Why The UK Is Obsessed With Turning Vintage Cars Into EV Conversions

Cruising around London’s Regent’s Park in a Mercedes SL Pagoda is a wonderful thing. The car fits neatly with the scenery, and I feel somewhat larger than life. The world and its worries don’t matter. I’m the main character of a TV about spies, or intrigue, or… something where I get to look awesome and everyone wants to be me.

The car looks like a 1960s movie star in its own right, designed to be piloted—noisily—by a person of taste. But this one seems to confuse people because it barely makes a sound. One passerby asked about its engine, then shook his head when he was told there was no oil to check anymore. “Don’t do it to yours then,” was the only thing I could muster. He drove off in his SEAT SUV, probably still remonstrating to his dashboard. 

That’s because this SL is the latest in a long line of cars from the UK’s Everrati, which is one of a number of businesses over on the rainy side of the pond offering to sell you a classic car without a gas tank. It’s not alone. The UK seems to have more places that’ll convert your classic than anywhere else, often in wildly different ways.

These days, you can get an electric variant of a classic Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Land Rover,  Jaguar E-Type, Porsche 911, Ford GT40, DeLorean… anything you want, pretty much, from one of the nation’s many conversion/restoration/reimagining shops. The fact so many are popping up isn’t a huge surprise. An IndustryARC report found that the market for conversion kits—not whole conversions, just the powertrain—is set to hit $2 billion by 2030. While they’re a big part of the EV conversion market, they’re not the whole thing. There’s more you can do with older cars given the right expertise.

“We have a massively strong pool of really high quality both mechanical and electrical engineers in the UK. I’d say that's unique in the world,” said Justin Lunny, Founder and CEO of Everrati. His company sprung to life in 2019 after Lunny’s young daughter had begun openly worrying about climate change. A background in tech and a keen eye for opportunity made him sit up and take notice when Prince Harry and Meghan Markle left their wedding ceremony in an electrified Jaguar E-Type in 2018. Everrati’s goal is to electrify iconic classics to preserve them for the next generation, but not only that, it produces fully restored cars. 

An Everrati is a complete product, built from the ground up—all you need to do is tell the company which of its lineup you’re into and wait. Car and conversion are all included. With that comes a hefty cost, but there’s a reason. “We develop the software that controls all of our vehicles,” Lunny said. “To do that costs a lot of money. Even to do a full nut and bolt restoration on a Pagoda costs a lot and we bundle that all in. If you were to just split out all the components, all the restoration… you wouldn't go any cheaper. Nobody else has our supply chain of our motors, or our in-house developed transmission.“

But he certainly admits this process isn’t cheap—more a way to keep a classic on the road long-term without as much maintenance or the challenges around passing smog checks. That’s why an Everrati costs hundreds of thousands of pounds. A Defender will run you around £200,000, a Porsche £300,000 and so on. Still, “Nobody else has the batteries in our Pagoda,” Lunny said. “Our componentry is, I think, second to none. So, yeah, the end price is high.” 

A World Leader In EV Conversions Thanks To 'A Love Of Cars'
Lunny isn’t the only one who agrees that the Brits are doing it best. “The UK is clearly a world leader,” said Steve Drummond, Founder and CEO of Oxfordshire-based powertrain specialist Electrogenic. The engineering prowess is one thing, but the market itself helps. “The U.S. and the UK have the most flexible regulations with regard to changing vehicles,” he said. “That means both here and the U.S. there's an opportunity, but it’s more difficult in places like France, for example.” That country has regulations that don’t easily allow for mechanical modification.

Drummond said that both the UK and the U.S. have something in common: the love of their cars. 

The customers are, obviously, key. Electrogenic’s business is scalable. The company makes kits for models more commonly converted, it’ll work on a bespoke package for customers with specific demands, it has ties with automakers, and is even working with the British Ministry of Defence; a number of Electrogenic-converted Land Rovers are on test with the Army to see if they’ll work in the field. The vehicles bearing an Electrogenic stamp aren’t fully restored. Customers provide a car with oily bits, and get it back with electricity in their stead. 

The donor car otherwise remains as is, unless the customer wants other things done to it. If it’s a manual you can even keep your stick and swap cogs as you always did—though the cars are now impossible to stall. Powertrain and software is the name of Electrogenic’s game: “When we build a car with the latest technical whiz bangs in it, it's driven around and tested by us, and then it goes to the customer and then they have a lived experience with it,” Drummond said.,  “We get feedback from them. All of that feedback goes back into our next project.”

There are plenty of businesses offering conversions, restorations, or reimaginings around, but they aren’t heaving great monoliths. They’re on the smaller side, and it doesn’t seem to be a coincidence. As big as the EV restomod industry is, these companies say they want to see more support for what they do to support jobs and the technology as a whole.

A Wave Of EV Conversions Amid An Uncertain Future
The UK’s automotive industry isn’t as booming as it once was, that’s for sure.

It’s a talking point in pubs, internet forums and on social media to this day. Even the bastion of Britishness, Morgan, is now owned by an Italian company. Lotus is under Chinese ownership and Rolls-Royce and Bentley have German powerhouses behind them. Without a huge backing to get cracking on EV tech in a big way—GM, Ford, Stellantis are all big enough to pour cash into making EVs for the masses (with varying levels of success, admittedly)—it’s down to the engineers, entrepreneurs, fettlers, and curious to see what can be done. Without more support, and more encouragement from government and industry, what’s currently a head start on the rest of the world may end up stalling. 

Andrew Whitehead, CEO of in-wheel motor manufacturer Protean Electric, reckons the UK automotive manufacturing industry has the potential to grow, but doesn’t seem to want to encourage anything big to happen. “We don't seem to want to make anything in the UK,” he said. “I think the last new car plant in the UK was the Vauxhall plant at Luton, which was in the ‘90s. The UK [excels at] engineering, innovation, and invention. It has really bright people, practical engineers. I've been fortunate enough to work with engineers from around the globe, and the UK’s are some of the best engineers that I've ever had the pleasure of working with. But we don't have industrial ambition.” 

The U.S., he reckons, does, even if it too has lost some of that to offshoring in recent decades too. “I spent a bit of time out there,” he said. “If you have a good enough idea, and the conviction and the right things in place, there is almost infinite money available to do okay. Neither the ambition nor the funding is available for that in the UK.”

Chris Hazell, Co-Founder and CEO of UK-based battery pack manufacturer Fellten has felt this issue keenly. “We fall into a weird space where we're not turning around to the government and saying we want to employ 100,000 staff or 2,000 staff,” he said, “We're going we want to employ 50 more staff and then we want to grow it and they're like: Well, it's not a big enough number.” Bigger businesses wanting to add more people are more appealing to government coffers, which is fine for an already booming company, but for a smattering of smaller interests looking to expand the EV space? Tough luck. 

Whitehead’s point about the UK lacking the desire to build big businesses around these things isn’t a modern issue, but one that goes way back. David Duerden, Managing Director of Chieftain Range Rover, a company that custom builds EV-converted Range Rover Classics, recalls a previous life in motorsports where his small UK-based company provided components for numerous U.S.-based teams. He noted that the choice his clients had on home turf was either too small, or NASA. His team of six, with their expertise where it counted, did just the job at the right scale.“Where the British have always been really good is developing ideas, the small scale almost prototype side of things, which is then adopted by an industrialized environment,” he said.

The UK’s regulations, helpfully, allow for things like conversions to be done, but there are safeguards in place to make sure vehicles are safe. Cars between the ages of three and forty years old must undergo a yearly MOT (Ministry of Transport) test to be allowed on the road. New cars, it’s assumed, won’t fall to bits as they drive off the lot, while for cars over 40 it’s not a legal requirement to test, but certainly recommended. 

The test ensures everything on the vehicle works soundly, and if something unsafe is found— be that something emissions-based, bare tires, structural issues, or mechanical maladies—it is deemed unroadworthy, and not legally allowed on the highway until it’s fixed. 

Such tests aren’t common elsewhere, but they mean many of the cars that go through the UK’s various conversion companies aren’t deathtraps. With EV components, there are stringent rules. Hazell is all too aware of the regulatory differences: “In the UK we have a lot of the European standards, and we have proper insurances, and everything is done for the safe. In the UK, European standards are there and we must meet them, which means every product meets a high level.” 

There’s leeway given that allows for certain things to be done to a vehicle and it still be classified as a modified version of its original self. If you do too much, that’s a different story, but it means you can make changes without having to alter its registration. 

And the UK has its own unique culture around driving classic or beloved cars. There’s less of an expectation that something will need to do 2,000 miles in one hit at the drop of a hat. The idea of cruising across vast expanses of America in a convertible is a dream for people in the UK. 

The side effect of this is borne out in battery and range. Drummond elaborates: “There are differences between the U.S. and the UK, obviously, I mean, the biggest and most obvious one is that people drive further. And therefore, battery pack sizes need to be different.” 

A car that’ll do 150 miles on a charge works well for a market where short Sunday drives or a 40-mile round-trip commute happens on the regular. Driving 100 miles in the US is (outside of LA, admittedly) easy and trouble-free, in the UK it can take a fair ‘ol while, so stopping for tea while your converted MGA or whatever gently charges in the parking lot isn’t going to be a huge pain in the ass. 

The UK has the engineers to do the work, the business people keen to explore new technology, a regulatory body that allows restomodding/converting/reimagining/restoring, and there’s a huge classic car scene all over the world ready to take advantage of the combination that can lead to. Electrogenic has partners in the U.S. already, Everrati does a fair bit of business there, and you’ll no doubt see plenty of UK-founded companies offering electric takes on legendary cars popping up in the near future. 

What's Next?
If the various examples I’ve tried over the years—that Pagoda, DeLoreans, Minis, 911s, and more—are anything to go by, I’d not be surprised if an uptick in popularity follows. So long as owners can afford to make the switch, of course. Even a basic off-the-shelf conversion kit is a decent chunk of change right now: Electrogenic’s Classic Mini Conversion Kit is £16,600 ($21,700) plus taxes. You’ve got to really love your Mini to spend that much on it. They’re not for everyone, especially not SEAT SUV drivers if my SL interaction was anything to go by, but for those who want to take the plunge they’re the best thing since sliced bread. 

Talking to the various founders I got the impression that we’re still very much in a “strike while the iron is hot” stage of affairs. Many acknowledged California’s EV West as the genesis of the conversion biz, and that the UK picked it up and ran with it, but the UK Government’s lack of support for endeavors of this size means it may not take off as well as it potentially could.

This leaves room for others to muscle their way in and take the crown somewhere down the line. Chieftain’s Duerden perhaps put it best: “Thinking of literature and the arts here… we had Shakespeare,” he said. “He was very good at plays. Now Hollywood exists.” 

Hollywood may have taken over from Bill up there, but lest we forget: it’s also currently full to the rafters with Brits. Everrati’s Pagoda made me feel—and maybe look—like a bit of a star. The way things are looking there’ll be plenty of plush EVs starting out in the UK and finding their way pretty much everywhere for a long time yet.

Alex Goy is a freelance journalist based in London. He likes British sports cars, tea, and the feeling of the mild peril that only owning a British sports car can bring to your day.