Kei trucks are very versatile vehicles, but their stock powerplant can leave a bit to be desired. If you need more power, why not try an electric conversion?
[Ron “Mr. G” Grosinger] is a high school auto shop and welding teacher who worked with his students to replace the 40 hp gas motor in this Daihatsu Hijet with the 127 hp of a Hyper 9 electric motor. The motor sits in the original engine bay under the cab and is mated to the stock transmission with a custom adapter plate made from plate steel for less than $150. We really appreciate how they left all the electronics exposed to see what makes the conversion tick.
The faux battery was made by a foam sculptor friend out of urethane foam shaped with a carving knife and then painted. It slides on a set of unistrut trolleys and reveals the 5 salvaged Tesla battery modules that power the vehicle. The fold down sides of the truck bed allow easy access to anything not already exposed if any tweaking is necessary.
We’ve seen a kei truck become a camper as well or an ebike powered with actual power tool batteries. If you’re thinking of your own electric conversion, which battery is best?
Ford AA truck was about the same size, made and sold 100 years ago.
It all just rewinds and erases.
Yes, but there’s a lot more power in this one’s Tesla battery than in an AA 🙂
(What fortunate serendipity that the Ford truck had that model name, in a discussion about electric vehicles…)
There is sizable demand for these compact kinds of trucks in the US, and has been for some while. Both Ford and GM and (what’s left of ) ex-Chrysler kept pretended it never existed because everything had to be SUV-sized and SUV-priced.
Power-wise Ford AA was reasonably good when compared with its then competitors, of which there were plenty, who forced innovations to happen as soon as possible. There were a lot of them, Studebakers, REOs, International Harvester, Diamond, Mac, etc etc.
Obviously, things had moved forward since, and same truck size now can be easily upgraded to include everything under the sun.
Prime market for these seem to be everywhere, and it is a pity that the country that invented these no longer makes or sells these, compact, modern and AFFORDABLE kinds. This kind.
I’d say we don’t need new GMs and Fords, we need new Bantams, Willyses, Tuckers, in short, top-light companies with as few managers as possible, agile kinds run by engineers, that can run circles around top-heavy enrons. Proper competition.
BTW, 40hp for this kind of truck is about as good as it gets, since it is small and not meant to constantly pull heavy loads – though, upgrading the same to about 100hp is completely doable, with the obvious needed frame upgrade and the back axle stiffening. I see no good/sane reasons why both models couldn’t be locally made and locally sold for $15K flat, including sales tax in all 50 states. These will easily outsell anything in this size class within the first year of trying.
Obviously, this kind is NOT built for US highway speeds, and it is also obvious that it will NOT be made or sold in the US any time soon as a highway-rated kind, only inner city / country roads, where it is already present in form of aged imports. Pity, because not all country roads are built for the Ford extended cab megamonsters, nor there is a demand for Ferrari-priced (sorry, Mr, Enzo for using your name again) monsters of yesteryear, there is real demand for moving forward, inventing better trucks that would cost less while delivering more.
It would have been really interesting to make the battery removable so you could switch it for a fresh one in minutes.
I saw this truck at Lead East 2025. Not every day something you saw up-close and personal ending up here on HaD.