Nick Carey

SILVERSTONE (Reuters) – Save your precious Aston Martin DB6, Porsche 911, or Mustang by visiting the museum of combustion engine heritage. Your Fiat 500 or Mustang? Renault Clio is the appropriate name for this matter.

That’s the message from a growing cohort of European and American startups seeking to carve out roles in the auto transition by converting the roaring dinosaurs of the fossil-fuel age into clean electric vehicles (EVs).

The highest end is where companies such as Lunaz, Britain, sell a “remanufactured Aston Martin DB6 at 1 million Pounds ($1.3 Million). Voitures Extravert, Netherlands, sells a reengineered 1960s Porsche 911 911 at 300,000 Euros ($337,000).

For around 8,000 Euros, Transition-One and other startups in France offer no-frills kits to power electrify mass-market cars like the Fiat 500. The idea is to offer drivers a greener and cheaper way of achieving zero emission than buying new cars and scrapping them.

The cottage business of EV conversion has been growing over the last five years. It’s seen a boom in recent years due to advances in electric motors and battery technology. This market remains untested and many industry professionals interviewed by Reuters describe an exciting scene, even if it is precarious.

Mark Roberts (a McLaren veteran for 30 years) said that “it’s quite revolutionary at the moment.” He is currently chief creative officer of British startup Charge Cars. There are always new businesses popping up almost every month, and it’s hard to predict who will disappear after a year or how long they’ll stay.

Charge Cars plans to launch the production of 499 electric 1960s Mustangs next year. These cars will be built using Ford-licensed car bodies and cost 300,000. The original plan was to make classic cars electric, but the company has since spent five years creating an electric replica.

Vadim Shaheev, CEO at Porsche, says “Traditional companies like Porsche have the ability to screw up.” We are a startup so that we don’t have to.”

He is one of many established startups that have drawn attention to traditional suppliers for autos and factories looking for technical assistance as they make the transition from gasoline to electric. Michelin To test new technologies, Charge Cars and (PA:) have partnered.

There may not be much room for error, as a number of new EV conversion startup companies strive to scale up to meet the growing regulatory requirements and rising costs in France.

Chris Hazell is the founder of Zero EV UK, a startup that produces mass-produced conversion kits for Porsche 964s, and other vintage models. “The new regulations will wipeout a lot smaller players because they won’t be able meet the standards.” The company will be expanding to the United States in next year.

CLASSIC TO GARBAGE

You have many options for scaling.

Lunaz, for instance, considers classic cars such as the Aston Martin DB6 a good starting point.

This company, which is three years old, and others at the EV conversion end aim to capitalize on the large number of vintage vehicles worldwide. There are an estimated 5,000,000 in the United States.

Lunaz usually buys an old car from the open market, or takes the vehicle that a customer has, and then rebuilds the vehicle with an electric drive system. The range is approximately 250 miles.

Lunaz believes its future lies in commercial vehicles. To convert over 1,000 garbage trucks each year from diesel to electric, a new factory is being built at Silverstone, in central England.

David Lorenz founder stated that “classic cars were the lightning rod for getting us to market.” You need to be able to scale if your goal is to create real change.

Lorenz said to Reuters that the company was looking for sites in America and Europe and would be considering going public.

“THROW THESE CARS AWAY?”

France has a different story. It is home to mass-market conversions looking for opportunities in anti-road pollution plans. These plans outpace most of Europe.

Large cities will ban diesel engines older than 2011, affecting thousands of car owners. Paris plans to implement the ban in 2024, and move faster.

The country has seen a rise in demand for scale due to new retrofitting laws that were introduced last year. Startups say they now require government testing at 100,000 Euros per generic model.

Transition-One, a converter based in Orleans plans to sell conversion kits for six models. This includes the Fiat 500 as well as Renault Clio. These kits include a battery, an electric motor, power electronics and a new cluster of instruments. They typically last for around 140km.

According to CEO Aymeric Libeau, the cost for customers may be as high as 5,000 Euros, including subsidies from the government. He stated that he wanted to make kits at scale next year and had waited for retrofitting laws. The gear will be fitted by Transition-One certified independent mechanics.

Arnaud Piounides is the CEO of Paris-based REV Mobilities. He estimates that conversion to an electric car reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 60%. This compares to scrapping an existing vehicle and creating a brand new one.

Pigounides stated that his company offers to convert cars and vans at a fraction of the cost of new vehicles. He has received orders for 370 cars as well as 1,500 vans.

“The main question is, do we toss all these cars or convert them? He added.

How do we accomplish 10,000 things?

Chris Pateman Jones, the CEO of British car charging company Connected Kerb said that only mass market options for EV conversions could really make a difference in the environment.

His comments were: “The price of making a car new is enormous, so it would be great if we could reuse existing cars.” But it’s hard to make an impact on enough people.

Electrogenic, an innovative four-year-old company located down the road of Lunaz, plans to expand its reach by tapping into the rural British four-wheel-drive market. This includes the Land Rover Defenders which are popular among farmers.

Steve Drummond, co-founder of the company, said that a kit was being developed for Land Rover Defenders from an old Land Rover Defender for just 20,000 Pounds. Local mechanics could install it. He said that although there is no comparable new model, he stated that Britain’s 36,000 farmers need four-wheel-drive EVs.

Zero Labs in California is aware that its business model for electric “restomods” of classic Ford Broncos/Land Rovers has limits.

Although the company offers vehicles starting at $350,000 but only 50 per year, it has developed electric platforms which licensed automotive shops can convert to classic cars.

We were able to accomplish 10,000 per annum. Adam Roe is the CEO. “Our platforms will be our scale product.”