VW Type 3 Fastback Electric Conversion

The Story: Montag, the 1972 VW Type 3 Fastback

Traction EV was commissioned to convert this cool Fastback Type 3 called “Montag” by its owner who kept the vehicle stored for nearly 10 years unregistered. The owner drove the family around in this very car for many years before parking it in storage.

We at Traction EV always work on vehicles with the same philosophy as health care workers, “First, do no harm.” To that end we put a lot of time and effort into making our conversions 100% reversible, bolt-in, no cut, no weld while keeping the character and functionality of the vehicle as it was originally intended.

The Fasty is a much loved vehicle by VW enthusiasts and classic car lovers alike. The Type 3 shares a lot of its mechanical features with the VW Beetle and adds more than double the cargo capacity over the Beetle and with later ’70 – ’73 models seating capacity was increased from 4 to 5 seats.

Prior to conversion to EV by Traction EV, Montag was delivered to Leon’s Motors in Brisbane to be given a freshen up and make the car mechanically road-worthy. Then Montag was taken to Van Zelst Restorations.

The engine bay, under-body and guards were all cleaned and resprayed black to get everything nice and new again underneath. The front beam and trailing arms are also getting a new lease on life. Bumpers, light lenses and a few trim pieces have been pulled and have been replaced with brand new parts. All suspension bushings and ball joints have been replaced and the brakes have had a complete overhaul as well.

A brand new flywheel has been machined down and had the starter teeth removed as they are no longer needed. Electric motors make a lot of torque from zero RPM, so a stronger Stage 2 pressure plate is used with a six puck clutch plate.

The motor of choice for this build is the amazing NetGain HyPer 9. Delivering smooth usable power the HyPer 9 is a great choice for classic Volkswagens where the transmission is kept.

Battery is a liquid cooled 35 kWh CALB module pack giving Montag a 225 km range. We at Traction EV are very proud with our designs for the Type 3 battery boxes. Cargo space in the Type 3 is a great feature and we wanted to ensure that cargo storage space was not impeded. The rear cargo area is completely void of any battery and is completely stock. The front battery box only takes up a very small amount of extra space than the original petrol tank used and the front boot/trunk space is 90% original.

Weight of Montag has gone up by around 180kg, but with the extra power of the HyPer 9 this extra weight is not noticed. The GVM weight leaves a lot of allowable cargo weight and seating capacity still remains at 5 passengers. Weight bias front to rear is exactly the same as original, 40:60, this is super important to maintain. Putting too much weight in the wrong place of a vehicle will negatively affect handling characteristics.

Charging is via a 5 kW on-board AC charger and is fed by the Type 2 standardised charge port. The Type 2 charge port fit the original fuel filler location perfectly! No new holes were drilled to fit the new charge port in its new home.

New switches for Driving Profiles and Reverse, Neutral, Drive were added to the dash board using factory holes in the dash where other switches were no longer required. The R,N,D switch is actually an OEM VW switch knob and looks completely original.

Montag lives in Queensland Australia, it gets hot here most of the year round and Winter is very mild. It’s hard to imagine driving a car in 2023 with no air-conditioning, especially when the seats inside are black vinyl. Montag has a super efficient electric air-conditioning compressor powered by the main battery pack. Cold air is fed into the cabin via an under-dash climate control unit which looks great with the very original look of the interior and dash. Range is only reduced by around 3% and pulls only 7 amps from the main pack. Driving a classic car around in Summer time doesn’t need to be hot and sticky occasion anymore!

We’re so happy with how Montag came together. So much cargo space, 5 seats, air-conditioning. This is an amazing daily driver and weekend cruiser and we’re sure Montag is going to rack-up lots and lots of EV k’s.