W140 EV Conversion Speculation

[400Benz]

Hello all,

Believe i am posting this properly in the off-topics.

First a bit of an introduction. I am 22 at the moment and have been daily driving my 92’ 400 for the past two years after finishing a major engine teardown (minus pistons and blocks) and its been driving great only issue is the dreaded cost of cats for California smog ($1200)

Now for the real reason I posting, I currently have a 1997 S500. I am the 3rd owner acquired through a family friend who was an elder man who kept an extensive catalog of maintenance records ever since he bought it from the dealer. At the time it was when it went on sale (50k) because of the debut of the W220 after being a leased vehicle previously. It has been incredibly reliable for the most part, and at the end the dealer refused to repair a leaky power steering oring and he gave up on the car.

It is at a frame shop right now, I let my friend drive it and of course he rear ends someone…he has been covering all of my repairs and parts so far, so not too bad. Especially since this is its second front end collision already being a salvage title unlike my lovely 400.

Yet the engine is proving to be a superb example of M119 durability, its at 285k miles! I have added about 11k in 8 months with 3 oil changes (I drive absolutely aggressively sometimes (6k rpms) so plenty of Italian tune ups. It also survived the front end collision and kept driving!

After It returns from the frame shop I still have to install the replacement dash as the passenger bag blew, and then I intend on replacing the upper chain guides as preventative maintenance, also i live in proximity to many junkyards so finding a set of the older style cam oilers as well.

But the biggest issue I am thinking of is that I live in Orange County California…gas is not cheap (6+/gal) and although not exactly a burden as I believe in smiles per gallon. Emissions on this car has been a breeze and a lot easier as opposed to my 400. But the prospect of an electric 140 does seem to make sense. Long term cheaper in distance and maintenance. I would be spending atleast $800~ a year on just oil changes as since I like to enjoy my cars as I change my oil at 3-5k mile intervals depending on how much fun i was having.

Not to mention my girlfriend absolutely loves the car and is going to be graduating from her Ivy League school soon and wants to sell her car and have the S class…I said no for now.

I am so far planning on doing the oilers and replacing the guides and restoring it further. But I am curious to thoughts many of you may have on the overall feasibility of this project, potentially outweighing the costs of gas. I was going to install an E55 muffler I have on it but a silent W140 seems correct.

 

[400Benz]

Attached here are some photos

 

[gsxr]

The S500, especially a 1997 with 5-speed auto and coil-on-plug ignition, is a REALLY nice car and REALLY nice powertrain. Converting to electric will not only cost a small fortune, you'll invest a ton of time in R&D as well. The results will like be... ahem... sub-optimal. When you factor in the cost of the EV conversion plus cost to charge the batteries at home, and compare with the estimated cost of gas & oil changes, you may find it could take many years just to break even. And, there's zero guarantee that the end result will be anywhere near as nice to drive vs stock.

If you rack up a ton of miles annually (like, 30-50kmi or more) then getting a used econobox of some sort (hybrid that gets 40-50mpg) might math out better. But if you are only doing ~16kmi per year... I dunno. If fuel costs were projected to remain at $6+/gal, or even increase, that would be concerning. But there's still a decent chance those costs will drop back to "only" like $4/gal.

BTW, you can reduce your oil change costs by using good synthetics and pushing the OCI out to 10-12kmi, along with oil analysis to monitor TBN and verify the interval is safe. I've been doing 10kmi changes just for even numbers (150k, 160k, etc) and the analysis always shows the oil could have lasted longer. At ~15kmi per year you might save a few hundred bucks. No need to change at 3k-5k with modern synthetics, those intervals are what you'd use with dino oils from yesteryear. Even the cheap Group III synthetics should get you to 7.5k, maybe 10k max, before they start to shear down and "burn" oil.

 

[gerryvz]

Bottom line — it’s MICH better to buy a vehicle that was designed as an EV from the get-go rather than trying to convert.

It’s like taking an R129 SL and trying to turn it into a Porsche 911 sports car. Can be done? Sure. Should be done? Just buy the 911, you’ll be happier and avoid the compromises of a touring roadster trying to be a trackable sports car.