This Renault R4 converted to an electric car has a range of 170 km!

As a world saver, as a solar advocate and wind power supporter, as a sustainability fan and nuclear power fighter, can you find green cars good?

Is that still a vintage car? Visually yes, the R4 dates from 1966. But the electrical technology is from modern times, the range is around 170 km.

Pade bought the R4 in 2011

Thomas Pade, tall, slim, white linen shirt and brown Birkenstocks, opens the bonnet and smiles mischievously: “I worked on it for three months, the conversion didn’t take place IN, but BEFORE the garage.” His “Project R4” started eleven years ago. That’s when the 60-year-old bought the eleventh R4 of his career as a driver.

The petrol engines first had 30 and later 34 hp. The electric motor now delivers 22 hp, even 71 hp for a short time. The batteries are spread all over the car.

He used to know every screw, he used to drive all the way to Greece with 30 hp and a revolver gearshift. At some point he had to have another one, it was clear. It took 1,500 hours for his little box with four doors to be finished, Pade even taught himself how to paint, masked the specially rented cowshed with foil, carpeted the floor and moistened it.

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Then he alternately points to the front and rear seats. The back seat is original with imitation leather, the front is real leather. He discovered that eleven years ago during his lunch break: “There was a huge sofa landscape on the street by the bulky waste, so I just took out my pocket knife and helped myself.”

You can see the history of the R4

True to style, of course, in French: The anti-nuclear sticker must not be missing – in the past, the R4 owner Thomas Pade even organized demonstrations against nuclear power.

The classic car friend is an electric autodidact

Pade is a mechanic and industrial clerk, but not an electrician. “I’m self-taught,” he explains, “and Google is a wonderful invention.” He read for a year and a half, bought used parts and met new people who introduced him deeper and deeper into the subject. At some point it was clear: I need these parts. How they got into the car was improvisation.

Old as new: This electric car is also charged using a type 2 plug. However, only at home, charging does not work at public charging stations.

The original three-speed gearbox has remained, although Pade never uses first gear: “0 to 70 km/h in second gear, then up to 120 kph in third.” The clutch bell is home-made, the engine the size of a shoe box, has 22 hp nominal and 71 hp peak power and – please note: 194 Nm of torque.

The R4 weighs 30 kilograms more as an electric car

The rapid E-Renault weighs around 700 kilos, including the electric motor and battery, only around 30 kilos more than with a four-cylinder petrol engine.

The little car (3.66 meters short!) Hisses off as if he wanted to win the Tour de France. Pade has pushed back the folding roof, doesn’t hear a motor, doesn’t smell any exhaust fumes. Then we stop at a field in front of wind turbines, the eco-activist peeks out of the roof and smiles: “Sustainability shouldn’t be forced or renounced, it has to be fun for everyone.”

Of course he continues to repair petrol engines and transmissions for friends from the R4 scene in his basement workshop, he knows it by heart from before. And of course he likes cars. You can also be an eco-activist. Pade: “Sustainability can work if not a few do a lot, but everyone a little.”