These Electric Motors Keep Old EVs Running Longer For Less

• Remanufactured electric motors for old EVs are gaining ground.
• SEG Automotive and Fersa offer refurbished e-motors for the first-gen Tesla Model S and Renault Zoe.
• The companies say their rebuilt drive units are 30% cheaper than the originals.

Electric cars are much simpler than their combustion-powered counterparts; that’s well known. However, things break, and when they do, the big stuff like electric motors and high-voltage batteries can be very expensive to replace, especially if you go down the official route.

We’re talking about thousands of dollars for a new drive unit and tens of thousands for a new battery pack. Just like in the world of gas cars, though, there’s a market for repairing and remanufacturing damaged EV components, and going down this route is usually more affordable than getting a new part from the manufacturer.

Here’s where SEG Automotive and Fersa, two well-versed European component manufacturers, come into play with their remanufactured drive units. Fersa provides new bearings for the old motors, while SEG handles everything else.

For now, these Redrive units—that’s the official name of the product—are available for the Renault Zoe city car and the first-generation Tesla Model S.

In the case of the latter, SEG offers a remanufactured Large Drive Unit (LDU), which is known to fail because coolant can go where it’s not supposed to. The rebuilt motor comes with a coolant delete mod and is just a plug-and-play type of repair. 

The same goes with the Renault Zoe, where certain e-motors are known to fail over time. And because the car is usually out of warranty when this happens, sourcing a new motor can be very expensive and time-consuming because it might not even be in stock.

The remanufactured e-motor for the Zoe is a direct replacement for part number 290103231R and will be available by the end of June. The Tesla Model S bolt-in replacement has been on sale since last year.

SEG is tight-lipped about the price of its products but is adamant that it’s about 30% more affordable than going for a new motor. You’ll also have to go to an authorized service to get ahold of a remanufactured drive unit from SEG, but the good news is that you can first get a fresh motor installed and then send the old one to be refurbished..

The whole thing is very similar to remanufacturing a starter motor or an alternator for a combustion car–two things that SEG knows a thing or two about. That’s because it has been building and repairing them for almost 100 years. Based in Stuttgart, Germany, it now employs roughly 6,000 people at its 14 facilities across the world. It describes itself as being one of the world’s leading original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) of starters, alternators and 48-volt Boost Recuperation Machines (BRMs).

As time goes on and EVs become more common, expect more solutions like this—and even new aftermarket batteries—to keep great cars on the road for longer.