Vintage Cars Go Electric

In a new 110,000-square-foot facility in the Napa Valley, Howard plans to electrify thousands of vehicles and introduce several new-old models each year. “There are 30 million collectible cars in the US,” he says. “So it’s a very large opportunity.” Soon and McKeel Hagerty, whose namesake company is one of the world’s largest insurers of classic vehicles, and Robert Downey Jr.’s environmentally oriented venture capital firm, FootPrint Coalition, are investors.

Kindred isn’t alone. Zelectric, also in California, focuses on VW ­Beetles and Porsches that it goes on to sell from $100,000 to $300,000. The Ghost Garage in Michigan does Jeep Grand Wagoneers . E.C.D. in Florida electrifies classic Land Rover Defenders, Range Rovers, and Jaguar E-Types .1985 Land Rover Defender 110Other companies focus on providing conversion hardware for DIY’ers and small shops. Michael Bream, founder of EV West, leads this realm.

Even Ford and General Motors are entering the category, building electric motors sized to replace their guzzly old V-8 engines. “Classic vehicle restoration is an integral part of GM’s business and history,” wrote Travis Hester, GM’s vice president of EV growth operations. “Extending that same passion to electrification is a natural next step.”

Because the collector market privileges unmodified vehicles, there was an early emphasis on preserving removed gas engines so they could be reinstalled should the owners later resell. But as the practice has caught on, this has shifted, and EV-converted cars have become eminently desirable. “Ewan McGregor came down here with his 1954 Oval Window [VW Beetle], just a beautiful showpiece, and he had a matching-numbers engine in it, and when we pulled it out, he said, ‘I want to save that motor,’” Bream says. But a year after McGregor picked up his electrified Bug, he hadn’t retrieved the gas engine. Bream messaged him, wanting to know where to send it. McGregor wrote back. “Oh, mate. I don’t want that.

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