{"id":2242344,"date":"2026-11-06T19:25:00","date_gmt":"2026-11-06T16:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2242344"},"modified":"2026-11-06T19:25:00","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T16:25:00","slug":"this-shocking-1997-ford-ranger-ev-on-bring-a-trailer-is-a-splash-from-the-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2242344","title":{"rendered":"This Shocking 1997 Ford Ranger EV On Bring A Trailer Is A Splash From The Past"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"columns-holder\">\n<div class=\"add-on-google-widget\">\n<div class=\"add-on-google-heading\">Add Jalopnik on Google:<\/div>\n<div class=\"add-on-google-buttons-row\">\n                    <button type=\"button\" class=\"add-on-google-btn\" id=\"preferred-source\">Preferred Source<\/button><br \/>\n                    <a href=\"https:\/\/profile.google.com\/cp\/Cg0vZy8xMXBneTRxX2Zw\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"add-on-google-btn\" id=\"google-discover\">Google Discover<\/a>\n                <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"columns-holder \">\n<p>Some may remember the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jalopnik.com\/buy-this-ultra-rare-electric-chevy-s-10-and-return-it-t-1851319747\/\" target=\"_blank\">ultra-rare electric Chevy S-10<\/a>, which was basically an S-10 pickup with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jalopnik.com\/2122578\/gm-helps-restore-ev1\/\" target=\"_blank\">GM EV1<\/a> running gear. We&#8217;ve seen some versions of the Ranger with\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.jalopnik.com\/this-manual-transmission-electric-ford-ranger-has-a-30-1837517378\/\" target=\"_blank\">an electric shock treatment<\/a>\u00a0as well, but not in the cool flareside version known as the Splash. And while it&#8217;s typically a bad idea to mix electricity and water,\u00a0this custom EV-converted 1997 Ford Ranger Splash currently for sale on <a href=\"https:\/\/bringatrailer.com\/listing\/1997-ford-ranger-18\/\" target=\"_blank\">Bring a Trailer<\/a> is the exception to that rule.<\/p>\n<p>Its bright Canary Yellow paint was an original color for this sporty take on the classic small truck, not a flashy add-on. The original 3.0-liter V6 is gone, replaced with a conversion from Electric Vehicles of America. The Advanced D.C. Motors\u00a0FB1-4001A motor makes somewhere between 18 and 30 horsepower, a significant downgrade from the original 140 or so from the V6.\u00a0I know from experience that the V6 wasn&#8217;t exactly fast, either, so hopefully the instant electric torque makes up for some of the lost power.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-holder embedded gallery-image-holder credit-image-wrap\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"gallery-image lazyload\" src=\"image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mNkYAAAAAYAAjCB0C8AAAAASUVORK5CYII=\" alt=\"Interior view of an EV-converted 1997 Ford Ranger Splash\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.jalopnik.com\/img\/uploads\/embed\/it-VVAse2-1793810367.jpg\" border=\"0\"><a class=\"gallery-image-credit\" href=\"https:\/\/bringatrailer.com\/listing\/1997-ford-ranger-18\/\" target=\"_blank\">Bring a Trailer<\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p>The retention of the original five-speed manual transmission is also a nice touch. We&#8217;ve seen this before in EV swaps into <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jalopnik.com\/2203975\/ev-pickup-old-toyota-build\/\" target=\"_blank\">vehicles not intended for EV swaps<\/a> as an easy way to connect the electric motor to the original driveline. According to the instructions taped to the dashboard, there is no clutch, so you just start it in a low gear, then shift to whatever gear best matches your speed. The factory cupholders are still there (which I know from experience will still let your drinks tip over when going around corners at even a moderate speed), and there are three gauges for battery volts (power usage), amps (how much power is left), and a level of charge gauge. There&#8217;s also a warning light for a hot motor and and on\/off switch for the 1,500-watt electric heater, since there&#8217;s no internal combustion engine to generate heat anymore.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"columns-holder \">\n<p>Unlike some\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.jalopnik.com\/broken-fisker-ocean-lures-in-buyer-with-its-10-000-pri-1851610627\/\" target=\"_blank\">modern project EVs<\/a>, this Ranger followed a simpler approach, which is easier to install and maintain. Rather than a slick Tesla battery pack, it uses a bank of 20 Trojan six-volt batteries, wired in series to produce the 120 volts the motor and Curtis controller need to run the truck. Some of the batteries live in a box between the frame rails, some <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jalopnik.com\/tesla-cybertrucks-removable-range-extending-battery-pac-1851063758\/\" target=\"_blank\">in the bed like a Cybertruck<\/a>, and a few under the hood. That&#8217;s also where the charger lives, so you have to pop the hood to plug it into a standard household outlet. There&#8217;s no fast charging for this Ranger.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-holder embedded gallery-image-holder credit-image-wrap\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"gallery-image lazyload\" src=\"image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mNkYAAAAAYAAjCB0C8AAAAASUVORK5CYII=\" alt=\"Under hood view of an EV-converted 1997 Ford Ranger Splash\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.jalopnik.com\/img\/uploads\/embed\/it-fsVLvg-1793816034.jpg\" border=\"0\"><a class=\"gallery-image-credit\" href=\"https:\/\/bringatrailer.com\/listing\/1997-ford-ranger-18\/\" target=\"_blank\">Bring a Trailer<\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p>You won&#8217;t be going very far between charges, either. Electric Vehicles of America estimates the range to be somewhere between 38 and 81 miles, with an average of 53. That&#8217;s on new batteries, which these are not. EVs have become much more practical in recent years, but the technology in this Ranger is relatively old and crude, so it&#8217;s pretty much limited to short runs around town between long charging cycles.<\/p>\n<p>If you can live with these limitations, this is actually a great project EV. It&#8217;s simple enough to be fairly reliable. You can likely maintain it and fix it yourself, and all of the documentation you need is included. It&#8217;s not perfect, with a torn headliner and some dents and dings around the body, but it&#8217;s still in good shape for a 1997 Ranger, and easy to fix. It has no reserve and at the time of writing, it has a high bid of $300. I&#8217;m sure that will change, but hopefully it will stay less expensive than <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jalopnik.com\/2200623\/slate-truck-pricing-24950-new-details-specs-announced\/\" target=\"_blank\">a Slate truck<\/a>. Plus, this truck has something no Slate, Cybertruck, or Rivian has: It&#8217;s a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reels\/CsSYU6uuyGo\/\" target=\"_blank\">Ford f&#8217;in Ranger<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Add Jalopnik on Google: Preferred Source Google Discover Some may remember the ultra-rare electric Chevy S-10, which was basically an S-10 pickup with GM EV1 running gear. We&#8217;ve seen some versions of the Ranger with\u00a0an electric shock treatment\u00a0as well, but not in the cool flareside version known as the Splash. And while it&#8217;s typically a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,247],"class_list":["post-2242344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-jalopnik-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2242344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2242344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2242344\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2242344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2242344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2242344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}