Electric GT has done some cool EV-swap projects for old cars. The outfit’s probably best known for building the electric manual-shift Ferrari that made the rounds a few years ago. Now its offerings are expanding to enable more electric retrofits for a wider range of classics.
You can order full electric-car conversions for a range of cool vehicles from Electric GT right now. There are some SUV options (Land Cruisers, Broncos, Defenders), pony cars (some Mustangs and Camaros), and a couple of Euros (Fiat convertible and 1960s Porsches) and so forth. But the company will also sell electric conversion parts piecemeal, for those of you who are brave and creative enough to try and convert some old iron to electric power on your own.
Recently, Electric GT expanded its offerings to include “industry-first clutches and adapters specifically designed for EV retrofitted classic vehicles using transmissions commonly found in your favourite classic vehicles.”
EV clutch and transmission adapters are, of course, particularly critical components in the process of EV-swapping a car. If you can connect an electric motor to an existing driveline, it makes the idea of doing an EV swap significantly less daunting than if you have to make your own motor/transmission mating system.
On the other hand, I guess if you’re going deep enough to do an EV swap in 2020, maybe you’re not intimidated by the idea of making your own clutch adaptor.
But from my perspective, I think it’s cool to imagine a timeline in which EV conversions are as “plug-and-play” as the ubiquitous Chevy LS V8 swap. And the availability of this clutch adaptor seems like a step towards that.
So far, Electric GT is offering up clutches and adapters for these applications:
- Air-Cooled VW and Porsche
- Borg-Warner T-56
- GM NV4500
- Toyota Land Cruiser J30/H41/H42/H55F
- Ford Top Loader
- Ford T5
- Volvo M30/M40/M41/M400
- Chevrolet Corvair 3/4 Speed
…With, apparently, more on the way.
None of this is cheap–some of Electric GT’s full conversions fetch about $US60,000 ($87,552). The company’s GTe-253 electric crate motor is about $US34,000 ($49,613). But the technology will only get more accessible. (Right?) I hope so, because I fantasize about swapping the VG V6 in my 300ZX for electric power all the time.