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Right. The most, most economical choice would be to sell all the cars and just ride bicycles everywhere. And although I do that during the summer, I wouldn't be to happy riding a bicycle at -20°F.
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Someone needs to advocate for an EV conversion of your Superbeetle.
Electric Volkswagen Beetle - The Quietest VW Bug ever
If you haven't started watching EVTV (evtv.me or Youtube), start. They cover things like new sales statistics, battery chemistry, safety and a number of things you need on background. (2yr-old off-lease Leafs are killing new Leaf sales) They promote OEM components in conversion builds. They like the Tesla subframe and are working toward offering kits. Your charger[s] (Volt), heater (Eberspächer), DC-DC inverter, CHAdeMO charging ports & etc. can come from a junkyard or parts counter at a much better cost/performance ratio that blows away the parts used in EV conversions years past. Lots of hard-won wisdom like 'when the [heated/cooled] battery boxes are in, the conversion is half done'.
Your typical VW EV conversion puts a motor on the VW transaxle that overpowers the car and burns out clutches and never uses three of the five gears. They sell the clutch-shredding as an 'EV grin'. There exists a thread
Hotrodding the Toyota MGR. I suppose a 68hp single-speed 10,000rpm drivetrain (with
massive cables) can replace the 36hp gas engine at equal weight and performance. Here is the raw part in a VW engine bay.
Right now I'm working out the engine mounts, then when the axle half-shafts are sorted it will be down to the electrical work, using MPaulHolmes'
open-source AC controller. Once everything is mocked up, it could transfer to my '71 Super or it could put the '58 on '71 pan back on the road, since the suspension is the same.
This is actually plan B. Plan A is for
Arcimoto to ship product. SRK8 #166 has my name on it.
Even the open-framed base model is rideable in the rain (the windshield is 27" across at the base), but on snow packed streets tricycles have a disadvantage...