It's usually simple to convert a car to an electric motor. In the case of the bug, I just needed, under Bob's expert instructions, to take the old internal combustion engine out (which was leaking since we were towed in the drug production zone in Mexico).

Once the engine out, one has to strip out  every remaining component such as the tank, the gas line, the exhaust system,…

In our case we decided to keep the clutch: it's a little bit heavier and less efficient but easier and more practical. The basic idea is to get rid of as much weight as possible because the batteries are particularly heavy.

After a hot steam cleaning and the purchase of the electric components we are ready to put everything together.

We need an adapter plate to mount the electric motor on the transmission box, a controller, a charger, a DC-DC converter to charge the auxiliary battery (the one used to start the old engine and to power the lights, the windscreen wipers and the radio), a main contactor, a potentiometer linked to the accelerator cable and of course 8 12v sealed AGM batteries.

We fit the adaptor (2) on the motor (1) before putting everything back on the transmission.

We buy an aluminium plate to use as a heat sink and mount all the components. The controller (8) is placed in a central position: it's the brain of the motor. That brain receives its instructions through the potentiometer (7) which is linked to the left over accelerator cable. The charger (4) is positioned next to the controller.  Power supply to the controller is fed through the previous gas door at the front of the car (the plug under the gas door is therefore used to charge the batteries).

We load 5 batteries (3) behind the back seat and 3 in a rack made to measure under the front hood where the old tank was. The DC-DC converter charges the auxiliary system (6). The main contact (9) isolates the batteries when the ignition key is switched off. Et voilà:

Motor:
HiPerformance Golf cars 3-Phase AC 40hp

Controller:
Curtis Model 1238

Batteries:
8 Fullriver DC 100-12, 12.00 Volt, Lead-Acid, AGM

System Voltage:
96 Volts

Charger:
Delta-Q Technologies QuiQ

DC/DC Converter:
Astrodyne

Top Speed:
70 Mph (112 Km/h) Max out (6500rpm) in 2nd at 80km/h. Top speed so far is 100km/h in 3rd but the road wasn't long enough.

Acceleration:
comparable to before

Range:
15 Miles (24 Kilometers) ... with plenty of juice left. Needs further testing.

Curb Weight:
2,150 Pounds (977 Kilograms)

Conversion Cost:
9000$