Vosa requirements for converted vehicles

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hat27533
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Vosa requirements for converted vehicles

Postby hat27533 » Mon Jan 12, 2009 7:51 pm

When converting a petrol vehicle to electric, is there any official vehicle testing that has to be completed before it can be used on the road.

Obviously MOT etc, what about modified vehicles or does this not apply?


:?:

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Jeremy
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Postby Jeremy » Mon Jan 12, 2009 8:35 pm

Provided that you don't change too many parts, then you don't need to go through SVA. There is some guidance on the DfT website, but generally you don't need to go through SVA if the vehicle already has an identity, you keep the standard running gear and brakes and and all you're doing is swapping the internal combustion engine and transmission for an electric motor.

Your local vehicle licensing office may wish to do an inspection, just to check motor numbers, VIN etc, plus you will undoubtedly cause confusion with the muppets at DVLA Swansea, who may well take a handful of attempts before they get the registration details right.

The vehicle doesn't change taxation class until you go to tax it for the first time, which means a trek to your local vehicle licensing office, but the tax is free.

My advice would be to allow plenty of time for the DVLA hassle. It took me four months to finally get my bike sorted with the correct registration details (well, mostly correct, as they still have the wrong engine number.........).

Jeremy

MalcolmB
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Postby MalcolmB » Tue Jan 13, 2009 8:50 am

Just to confirm what Jeremy says above and add that some people have found the process easier if you maintain a current MOT on the vehicle you're converting, just to minimise confusion when you come to change the fuel taxation class. It's also important to keep a record of information such as motor serial number and rating plate information, as your future insurer may ask for them.

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qdos
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Postby qdos » Tue Jan 13, 2009 2:42 pm

Indeed I concur with the above. If you go about it gradually and try to keep things simple as far as the offices concerned in noting the changes you'll find things far easier.

In very basic terms if you try to keep it as simple as for example changing your engine for a reconditioned one that's the best target to aim for. If you want to do radical things do them one by one. It's all made a lot easier if there's a paper trail that overlaps and MOTs are a good way to do this.

People have been doing this right from the very beginnings of the motor industry indeed some of our great car manufacturers actually pretty much were simply modifying other existing vehicles. Jaguar (Swallow Side Cars) Bentley, Daimler, Jensen. In fact even today you'll find under an Audi A3 it's a VW Golf.

Keep it simple and do things one by one and inform the DVLA step at a time is the best way I find. I don't recommend trying to convince them that you've converted your Golf into an Audi though. But you can see what I'm getting at I hope.

Grumpy-b
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Postby Grumpy-b » Thu Jan 15, 2009 9:56 am

I have recently been in contact with my local DVLA office, (ie go and visit them because you are not allowed to telephone or e-mail them) with regard to my reshelling of my Multispace project.

The guidance from Swansea was just re shell it, stamp the chassis number on and then tell them about it. Local office was adamant this was wrong. However they wont come and see me / the vehicle / shell now, they will only inspect it once completed at their office (actually on the sreet in Ipswich on double yellow lines!!) Then they will decide if I can stamp it . or if theywant to give me a new Chassis number, or if they want to give me a new age related plate.

Even though I have the Documents from Citroen with the shell, DVLA now want me to get a letter from Citroen UK saying that they made the shell!!

And to finally add insult to injury, I live in suffolk, 20 miles from the DVLA office, but my workshop is across the border by 4 miles in essex, so they cant Inspect it anyway, I would have to go and discuss it in person with the Chelmsford office 35miles away (DOnt forget you cant talk to e-mail them). The term Jobs worth does leap to mind.
I also work for a Government body and we have been expressly instructed to deal with pepole and not be overly officious, so the DVLA attitude is actually contrary to Government intentions, particularly with regard to the inabilility to telephone or e-mail an office or inspector.

The best advice is take lots of Photos, have documentation, keep receipts, and be polite but persistent. Dont be afraid to ask to speak to someone higher. After my initial discussions with Swansea, and a visit to my local office where no one was able to speak to me, no subsequent promised telephone call happened. I therefore phoned swansea and insisted I wanted to make a complaint, I also insisted that I would not discuss it with the call centre operator, but demanded a Supervisor, remember to take operatives names at all times. Once I had a supervisor and stated my Complaints, especially the initial duff Swansea info, they couldnt have been more helpful. Even arranging the local office to call back.
Remember to be polite but firm, dont lose it and dont swear.


Grumpy-b

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Jeremy
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Postby Jeremy » Thu Jan 15, 2009 10:37 am

As many here have noted, DVLA Swansea is populated by call-centre muppets, in the main. The bulk of their work is following standard scripts for change of ownership, SORN, etc, so they simply go into free-fall when faced with something a bit out of the ordinary.

In their defence, if you can find a named individual there who deals with odd stuff, and get that persons direct line number, then things can get a little tiny bit easier.

The daft change to removing incoming phone lines from local offices is completely insane and one that the staff at my local office hate just as much as we do. I managed to get Swansea to instruct my local office to contact me directly and the very helpful chap there gave me his mobile number. From then on sorting the inspection out was easy, he even drove from Poole to Salisbury to do it at my house!

I think the lesson here is to cultivate a good working relationship with your local office. I've built a couple of cars in the past and always found local offices helpful, in some cases going out of their way to help (like the chap from Poole).

What we're seeing from DVLA Swansea is a direct effect of the governments barking mad target setting policy. The policy is worded in terms of turnaround time for tasks, with the figure being X% of tasks handled in Y days. The call centre approach is cheap to run and allows the vast majority of standard queries to be sorted quickly, so meeting the target. It also means that the turnaround time for non-standard tasks goes up by weeks or months, but that doesn't matter as it's only a small percentage of the total, so they still meet their targets and get bonuses.

Years ago my wife worked in the NHS. They had a target for number of patients treated in a given period of time. They met it by discharging patients early, so that some had to be re-admitted. The re-admission counted as a new patient treatment, so another tick in the box against the target...................

Jeremy

subevo
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Postby subevo » Tue Jan 27, 2009 9:54 pm

just taxed my car for the first time after converting a daewoo matiz to electric.

got car motd first
two days later appeared at glasgow dvla office and waited to be seen.
was then put in touch with a guy who dealt with specialist tax applications.showed him my mot, insurance, photos,receipts,etc.guy seemed happy.said he had to send photocopies to swansea.and that they may write to me to request an inspection.i said i couldnt travel far due to limited range.he said no problem i will come to your house if needbe. he said i would have to go back to the queue next door and wait for my tax disc.30minutes later i held my free tax disc yee haa!!!!!
whole event took 1 hour.hope this is of use .as i didnt want to buy a disc then reclaim later.

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qdos
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Postby qdos » Tue Jan 27, 2009 11:34 pm

Excellent, well done!

See, keep it simple and do most of the work for the guys and girls behind the counters and hey presto!

Grumpy-b
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Postby Grumpy-b » Thu Mar 12, 2009 10:04 am

DVLA just got worse, if thats possible.
I have been trying to resolve issues in relation to re-shelling a Berlingo with a new Multispace shell. No resolution as yet, I tried to follow up a recent letter with a phone call to the Inspector in a nearby office, but now you cannot talk to a local office (they used to phone you back, you can not phone direct) but now unless you have an outstanding application number of some sort Swansea will not get the local office to call you.
Really frustrating, its as if DVLA have been instructed to be as obstructive as possible.

I really wish I had never started trying to do the right thing. This approach sems to be aimed at forceing non standard issues underground.

I fully understand whay so many one off vehicles have such dubious registrations. I know of a ford model Y street rod (grp body etc etc) thats actually registered as a BSA!!! been on the road for 10 years like that.

Regards
Grumpy-b (quite appropriate at this moment in time)

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ChrisB
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Postby ChrisB » Thu Mar 12, 2009 10:06 pm

I'm surprised your having any dealings with DVLA with the Berlingo :? surely its just a engine/power train swap ??

Would have thought its a fill in the paperwork saying its an engine change and return it, thats all I did for my Fiesta, 5 weeks later it came back, job done 8)

ChrisB
I reject reality and substitute my own !!!!!!


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