Hi all, I'm converting a 2003 Ski-Doo 380f snowmobile to electric.
First off, the motivation: I have a house in Bear Valley, CA, which is a small ski resort village where the neighborhood roads are groomed but not plowed in the winter. As such, to get around you need to snowmobile, or ski, or walk. The parking lots are kept plowed, so most people will haul up their gear/groceries/etc by car, then load them into a trailer behind a snowmobile and drive maybe a mile or two to their house. Lots of people have older two-stroke snowmobiles which are unreliable, smokey, and obnoxious. I suspect a lot of homeowners up here would happy pay $3-4k to upgrade their old snowmobile to electric power. The goals are pretty modest: 20-25 mph top speed (the speed limit on the roads is 20 mph anyway), enough torque to get up a decent hill, and maybe 10 miles of range. There are probably dozens of very similar snowmobiles up here, many of which are sitting in yards or under porches not getting used.
Here's one of my donor vehicles:
First off, the motivation: I have a house in Bear Valley, CA, which is a small ski resort village where the neighborhood roads are groomed but not plowed in the winter. As such, to get around you need to snowmobile, or ski, or walk. The parking lots are kept plowed, so most people will haul up their gear/groceries/etc by car, then load them into a trailer behind a snowmobile and drive maybe a mile or two to their house. Lots of people have older two-stroke snowmobiles which are unreliable, smokey, and obnoxious. I suspect a lot of homeowners up here would happy pay $3-4k to upgrade their old snowmobile to electric power. The goals are pretty modest: 20-25 mph top speed (the speed limit on the roads is 20 mph anyway), enough torque to get up a decent hill, and maybe 10 miles of range. There are probably dozens of very similar snowmobiles up here, many of which are sitting in yards or under porches not getting used.
Here's one of my donor vehicles: