Posted on 04/08/2024 1:13:07 PM PDT by Red Badger
As the automotive industry rapidly evolves towards electrification, high-voltage batteries are finding their way into various applications. From mining trucks to hydrofoil boats, electric powertrains are finding their homes in many unsuspecting vehicles. But one area is particularly fascinating: the classic car domain. Due to the high-torque nature of electric motors and battery packs that allow for a low center of gravity, swapping an old gas-guzzling engine for a battery pack and electric motors provides a quieter, faster, and more refined driving experience.
Florida-based automaker E.C.D. Automotive Design Inc. has been working on precisely that. Founded in 2013, the automaker began by restoring and rebuilding classic Land Rovers. In 2021, the firm entered the world of electrification by offering an EV option on its menu. In the following years, E.C.D. added the E-Type and Beach Runner to its lineup, consisting of the Defender 90, Defender 110, and Range Rover Sport. Considering some of these vehicles are of vastly different proportions, it begs the question: how does E.C.D. implement an electric powertrain into an aging ICE-powered vehicle?
E.C.D. is now on its second-generation EV powertrain. When it was solely working on Land Rovers, the battery pack was effectively two large boxes (one placed in the engine bay and one in the trunk) of refurbished Tesla Model S battery cells. The powertrain was functional, though it could only work in large vehicles and lacked some features like DC fast charging.
The second-generation EV powertrain option can be implemented in a wider variety of vehicles, like the recently added E-Type. It offers fast charging, and it requires no structural changes. For instance, E.C.D. said a customer decided to switch back their EV powertrain build for a V8.
Owners will still need to have their vehicles shipped to E.C.D.'s facility for the powertrain replacement. Some other companies infusing lithium-ion battery cells into classic cars use skateboard platforms, but E.C.D. thinks that will detract from the car's feel. "Our intention is always to maintain as much of the characteristics of the car as you can," Wallace said. E.C.D.'s goal is to simply electrify the E-Type, not make it a Tesla Model 3 with the shell of a classic car.
The $299,995 E.C.D. Jaguar E-Types get a 42kWh battery pack, and the $249,995 Land Rovers get an 82kWh one. E.C.D. says this yields a respective range of 150 and 200 miles, though, in the boxy Land Rovers, it is fair to expect a significant range penalty when driving on the highway. Since these are fast charge capable, driving one on small road trips can be much more feasible than if it were fitted with the older powertrain. Based on E.C.D.'s claim of a 10 to 80 percent charge in under an hour, we can extrapolate this to be a peak charge rate of around 50 kilowatts in the E-Type and 100 in the Defender.
Despite the benefits of the EV powertrain, E.C.D.'s boss, Scott Wallace, says that electric powertrains only make up a small percentage of its orders. But for customers in regions where emissions laws mean they can't register their build by a particular year, this gives them the option to enjoy a V8 powertrain until regulations kick in, requiring the emissions to be lower— or zero.
As the world progresses to stricter emissions laws, electrifying classic cars is a way to future-proof them well in the 21st century.
Note: This article was edited to ensure non-clients cannot have their vehicles swapped with an EV powertrain.
These greenie losers are pathetic and insane. More productive for society would be converting LIB/Greenie nitwits to normal people.
E.C.D. = Electric Compulsive Disorder.
My Willys truck would have serious emotional issues if I did this. What would be next, painting it pink?
Don’t get me wrong... I like, at least part, of Dodge’s idea of hooking a Turbo-V6 to a genset with enough kW’s to put 400HP at each wheel...
It’s a hybrid... but done... mostly, the right way.
No 3 hour charging times. No BS 25% range if towing. No worries about the battery dying because it’s -25F or 110F...
Gas power motor hitting a high watt generator and putting power to wheels. 5 minute fill up at the gas station and off you go.
There’s a battery pack too... So... like the Pius.. er... Prius, you can run it off the battery... But with that much grunt on tap... Who would want to?
Do that to a Ford Pinto….
Haha!!!
If you might be into conversion of classics to EV one of the very best options that has floated up is the fully unitized electric motor and axle. The whole power pack in one box. Just add batteries and controllers. I considered one for one of my classic trucks but that would be blasphemy. EV’s don’t have cam lope.
Does this mean they can make Corvairs ‘Safe At Any Speed’?
EVs, just say no. Expensive toys, bad for the environment and not ready when you need it.
Yeah. Pull out the 327 Small Block with 4 barrel carb and put in an electric motor.
Makes as much sense as all the other ideas govt has.
Which You will have hours and hours to do, when You are stuck at the Recharging station and it's near freezing, and the majority of the chargers are inoperative or running so slow because of the heavy loads the EV crowd are putting the stations through.
Sounds like a really wonderful experience for converted Classic Car owners, eh?
“Hard pass. Kills the “classic” part of Classic”
The blue states will not allow registration of 20xx or older vehicles without a classic exemption and dedicated plates with a mileage restriction usually 5000 miles per year or less. Easy to enforce via automated plate cameras they won’t use the ODO as they will expect people to unplug it. At some point they will just say no to onroad registration for older than 20xx you can keep it in a garage or use it at a event or tracl but road use is no longer legal. Again plate scanners make enforcing this automatic not only in every police car in the dash but also every traffic light camera those are networked the software is easy to use AI to.grab plate numbers and search the database for it. No plate equals automatic flag and alerts the police officer in the car that an illegal vehicle is on the road in front of them.
This assume they don’t just make the sale of gasoline do expensive it curbs all the low mpg cars. I would predict that alcohols via biofuels and electrofuels become the dominate liquid fuels at $5 or so a gallon vs $10+ for hydrocarbons this is already inline with the EU where fossil petrol is $8+ per gal equivalent. The other choice they might do is stack a.CO2 tax per gram emitted.
“The cradle to grave carbon footprint of gasoline is 11.14 kg CO2e / gallon. This is representative of US gasoline at 10% ethanol.”
11.14kg at $100 per tonne is $1.14 per gallon on top of $8 or more for $200 bbl oil which is the price it would be when the Asian middle classes really start to use it. So $9-10 per gallon just like the EU is today. Or.....12 cents per kWh from the plug into a EV that’s going 4 miles per kWh that’s 3 cents per mile. Assuming a classic car gets 20mpg at $10 a gallon is 50 cents per mile. You better really want to drive that classic car for weekend event runs not a huge deal , you won’t be commuting in a classic anything , they won’t allow the mileage and it will be arm and leg expensive.
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