by A resident of Kharkiv created an electric car based on the vintage GAZ-21 Volga. He brought this unusual conversion to the OldCarLand technical festival in Kyiv. Externally, the electric Volga does not stand out – it looks like an ordinary ‘twenty-first’ (except for the ‘eco-friendly’ green logo instead of the native red one). But that’s until you look inside.
Under the hood, the car houses the key components. This includes an electric motor (a regular industrial one, used now and in the past in factory machines), a cooling fan, a heater (original casing, but the contents are from a modern Volkswagen), a converter (homemade), batteries (interestingly, they are protected in an unusual way – with plastic food containers; some battery components are also placed in the trunk) and a 220V socket for connecting to the grid.
According to the creator, the batteries were taken from a Nissan Leaf (apparently the first generation). They have a small capacity – only 21 Ah. As a result, the electric Volga travels only 50 km on a single charge. However, for the owner, this is enough – as he says, the main goal was to preserve the original weight of the car, not to create an electric vehicle with a long range. Nonetheless, there is still enough space in the sedan to ‘add’ more power elements, thereby increasing the range.
The acceleration dynamics weren’t measured, but the maximum speed is known – 88 km/h. Theoretically, you could push for more, but the developer says there’s ‘no need’. The car’s interior features two pedals – accelerator and brake. However, the Volga retains its original 3-speed manual transmission. There is also a smartphone holder on the front panel, and it’s there for a reason. Oleg’s son (Yevhen) created a special mobile app ElVolga, which shows energy consumption, range, charging process, and other important metrics.
Lastly, another feature of the car is LED optics and LED interior lighting.
