openinverter forum

I am looking to convert my wife’s 1993 900SE (old shape) which she’s owned since new.

We would be driving this locally, 100 winter miles would be sufficient range, it had 170bhp from new similar performance is fine we’re not looking to enhance performance, no need for fast charging.

The car hasn’t really been driven for the last 10/11 years, lots of bodywork issues to fix and lots of shit old repairs to make good so it’ll be a bare metal respray

I’ve done a very small amount of reading, I understand that due to the vehicle age I shouldn’t have huge issues with DVLA as long as we don’t do any chassis/body modifications

The car needs stripping quite urgently as there’s a pool of water in the passenger side footwell so I guess I need to know what elements to keep.

I guess this will be determined by whether we keep the gearbox or not?

I’m in two minds, keeping the gearbox will mean the cars pretty much original, but I understand there will be power hence range losses by going through the manual gearbox

Would want to end up with working heater, aircon, power steering

I can see lots of cheap Leaf/Tesla/Outlander stuff on eBay and obviously there’s plenty of new stuff out there too.

For those that don’t know the car it has a huge but low engine bay, and an absolutely massive boot. It’s a long skinny car.

So advice please on drivetrain options to start with I think?

The Saab 900 is a FWD with longitudinal engine and transaxle bolted underneath the engine.
I think it would be challenging if not impossible (due to available height and diameter of motor) to mount an electric motor to this arrangement.



Probably easier to make new motor mounts and mount the whole motor/reduction box assembly as one with new custom drive shafts.
Outlander won't reach your power target - so Leaf or Tesla small drive unit would be better, Tesla quite a bit more powerful/expensive. Leaf with the right inverter will be capable of your power target.

How available are the 900 transaxles? You could likely adapt a motor to fit in the oil pan area but you might put too much power through it to last.

I’m sure they’re available I can see a few that in breakers yards but probably better to get something fabricated if they potentially won’t handle the projected power?

Here in Sweden there are a couple of 900's that have been converted using Nissan Leaf drivetrain and batteries

Have a look at instagram https://www.instagram.com/allahansbilar ... Jmc291cHk3

I don't have Instagram but I believe they've done a lot of body modification which will not be allowed in the UK. Putting the battery pack inside the floorpan makes total sense.