Alfa Romeo GTV History
The Alfa Romeo (916) GTV was produced between 1995 – 2004, with only around 40,000 GTV models, and a similar amount of the open top Spiders, being manufactured during the whole period. They did not produce an electric Alfa Romeo GTV.
Reasons For Electric Alfa Romeo GTV
Reasons to convert a petrol Alfa Romeo GTV, or any Alfa Romeo to electric are both environmental and performance.
Environment
The smaller engined Alfa Romeo GTV, that was available to the Uk market, still emits 220 grams of CO2.
Performance
The smaller two litre ‘twin spark’ engine produces around 155 BHP.
Its possible to create a higher performing electric powered car.
The decision to re-engineer my own Alfa GTV, to run on an electric motor, rather than the original petrol engine, which emits a high CO2 level of 220.
I will be improving and updating this blog post on a regular basis, so check back regularly.
Why am I doing this? – Well for starters there is the high CO2 level.
The car failed its MOT in December 2012 on emissions and a small hole on the underside inner sill.
The car was put into my garage shortly after, and almost forgotten about, until recently.
Although I have successfully managed to get the engine going, the car would need a new rear exhaust silencer, radiator (as in poor condition), and new cambelt and balancer belts (not a cheap job).
The last items, are the main reason I took the car off the road after it failed its MOT in 2012.
The belts need replacing every three years, or 36,000 miles according to Alfa Specialists, and mine were way over due (time wise).
A second reason for wanting to convert my Alfa Romeo GTV to be powered by an electric motor is performance, yes you did read that correctly.
The Alfa Romeo GTV came in two basic variants, four cylinder, and six cylinder (V6) petrol variants.
The original 2 litre four cylinder version that I have, is a fantastic high revving motor, with a unique Alfa Romeo 8 spark plug design.
However it gets overshadowed (unfairly in my opinion), by the tyre shredding V6 version.
My objective is to create an Electric Alfa Romeo GTV that has faster acceleration, than the V6 versions.
But aren’t electric cars those off looking slow things, that oddball eccentrics drive? Electric cars have come a long way in recent years, due to advances in technology.
Just look at the acceleration figures for a Tesla Car, if you have any doubts.
Deciding on Electric Vehicle Conversion Performance
So hopefully now you realise that my desire to create an electric Alfa Romeo GTV, is not just environmental.
The standard 0-60 acceleration time in mph for the 2 litre GTV is just over 8 seconds
My target 0-60 acceleration time for the car is 5 seconds, and improvement of over three seconds.
In order to achieve this we are fortunate that there are online calculators, that can predict acceleration.
One such website is carspecs.us which allows you to input the engine power & car weight, to get a acceleration estimate.
Of course the drag coefficient of the car will also be a factor.
For example a truck is less aerodynamic than a low pointed sports car.
As can be seen from the above screenshot, an electric motor producing 200 kw at the flywheel, would give roughly 5.3 seconds 0-60 time.
5.3 seconds, whilst slightly above target acceleration, may well be perfect.
One reason for saying that is because 200 kw electric motors seem noticeably cheaper than 220kw ones.
Below is a screenshot with the estimated acceleration time calculation for a 220 kw motor, rather than 200kw.
My other project the Electric Morris Minor
Hi Craig,
Did you ever make any progress with this project? I am considering buying an Alfa Spider 916 myself, in order to do something similar.
Cheers,
Dermot Leonard
Hi Dermot,
I’m still working on it, though I’m mainly still getting the car roadworthy again, It needs a small bit of welding, brakes, suspension etc.
The plan is to position the weight distribution of the batteries and electric motor, to achieve a similar weight balance to the original car.
So the simple answer to your question is, it’s not yet on the road as an EV.
Craig
7/05/23 how far have you got with the GTV and what cost if any ?
I currently have the GTV in bits, and are refurbishing the whole car, as its 26 years old. The electric conversion hasn’t completed yet, and there is still a lot of work to do.
Money for the conversion was an issue, but the conversion is starting up again.
I have a beautiful Alfa Romeo 155v6 that I’d love to convert to electric.The car is pretty fast—max 260KPH but struggles to get there.Would the conversion result in a higher HP which is currently 163? Are there places where I can source the requisite parts?