Disclosed is a drive unit for a wheelchair and a wheelchair including such. The wheelchair includes a control input and a structural frame with two lateral frame elements, each supporting a drive wheel. The drive unit includes two drive motors within a driveshaft housing, adapted to drive the drive wheels independently based on input via the control input. The drive shaft housing is releasably attached between the two lateral frame elements of the wheelchair and connected to the drive wheels via quick-release couplings. The drive shaft housing is divided into at least two sections, each section housing one of the drive motors and that the at least two sections of the drive shaft housing are telescopically moveable relative to each other for adjusting the width of the drive shaft housing to different wheelchairs having different distances between the lateral frame elements of the structural frame of the wheelchair.