I read this article about converting ICE cars to fully electric.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/06/11/car-owners-converting-vehicles-electric-missing-green-tax-breaks/

It reminded me of something I read about Toyota hybrids and hydrogen fuel cells. From what I remember, Toyota said that all their hybrid cars already have an electric drive train and switching from ICE to hydrogen fuel cells would be 'simple' for the company to do in the future.

Has anybody ever converted an RX400H to fully electric?

I presume it isn't as simple as removing the engine and fitting a load of batteries.

 

Not that I've ever heard of.

You presume correctly. There is almost nothing in the RX400h architecture that would assisted in going to fully electric. The motors cannot handle it. The wiring couldn't support the amperage. The computers won't support it. About the only head start would be electric power steering, a/c, etc. Might as well be electrifying an old Jag. In fact, that is probably easier since there are no legacy computers to deal with.

But back to the first point, I've never heard of a single upgrade to a RX400h when it comes to electrical power. Not even a minor battery upgrade. There was a Prius piggy-back kit back in the day that some thought might work. Never heard of anyone trying it. It would never pay for itself, but metering added electricity into the traction battery would probably be the only "realistic" was to go. Maybe using Nissan Leaf batteries? But no company is going to waste research capital on such an old, small volume, vehicle.

Obviously, with enough of your own money you can do whatever you want.

 

That's what I'm basically coming up with too and good point about the cars not being worth much money at this point.

I've been very deep into the control systems on our cars and it absolutely can be done but it would require a full gutting of the entire control system, engine, trans, etc.

Could an aftermarket company come in with an EV bolt on retrofit?
Sure why not but as mentioned above will they do it based on possible little demand and nobody would want it unless it was a serious product and not an alibaba special with no support.

It would be expensive and only if a serious company offered it in a "bolt on" Plug and Play would anyone want it.
I'd consider it for my RX330 if it was 10k or less but no more than that, and don't know if it can be done well for that.

Only way I can see it happening is if the market demand opens up and aftermarket designs "Bolt on" plug and play components and systems

 

There is no way it’s happening at this point. It’s just too small a market even with the HiHy included. Plus, tech people tend to like the latest/greatest. They aren’t going to reach back to 2008. Too much new overall tech in newer vehicles.

Everyone always wished the RX400h was more RAV4 Prime, which is why that vehicle is in high demand today. It’s an excellent balance. You could see the desire back then, but Toyota/Lexus was just slow to realize it. They were too busy with their focus groups to see the chatter….

I’d think the NX450h+/RAV4 Prime would be better suited to some day go full electric for the adventuresome person. They already have the motors/wiring/ECU to support it.

 

 

One vehicle is highly collectible. One isn’t. Plus, electrifying a vehicle with a modern ECU is going to be more challenging than an old Defender/FJ40 type of vehicle. Again, not saying it cannot be done. The reality is the RX is never going to be a collectible.

Ineos is already having to look at a battery setup and they haven’t gotten their ICE version out the door yet.

 

Nice video IMSQ.
Yeah, I figured it was just a matter of time before entrepreneurs stepped up and started offering kits.
Might kill the "collectible value for special cars but maybe people don't ever plan on selling them so I can see it.- and why not do a conversion if someone wants to.

Multiple variables to the equation that's for sure.
On the Gen 2 RX's the ECM will need a "work around" do to the security system being married to the Body ECU and a retrofit will be more intense for this and other reasons but is possible.
I'm not Nostradamos so I won't claim absolute knowledge of what is coming but I'm thinking if a startup company got into offering EV retrofits they would probably add the Highlander into RX models to make it attractive for someone to engineer the system.

Just a theory though.

 

"Back in the day", when the RX400h was new, eyes generally fell to the Prius world for any hopeful upgrades. There were/are A LOT of Prius. That is where all the attention was. So I guess the hope would be a company would start there with the Prius, then the product would be easily scaleable up for the HyHi/400h. Same as back then...

 

Thanks for sharing your ideas, always nice to have multiple members input.

Add- That's what makes Club Lexus special, Teamwork.

 

Instead of Reinventing the wheel, I would be extremely interested in first programming my Lexus to give me more of the electric power before the engine kicks on. Also, it seems like it wants to charge going uphill and has full battery at the Summit where I have tons of downhill to regen with nowhere to put the energy. I would certainly love to either reprogram how that works or have a manual override so I can utilize the electric motor more efficiently. Secondly, expanding its capabilities with a little more battery capacity and isolating a rear drive electric motor to make it a plug-in hybrid would be awesome! Any tips or resources would be greatly appreciated.