openinverter forum

Hi All,

Quick introduction from my side: I am based in the northern part of the Netherlands; Friesland for those that are familiar in the area. My background is Mechanical Engineering. I was introduced early to cars by a neighbor; restored a Saab 96 when I was 16 to 18 years old and owned and worked on a lot of other cars since.
For a while I did not have any hobby cars since I had two kids and worked on my house.
I have been driving a Leaf (2015) now for 5 years.

Now it is time again for a Saab and make it electric. My plan: a Saab 96 with a Leaf EM57 80kW stack.

The Saab in its current status: The rules for getting the car road legal in the Netherlands changed as of the first of Januari. Now I cannot get it road legal with the Leaf HV battery anymore; this would have been easiest. This is why I also purchased a VW ID3 HV battery with 9 modules; also inspired by the build of Johu with his Touran.

My current idea for the project:
1. Nissan Leaf stack EM57 80kW
2. HV battery:

• a. VW ID3 modules (8x)
  b. BMS ?? use the one from VW ID3??
  c. Make new enclosure

3. Zombiverter VCU
4. CCS charging using FOCCCI
5. Cooling/heating:

• a. Heating/cooling with water in HV battery enclosure
  b. VW water heater
  c. Water pump from Leaf
  d. Radiator and fan TBD

6. Others:

• a. Throttle from Leaf
  b. Dash: speedometer and feedback on other parameters; TBD. I would like to keep the old look, but with all needed info of course

I am open for suggestions, so feel free to share experiences. I would appreciate for example input on the BMS that is best to be used and are the choices of Zombiverter with FOCCCI the right ones?

I have the following steps in mind:
- Tear down the donor Leaf (2017)
- Get the Zombiverter with all leaf components alive in a test set-up (maybe first with the Leaf HV battery and later with the ID3 battery)
- Parallel design the new HV battery enclosure and model the motor into the Saab 96 bay
- Maybe check with local authority if plans can be accepted
- When this is all successful start cutting and welding in the car

Donor Leaf picked up:

Please attach photos directly. Hosted images vanish and leave threads missing context

Next time I will share the photos directly; need to figure out exactly how to do this, can anyone give a hint?

I have a question for the Dutch people around here: Does anyone know how I can consult the best way with the RDW? Since the rules are changed recently I would like to discuss the rough design with them and know if it has a good chance that it will be approved and made street legal.

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Decided to pull your PM out here:

As you maybe have read I am planning to make a similar set-up in my Saab 96 as your build in the Touran. If I am not mistaking you have a Leaf stack with ID3 batteries. I have read through your project topic and by reading it sometimes multiple times I learn more and more, but I still not fully understand how you made it work: the connection between the ID3 modules and the VCU (ZombieVerter I assume ??).

Could you give me a hint on where I can find more info?

I've summarized the build here: https://openinverter.org/wiki/VW_Touran_Conversion
I don't use Zombieverter (didn't exist back then) but shoehorned an inverter board into the stock ECU enclosure and running this software: https://github.com/jsphuebner/stm32-car/tree/touran-meb

I've whacked everything including the VW BMS cell modules and the ISA shunt on one single CAN bus

Rik wrote: ↑Sun Jan 04, 2026 11:13 am b. BMS ?? use the one from VW ID3??

There are a few options to use the ID3 based slaves if you can package it all nicely. slaves with 4 modules always need 4 modules attached.

You can buy a solution (my EVS BMS being one of them) or build something utilizing the SimpBMS code I shared on github. https://github.com/Tom-evnut/VW-bms

johu wrote: ↑Tue Jan 06, 2026 2:18 pm I've whacked everything including the VW BMS cell modules and the ISA shunt on one single CAN bus

This is impressive! This must have taken you a lot of time!

I have a car without BMS, so I expect that this makes it a little easier.
As explained in the PM to Johu: this is all new to me. I am learning already a lot, but I think I still have a long way to go. That’s why I would appreciate some thoughts from the more experienced people around here. Johu, Tom, what do you think: is the ZombieVerter the right way to go for me? How much more learning do I need to do (and grow additional grey hairs), before the MEB modules are going to work together with the Zombiverter and the Nissan stack?

Hi Rik,
You can contact the RDW directly. They will point you to the current regulations, other wise you can also contact BOVAG, they now have a special division for retro-fit EV convertionalist, previously the RERVA.
Still a lot of things are possible. I converted my Saab 93 cabrio, with Leaf stack and battery, back in 2023, it was relatively easy to get it road legal, but indeed some rules have changed.
Also look for UN-R100 and R10 regulations, these are also used by the RDW.

Currently i am converting a Mercedes 508/409 ex fire truck, using a gen3 110 kW leaf stack and Peugeot/Stelantis battery modules.

If you have any questions, just let me know.

Also check out Dala's battery emulator project. It is for home battery storage, however, Dala added also an option to output Nissan Leaf / Zombiverter to enable any of the listed batteries to be used for a Leaf setup with Resolve EV controller or the Zombiverter in combination with any of their motors/inverters. Emulating a Leaf battery output