The spread of electric cars is progressing – but overall there are still significantly more combustion engines on the road. This won’t change any time soon, as a car you buy often remains in the owner’s possession for many years. In order to rid cities of exhaust gases, you would have to work with the cars that already exist – and somehow make them environmentally friendly vehicles.
An Australian startup called Revr aims to do just that. So far it is mainly the idea of a student named Alexander Burton, who has not yet successfully converted a single car. At least Burton won this year’s James Dyson Design Award.
Revr’s goal is to retrofit an electric drive for around 100 kilometers with a comparatively inexpensive kit for conventional cars. For this purpose, a wheel hub motor should be installed that fits between the brake disc and the rim. According to inventor Alexander Burton, this should make it much easier to retrofit any car imaginable. So far, such electrification has been extremely individual and very expensive, which is completely uninteresting for the mass market.
Revr wants to house the battery and all the technology in a housing that fits into the recess for the spare wheel. Drivers often rely on tire repair kits anyway, so there would be space there.
Overall, Revr is planning a battery capacity of around 15 kilowatt hours, which should be enough for a purely electric range of 100 kilometers. According to Burton, this corresponds to three times the usual distance traveled by inner-city commuters.
In addition, Revr wants to power parts such as air conditioning, heating and steering with the battery – and thus enable short distances without switching on the combustion engine. The converted car would therefore be a hybrid.
However, the project is not very far along yet. In a video from the young company, Burton himself says that he hasn’t built a fully functional prototype yet, but is “close.” The only motor that is currently attached to a wheel hub is said to be “running soon”.
The finished product should cost around 3,000 euros – a fraction of what would currently be charged for a complete conversion of a combustion engine. Burton plans to have it completed and ready for market in the third quarter of 2024. In the coming months he also wants to talk to investors and successfully convert his own Toyota Corolla.
