Techno-Economic Retrofit Feasibility Assessment of an ICE-to-EV Retrofit for a Light Commercial Pickup Platform

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Abstract
Electric vehicle (EV) adoption in South Africa remains constrained by high upfront purchase costs, limited charging infrastructure, and policy uncertainty, creating a need for lower-cost and locally relevant pathways to transport decarbonisation. This study evaluates the feasibility of converting a legacy light commercial pickup platform from internal combustion engine (ICE) propulsion to battery-electric propulsion through integrated component sizing, longitudinal vehicle simulation, and techno-economic assessment. A retrofit architecture comprising a traction battery, inverter-controller, electric motor, and DC-DC converter was developed using first-principles vehicle dynamics and energy-demand analysis. The resulting configuration employed a 40 kW AC induction motor, an approximately 28 kWh battery pack, a 40–60 kW inverter with 60 kW peak capability, and a 0.75–1.2 kW auxiliary DC-DC converter. Simulation over a representative 1000 s drive cycle showed stable speed tracking, sustained vehicle motion over approximately 10 km, and peak battery currents exceeding 300 A during acceleration, while regenerative braking reduced net cumulative energy consumption relative to gross demand. The economic analysis indicated that the retrofit pathway yielded the lowest cumulative total cost of ownership over most of a 10-year horizon, with breakeven relative to the used ICE baseline occurring at approximately 3.4 years. Lifecycle analysis further showed that the retrofit configuration achieved the lowest combined production and operational carbon burden among the compared vehicle pathways. These findings indicate that ICE-to-EV retrofitting of legacy light commercial vehicles can provide a technically feasible, economically competitive, and environmentally advantageous electrification strategy for South Africa and comparable emerging markets.

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