Vancouver Family Turns Humvee Into EeVee

• Tesla battery provides electrons for emissions-free Hummer

• owner wanted the military vehicle without the military footprint

We understand the appeal of the original military-spec Humvee. It has rugged off-road capability, looks that are as tough as the service personnel who drove it, and a celebrity image backed by the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger. It’s the diesel or gas consumption that lets down the side.

Unless you, like this Vancouver resident (via Castanet.net), turn your mil-spec Humveee into an electric vehicle thanks to some drivetrain parts taken from a Tesla.

Roger Hardy and his son took a year to convert the Hummer into an EV, along with some help from local experts with the more complex parts of the equation. It transforms the Hummer into a vehicle that is nearly silent. At least from the powertrain. The rest of the old army truck has its fair share of rattles and creaks.

“I think people are going to be converting everything, all old cars will go electric. You get a million miles out of these engines,” Hardy said. “It’s funny how fast people get that it’s electric; there’s no real sound to it. They get that it’s electric very fast and they don’t tend to be as irate as I think they were with the diesel.”

It started, Hardy said, after his wife purchased a Tesla Model X crossover. The Hummer uses a 75 kWh Tesla battery sealed under the floor of the EV. As there are more EVs on the road, it becomes easier to convert gas models. Both the supply of parts increases as does the knowledge base needed to do the work. Expect this to be a growing trend over the next decades.