Tiny Japanese Convertible Was Made For An Electric Trike Powertrain, Right?

• This guy got a free Honda Beat kei car from an acquaintance because the engine is dead.
• He's decided to swap the dead engine for an electric motor from an Arcimoto experimental prototype trike instead, and is making a short video series about it.

Powertrain swaps require a whole range of skills and patience. But if you're the kind of stubborn DIYer who's going to embark on one of these in the first place, hopefully, you already have at least an inkling that this is the case.

Apropos of nothing else, taking a beloved ICE vehicle and turning it into an EV can seem like an enticing proposition, particularly if you live somewhere with tightening emissions restrictions. That's why there are any number of tiny, interesting British and Euro conversion specialists doing mad things like turning Renault 4s and 5s into modern EVs in 2024. 

Those aren't cheap, though. In fact, while a lot of folks like you or I might find them aesthetically appealing, far fewer of us would be ready to fork over the cash needed to convert such a thing. And that's a thing that the guys at the Rich Rebuilds YouTube channel have noted over the course of their years of building: Frequently, converting an ICE vehicle to an EV is purely the domain of the rich and stubborn.

That's why, when someone reached out to Rich about an old Honda Beat kei car they had sitting around with a bad engine, and they offered to just give it to him, he couldn't really say no. Especially when he already had a trio of weird Arcimoto electric trike prototypes also sitting in his garage, just waiting to be harvested for future projects.

And to be completely fair, while this project clearly won't cost the Rich Rebuilds crew a whole lot of money to complete, the odds of you or I having someone offer us a Honda Beat and us just happening to have the perfect electric trike in our workshops to convert it are pretty nonexistent. 

Still, though, it's a fun and interesting idea. When new, the Honda Beat used a little 660cc three-cylinder engine. Although it was lightweight for a car (about 1,680 pounds), its diminutive horsepower claims matched its tiny size. How much power did Honda claim? Just 63 eensy horses. You and I have both ridden bikes with more power, I'm sure.

If you're a serial DIYer of any kind, mechanical or otherwise, then you already know that half the battle is what supplies (in this case, other vehicles for harvesting) are already waiting in your collection. It's a lot easier to talk yourself into taking on a new project if you don't have to go out and buy everything you'll need, you know? It's basic #projectmath at its finest.

In this case, Rich has a trio of Arcimoto electric prototypes sitting around, including the trike that he decides will give up its dual motors to power the revived Honda Beat.

Since he's determined this project is only going to last about three videos, we get to see quite a lot get accomplished in this video. That includes the incredibly fortuitous discovery that the Arcimoto's wheels are miraculously the same size as the Beat's. Not only that, but they have the same lug pattern! It's almost like it was meant to be.

Here's hoping they name this Project Blazin' Beat. But even if they don't, I'm looking forward to seeing how this one turns out.