoIt hasn't turned out that way with Ford, who's been selling the Mach-E motor for years. It's useless because they don't sell any of the other necessary hardware. A battery, for instance.
- slaw 5mo agoIt is designed for 4L60 transmission so 1993–2005 S-10 Blazers/Astros, 1994–2002 Camaros, 1994–1996 Fleetwood/Roadmasters, and 1999–2006 Escalades.
- darkteflon 5mo agoMan, I’m jealous of those of you who have the skills to do an ICE/BEV conversion. I have this total baseless fantasy that when I retire, I will open a little boutique shop doing conversions of old ICE vehicles into BEVs. Sadly, I have none of the skills, connections, or talent for such a thing. But in another life, it’s something I could see myself getting a real kick out of for many, many years. Having the neighbourhood kids drift in and out, call me “Old Man”, learn a thing or two. My dad used to rebuild and flip old Daimlers and MGs back in the day on our suburban front lawn in Australia. For reasons of space, gentrification, economics, labour market changes, technological shifts, etc, that’s sadly far less common than it used to be. Such a loss.
- pomian 5mo agoWhen you retire... Assuming you do, You can do anything. There is no magic Just practice. There is always a mechanic who needs space to work, and can help.