I just read an article on the BBC website about a few companies in London that converts classic cars (or any car you take to them I guess) from petrol engines to electric. The very cool part is that they mostly use 'recycled' parts from electric cars, like Teslas and Nissan Leafs that have crashed and would otherwise just be thrown away. The environmental footprint of converting an existing car to run on an electric drivetrain is much much lower than it would be to build a new electric car, and if the parts are basically being reused then it's even better. The price is huge at the moment, with one of the companies charging about £20,000, but they say they are working on cutting it down to around £5,000 which makes it much more affordable for most people. If this became a bigger industry/trend, with more companies doing the same thing, then the price would definitely come down, just as it does with any mass adopted tech. BBC article: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58578061

Many governments have been giving people a subsidy for buying new electric cars, maybe instead of that they could subsidise and basically pay for the cars that people already have to be converted to electric. Then because it would be modern not classic cars and there would be big numbers being changed it could become much cheaper and it could be a mass change.

Treebeard That is an excellent idea, and send like a really sensible thing to do. I guess part of the problem is that very few companies are doing this and not affordably, but governments could offer grants to companies to develop the facilities and processes to do it.

Pretty good actually that this is a possibility. It's not something I would have ever considered really. But I guess people with the expensive classic cars wouldn't dare do such a thing to their cars.

Classic cars being converted to electric power

Julie Brooks-Girskiene

Ash But I guess people with the expensive classic cars wouldn't dare do such a thing to their cars.

Maybe it depends on what you want to use your classic car for.

If you keep it as a thing to look at in a clean sterile garage and would never let anyone touch or drive it then you should keep it in the original way. But if you like to take it out and drive it as it was designed to be used then it makes sense to convert it.

I think I read about some company, maybe Jaguar I don't remember, taking back their old classic cars and converting them for customers, but they give you the original engine and bits so that it can be changed back in the future if you want to.

John

Julie Brooks-Girskiene I think I read about some company, maybe Jaguar I don't remember, taking back their old classic cars and converting them for customers, but they give you the original engine and bits so that it can be changed back in the future if you want to.

Aston Martin were/are doing this for owners of classic old models.

They swap out the conventional drivetrain for all electric, then refurbish your engine if needed, crate it up and return it to you. The entire process uses all original mountings, etc. and apparently doesn't do anything that can't be reversed to exactly as it was before, so that all of the original value of the car is preserved.

I think that Jaguar are, or are about to, so something very similar with classic E-type cars.

Ash

The thing is though, even if you do drive it a lot, by converting the car, it's no longer in its original state and the value of it goes down quite a bit. This is more the case for the rarer, expensive classic cars of course.

Julie Brooks-Girskiene

Ash The thing is though, even if you do drive it a lot, by converting the car, it's no longer in its original state and the value of it goes down quite a bit. This is more the case for the rarer, expensive classic cars of course.

I still think it depends on what you want it for. If it is just an investment and you will never drive it then it makes no difference how polluting the engine is 🙂 but if you are going to ever drive it then maybe the originality and value are not the most important things.

Annie Brooks

My car is ancient but I like it, I'd be happy if I could convert to run it on electric power, but the conversion would cost 3 times more than buying a newer car.

Julie Brooks-Girskiene

Annie Brooks My car is ancient but I like it, I'd be happy if I could convert to run it on electric power, but the conversion would cost 3 times more than buying a newer car.

Your car doubles in value when you fill it up with gas. 😂

Annie Brooks

Julie Brooks-Girskiene Your car doubles in value when you fill it up with gas. 😂

It almost does!

Stasys-Girskis

For a lot of old cars, classic or not, then I think that synthetic or bio fuels are going to work out to be better options than conversion to electric power.

John

Stasys-Girskis I don't really know much about synthetic 'eFuels', apart from that Porsche were investing a lot of money in developing them over the last year and that F1 is planning to use them to be catching neutral in the next few years.

I am Ashlynn

It would make a lot of sense to change all of the existing cars to a more sustainable fuel source, but I guess that if people are going to spend money then they want to get all of the fancy features that come with a new electric car as well.

Maybe it is possible to convert them to bio or synthetic fuels in the near future though?

Stasys-Girskis

I am Ashlynn Maybe it is possible to convert them to bio or synthetic fuels in the near future though?

F1 normally leads the way when it comes to technology in cars that eventually filters down to 'norma' road cars, and they are claiming that they their new engines in 2025 will use completely sustainable fuel.

I am Ashlynn

Stasys-Girskis F1 normally leads the way when it comes to technology in cars that eventually filters down to 'norma' road cars, and they are claiming that they their new engines in 2025 will use completely sustainable fuel.

I wonder why they are going on this route instead of using hydrogen or battery power like the rest of the car industry is moving towards. Any ideas @Stasys-Girskis ?

Stasys-Girskis

I am Ashlynn Not really. Maybe it's that dilution effect again, most of the manufacturer teams and engine makers in F1 also produce road cars that are fossil-fuel based, and maybe this is a way to explore an alternative future that doesn't need them to radically redesign everything that they do?

Julie Brooks-Girskiene

I looked into a kit to convert my bicycle to an electric one but it cost more than it would to just buy a whole new electric one. It's kind of crazy and does not encourage people to reuse instead of just buying new at all.

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