Why not buy a Nissan Leaf?

because they are slow and ugly.

Not that I have done it, but they could mount two motors in place of the transaxel and use a CV joint and a modified half shaft, but your right it will be expensive, even if you use the tranny in the car and a single motor it's still going to be expensive, but there is a weight saving in removing it so you can get a few more miles / charge and save money because you won't need the extra batteries to haul around a few hundred pounds of a transmission and you will also get less energy loss because an automotive transmission is not the most efficient thing, some will have up to a 40% loss between the input to the output..

they make adapter plates for both using the transition or direct driving it without the transmission and hooking it straight into the drivetrain, I'll likely go with the latter.

In SC and many other states, there are no vehicle inspections, so you can get away with a lot as long as it doesn't attract the wrong kind of attention. Legally, you have to have all the usual lights, mirrors, brakes, etc. but they don't check when you apply for registration at the DMV. As long as the car has a VIN and you have a title (and it's not stolen), registering it isn't really a problem.

What do you plan on doing with the exterior lights, interior lights, heating and air conditioning? If I ever do this, I would convert all of the exterior lights to LED as well as the dash lights to reduce drain on the battery as much as possible. As for the heater, you can get kits for electric cars (something like this) but I am not sure what you could do for air conditioning. I have experimented with thermoelectric plates for small-scale air conditioning applications (cooling a chicken coop in intense heat) and found that they draw way too much electricity to be practical. (You would probably need something like a 400w chip to effectively cool the cab, but that would really suck battery life down)

What do you plan on doing with the exterior lights, interior lights, heating and air conditioning? If I ever do this, I would convert all of the exterior lights to LED as well as the dash lights to reduce drain on the battery as much as possible. As for the heater, you can get kits for electric cars (something like this) but I am not sure what you could do for air conditioning. I have experimented with thermoelectric plates for small-scale air conditioning applications (cooling a chicken coop in intense heat) and found that they draw way too much electricity to be practical. (You would probably need something like a 400w chip to effectively cool the cab, but that would really suck battery life down)

That heater needs hot engine coolant to work, you need some thing more like this https://www.ebay.ca/itm/VW-AirCooled-Beetle-BN2-Gas-Heater-104/291418342612?hash=item43d9e304d4:g:mokAAOSwPhdVFxUn&vxp=mtr and for cooling I don't know, maybe a coleman cooler with a few holes cut in it and a large block of ice and a small computer fan.. 

What about the equipment being operated by a regular combustion engine, such as the power steering and brakes?

With vacuum powered accessories you can either do without or get a vacuum pump. They are easily bought aftermarket as people get them for their cars that have big cam profiles that don't have enough vacuum to run things like that.

Power steering is another issue entirely as just like A/C it is mechanically driven in most cases. Many newer cars have electric power steering, so there may be a way to adapt such a thing. A friend of mine is swapping a 2017 ram 1500 steering rack into his 89 ram. It requires a lot of work, but is possible.

As far as mounting a motor, no more difficult than fabricating a trans. adapter plate, motor mounts, and shaft adapter for the motor. Front wheel drive could be more complicated for motor mounts with a transverse layout, but not impossible. Standard shift would probably be the easiest and you wouldn't need a clutch either.

It is also crazy to hear what kind of red tape would possibly needed in the EU to do such a thing. I think that would lead to riots here in GA. As long as you don't live in a county that has emissions checks, nobody knows or cares. Even in the case you do, to my knowledge there are provisions for fuel type conversions, including electric. I think there are also provisions for home built or kit cars as well. I don't know the process, but I don't think it is near as complicated.

What about the equipment being operated by a regular combustion engine, such as the power steering and brakes?

Actually lots of newer cars are going with electrically assisted power steering so that shouldn't be hard to do, and going all electric you could get away with simple set of  un-powered brakes, just like every car has when the engine is not running, because you can use the electric motors to regenerate power back into the batteries or an array of supercaps for the bulk of long duration braking like going down hills, or even a straight up resistive load, like a heater, and the rest of the time you just need to step on the pedal a wee bit harder... 

Ah yes, I've heard of vacuum pumps. As for other accessories like air conditioning and power steering I suppose you could have a smaller motor that can operate these devices as needed, although electric power steering would be a better option. Regenerative braking would be great to have, to recharge the batteries and you could use the regenerative braking to actually heat the cabin on cooler days.

I found a $500 black GP, me and my dad are going to go take a look at it on Friday.

Interesting thread!

I never thought of the road worthieness certificate thing, but I would certainly argue that you're using an existing body/chassis/frame, so in terms of how it would perform in an accident/crash/wreck, I would assume it's the same. 

Somewhat-relatable to this, as an 18 year old I almost bought a nearly 50 year old Army surplus "Deuce and a Half" with a multifuel engine, as my first vehicle and daily driver, with the intent of running alternative fuels I could acquire for free/cheap or manufacture myself once I got some filtration infrastructure set up.  (It's been done many times before).  My argument was that, despite the emmissions (EPA killed those multifuel motors off long ago) I would be just as environmentally friendly as a hybrid vehicle, since I was re-using fuel sources untapped by most of the motoring population.  It would've been a cool project, and I would still consider doing it. 

Interesting thread!

I never thought of the road worthieness certificate thing, but I would certainly argue that you're using an existing body/chassis/frame, so in terms of how it would perform in an accident/crash/wreck, I would assume it's the same. 

Somewhat-relatable to this, as an 18 year old I almost bought a nearly 50 year old Army surplus "Deuce and a Half" with a multifuel engine, as my first vehicle and daily driver, with the intent of running alternative fuels I could acquire for free/cheap or manufacture myself once I got some filtration infrastructure set up.  (It's been done many times before).  My argument was that, despite the emmissions (EPA killed those multifuel motors off long ago) I would be just as environmentally friendly as a hybrid vehicle, since I was re-using fuel sources untapped by most of the motoring population.  It would've been a cool project, and I would still consider doing it. 

So those engines can run off of used engine oil?

So those engines can run off of used engine oil?

And vegetable oil, which is free around the back of just about every fast food joint, just bring your own pump, hose and drum to stick it in... And its really not hard to convert vegetable oil into simple Bio-diesel either..

And vegetable oil, which is free around the back of just about every fast food joint, just bring your own pump, hose and drum to stick it in... And its really not hard to convert vegetable oil into simple Bio-diesel either..

I remember meeting the owner of a couple of ice cream vans that used to run his fleet off a blend of regular diesel and biodiesel since he also ran a takeaway as well. He used the oil from the fryers. His fleet were old Mercedes vans that were able to run off biodiesel since it was in the days before SCR, common rail injection, computerised engines and diesel particulate filters.