Sending your beloved classic car to us to have its thumping, aging heart removed may feel like sending your trusty old labrador off to the vet to have his genitals removed. But it doesn’t have to be quite as brutal as that – think of an electric classic car conversion as giving your 15 year old labrador an injection that gives them the playful energy of their former self, which is now just a glimmer in their hazed over eye.
The character and soul of your classic car doesn’t lay in the engine bay, it lays in the memories which you share, the scuff on the bumper which you now call “patina” and the smiles and turned heads which follow it down the street.
So, putting the smoky, rattling engine out of its misery and replacing it with 21st century electric vehicle technology isn’t going to take even a smidge of its charisma from it. If anything you’ll use and enjoy your pride and joy more, bringing happiness not only to you, but all those who it graces with it presence.
(And if you’re that sad about your old engine, you could always turn it into a coffee table..)
Here are the top three benefits of classic car to electric classic car conversions:
1. Performance:
I’ll eat my hat if your car has the same number of ponies it had when it left the factory. They escape over the years, and perhaps therefore your car can’t keep up with the ever increasing speed of modern roads.
At Electric Car Converts we don’t try and fit as many ravaging electric horses as we can into your grandmother’s old car, we are sympathetic about horsepower.
We’d prefer to give your car adequate power to get you off the line, add a bit more pep to your Sunday drives and make it more usable – with usually somewhere around 120 horsepower (that’s more than a new 2.0l Diesel VW Golf). Electric motors deliver outstanding power delivery due to their maximum torque at standstill, meaning you’ll enjoy modern acceleration without the dull modern styling.
Performance also comes down to weight, and although a classic Land Rover conversion comes to almost exactly the same weight as an original drivetrain, the majority of this weight comes from the batteries. What this means is that batteries can be distributed around the car and kept low to the ground to improve the weight distribution and handling of your old banger.
2. Reliability and Maintenance:
Although a charming part of classic car ownership is looking after it, it gets tiresome when you don’t seem to ever get ahead. As soon as one thing is sorted, another breaks, you then spend £500, and then £100 more, and then you need a replacement part from a specialist which won’t arrive for a month – you get the picture. Worse still, breakdowns can leave you on the side of the road with steam billowing from beneath the bonnet, making driving your classic car a stressful ordeal all in all.
Can you ever really enjoy your car if you’re worried that it may break down on you at each bend?
To reduce the likeliness of any of the above, regular maintenance is the way to go. Timing belts, oil filters, air filters, coolant flushes, spark plugs, injectors, fuel filters and more are perishables and therefore need to be changed regularly. Not only can it be hard to find suitable parts for older, rarer vehicles, but replacing them can be difficult and therefore expensive.
Electric motors, and in fact the entire electric system only has one moving part, the shaft. Compare this to circa 50 moving parts in a standard diesel and you can see why they take so much looking after and have a tendency to fail. Due to this lack of moving parts you don’t need to change the oil or filter, there are no belts, or spark plugs to replace – quite simply the electrics in your car are 100% maintenance free!
You don’t service your other electronics, your laptop, your smartphone, so you don’t need to service your electric drive components either.
Importantly, brakes, suspension and other original components must still be maintained and serviced – although these need far less work than internal combustion engines.
3. The Environment:
It’s 5pm in February, you’re walking home down a congested inner city road. Traffic’s at a standstill. What can you see, smell and hear? Smoke, pollution and the dull droaning noise of fuel being turned into heat, noise and toxic gas. This is when you can really appreciate the impact of our cars on the environment. The plumes of smoke coming out of each car is illuminated by the headlights of the car behind in the frosty air. It’s always there, but this is when it can be noticed, how nice would it be if this was a silent, fresh-aired street?
As a society we’re ever reminded of our negative impact on the planet – and road transportation is a major player in this, in fact, 12% of the world’s air pollution comes from the cars we drive every day. What this means is that
if everyone drove around in electric cars, (which they will in about 20 years!!) our atmosphere would contain 12% less greenhouse gasses (CO2).
Particularly in the UK this will improve even further as half of our energy currently comes from renewables (this is exponentially improving), meaning the energy we use to charge our cars will come from the wind, sun and sea.
As classic cars converted to electric power have zero emissions and have likely been charged up with renewable power, they are much, much, much kinder to mother nature. This will help you sleep better at night, knowing you’re not contributing to a world where future generations of children will breathe in the toxic exhaust fumes from your classic Jaguar. Be eco-conscious, but don’t give up on your classic, get it converted to electric power.
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So, there you have it – our top three reasons why you should convert your classic car to electric power. If you would like to learn more then subscribe to our mailing list, shoot us an email or give us a call! We’re always happy to talk EV’s!
Reviewed by Barnaby Birkbeck (Founder) & Toby Wilson (Head Electrical Engineer), in 2025.
This article has been reviewed by our team of professional experts for accuracy and relevance. However, the information provided is for general informational purposes only. We recommend consulting with us for personalised guidance.