Why classic cars are the next big thing in electric vehicles

In 1958, a now iconic Rolls-Royce ad promised passengers that, despite its eight-cylinder aluminum engine, the loudest noise would be its electric clock.

Six decades later, modern technology is delivering on that promise. “Henry Royce built these cars to be quiet,” says David Lorenz, founder of luxury auto shop Lunaz. “Now, we can make this happen.” It’s not magic – it’s electric.

Founded in 2018 in Silverstone, England, Lunaz specializes in high-end classic car electric engine conversions, from a six-seater Rolls-Royce Phantom to the James Bond favorite, the Aston Martin DB5.

It is one of a growing number of companies that provide this type of service. Lorenz says electric motors can make classic cars low-maintenance and easy to use to “preserve these cars for future generations.”

Why Convert Your Classic Car?

Electric vehicles, or EVs, offer a variety of benefits, says Dominic Dattero Snell, a PhD research engineer at Cardiff University with experience in sustainable transport. With no tailpipe emissions, EVs are less polluting and cheaper to refuel than gasoline or diesel cars.

But according to the UK non-profit Zemo’s 2018 analysis, while a new EV will produce lower overall carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions than a gasoline car over its lifetime, manufacturing could be responsible for anywhere from 20% to 95% of the emissions associated with an electric vehicle (depending on the source of electricity).

A 2021 report by the non-profit International Council for Clean Transport says general EV manufacturing in Europe for a mid-size car creates two metric tons more in CO2 equivalent than manufacturing a conventional car.

Converting an existing vehicle bypasses the manufacture and recycling of old cars and is a more efficient use of resources, says Snell. “Not having to extract new raw materials in the production of a functional vehicle, mostly new, is a great victory”, he adds.

A luxury upgrade

In addition to replacing the combustion engine with its own in-house built electric power train, Lunaz strips the car for a “nut and bolt restoration” that rebuilds the car with modern amenities to customer specifications.

While EV conversion shops are nothing new – Green Shed Conversions in Florida was founded in 2006, for example, and Japan-based OZ Motors has been converting cars since 2010 – there is growing enthusiasm around the industry of niche.

“The biggest change is the amount of capital being invested in this market space,” says Lorenz, who is driving technology development and the growth of conversion companies.

Lunaz has received investments from notable sponsors including the Barclays family, the Reuben family (reputedly one of the wealthiest families in the UK) and, most recently, David Beckham, who bought a 10% stake in the company.

Its factory can convert 120 cars a year, but Lorenz points to further expansion. Conversions for these luxury vehicles are not cheap, ranging from $250,000 to over $1 million. But that hasn’t slowed business, says Lorenz: The company is fully booked for next year.

The ‘common man’ conversion

While Lunaz caters to a niche luxury market, another UK based classic car enthusiast is looking for a more “common” solution to EV conversion.

Matthew Quitter converted his own 1953 Morris Minor, which inspired him to open his classic car EV conversion shop London Electric Cars in 2017.

The 16 projects Quitter is currently working on will cost homeowners from £30,000 to £200,000, but he says he would like to see that number drop to £5,000 to meet the demand for “affordable conversion.”

He points to the environmental commitments that countries around the world have taken on in recent years as a factor in increasing interest. Globally, transport is responsible for about 20% of CO2 emissions, and road passenger vehicles, including cars and motorcycles, account for 45% of this.

In 2020, the UK government announced plans to phase out sales of combustion engine vehicles over the next decade, which has made EVs more attractive to the public.

At least 11 other countries have announced phasing out plans for new combustion-engine car sales through 2030, with more targets in the next decade.

The appetite for EVs is demonstrated in the rapidly growing global electric car inventory, which increased by 43 percent in 2020, even as overall car sales fell 16 percent.

But Quitter says that if countries are to meet their commitments to reduce emissions, buying new electric cars will not be enough.

“If we are going to meet these obligations to reduce our CO2 emissions by 2030, we are going to scrap a large number of cars because they have combustion engines,” he says.

Engineering researcher Snell agrees that EV conversion can be a “powerful alternative” to current scrapping schemes. He adds that while conversion discussions generally focus on the classic car market, the concept can be applied to a mass market.

This is something Lunaz is already looking for – not luxury cars, but commercial vehicles like garbage trucks.

Many cars and industrial vehicles are scrapped before they complete 10 percent of the mileage they were built for, and that’s where EV conversion can offer a solution, says Lorenz. “We cannot simply scrap these vehicles. We need to get out of this new buying mentality.”

Controversies and car chases

But EV conversions are still not an easy alternative to scrapping schemes, as they are expensive and can take thousands of hours.

Classic cars are the perfect test-bed for these conversions, where the benefits in terms of greater vehicle reliability and usability are more pronounced and sentimental value makes owners more likely to invest.

Still, classic car conversions have their controversies.

Some car enthusiast groups, such as the Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs, believe that old vehicles should not be maintained in terms of the performance, wearable conditions and environmental standards applied to modern cars.

“There will always be a reaction from a segment of purists who see extensive modifications as undermining a vehicle’s historic value, which I understand to a certain extent,” says Snell.

For some people, EV conversions destroy the soul of a car. In the UK, classic cars comprise just 1.8% of vehicles registered on the road and account for a meager 0.2% of the miles driven annually, so there is a strong argument that these electric motor conversions have little impact on the environment.

But it’s not just the potential environmental benefits drivers are thinking about right now – it’s also about performance and perception.

Five years ago, power train maker Electric GT hired California-based EV West to convert a burned-out 1978 Ferrari 308 GTS, around the same time that Ferrari boss Sergio Marchionne said a Electric Ferrari would be “obscene”.

The conversion was the world’s first, and in 2018 it beat the original model in a 10-second track test, proving that not only could electric cars be as good as gasoline, but potentially even better.

Lunaz also wants to improve the driving experience from every angle. Owners often have sentimental attachments to their engines and, for Lorenz, the aesthetic beauty of classic cars “will never be replicated in a modern vehicle.” But making old cars easier to use and maintain is essential to their longevity, he says, adding, “Once you use electricity, you don’t come back.”

(Translated text. Read the original in English here).