California man builds his own electric truck out of a BMW i3 for under $10,000 after declaring US gas prices are 'insane'

In response to ‘insane’ US gas prices, this California man has built his own electric truck out of a BMW i3.

YouTuber Michael Pick took matters into his own hands to combat the sky-high gas prices, rather than wait around for the Slate truck to be released.

With $10,000 and a whole bunch of tools at his disposal, he got to work transforming his BMW i3.

This isn’t quite the traditional route toward going electric, but we’re here for it.

More people are going electric, and gas prices play a huge role

Chances are, if you’ve come across the testimonial of a new EV owner, gas prices will be mentioned at one point or another.

Let’s face it, they’ve gotten awfully pricey recently.

And once you hear the charging costs, it’s hard not to be swayed.

One Tesla Model 3 owner estimated he’d saved around $10,000 over five years by not paying for fuel, while one Canadian driver saved a small fortune by switching over to Tesla.

But this is the fairly standard route for EV converts.

They’ll get sick of gas prices, go to a dealership, and walk away with a new electric car.

That’s not the path that YouTuber Michael Pick went down.

This man decided to electrify his BMW i3

“I wanted something cheaper, a lot cheaper. So, instead of waiting for somebody else to build one, I decided to build my own,” Pick declared.

His starting off point was a BMW i3, and his desired end point was for it to be an electric truck.

Bought from an auction with more than 100,000 miles and a rough interior, this car needed to be fixed up getting running.

One battery replacement and a deep clean later, and the BMW i3 was ready for its tear down.

Given that the i3’s body is carbon fiber, this provided something of a challenge, so he had to bring out a polycrystalline diamond blade.

It took a whole lot of work, during which he had to move workshops, but before long it was time to drive.

How did his BMW i3 truck fare after all of his work?

He took it out to Home Depot, where he strapped lumber down to the L-track.

Suffice to say, he got a lot of looks in the parking lot – as he did while driving around town.

“While there’s a lot of things we can’t control, being able to build, fix, and maintain the things we own is something we can control,” he concluded.

“Is it perfect? Absolutely not. But that’s not really the point. You don’t always have to wait for someone else to come up with a solution. Sometimes you can build your own.”

There’s nothing quite like the satisfaction of a job well done.

What was the biggest challenge that came his way during the build? The answer may surprise you.

“The hardest part of the project—which I didn’t show on camera—was actually finishing the build after dislocating my shoulder halfway through the build process,” Pick told Supercar Blondie.

“On the technical side, designing the taillight housing to fit into such a tight space was the biggest challenge.

“I wanted to reuse the OEM taillight electronics, and that design was the only way to make it work. Everything else went fairly smoothly.”