Owners of fossil fuel-guzzling classic cars who are in despair over the inevitable move to electric vehicles needn’t throw away their car keys and their furry dice just yet. Help is at hand.
How so?
Put simply, just because an internal combustion engine came as standard in 1959 when your brick red Austin-Healey 100-6 BN4 rolled off the production line, it doesn’t mean it has to stay that way. Just as you might swap a radio-cassette for a CD player and then upgrade to a whizz-bang Bluetooth sound system, so it goes with engines. Only on a bigger scale.
Bigger sounds tricky ...
It isn’t particularly. Using parts salvaged from electric vehicles (EVs) such as Teslas and Nissan Leafs which have been written off by insurers after some kind of prang, a growing number of enthusiastic mechanics and forward-thinking business types are offering a service converting classic vehicles to electric power. It can take up to six months, depending on the availability of parts and the customer’s requirements, but it’s worth it. Companies such as London Electric Cars, Electron Garage (based in Glenrothes) and Oxford’s Electrogenic all offer the service for cars both non-classic and classic (or historic as the Department of Transport terms anything registered before 1981). London Electric Cars, run by one Matthew Quitter, is currently converting all Land Rovers used by the organisers of the Glastonbury Festival to run on electric power.
Expensive?
At the moment it is a little on the steep side. The cost for converting a classic car can be as much as £20,000. But as with everything EV-related, the cost will come down. The UK government currently offers grants of £2500 for anyone wanting to buy an electric car, but the Department of Transport says it is looking into the idea of retrofitting old vehicles with electric motors. Presumably grants will follow. For Mr Quitter, it’s a battery-powered no-brainer. “It’s a disaster to waste the millions of old cars on our roads, and the government’s EV rebates are encouraging scrappage,” Mr Quitter told the BBC. “The government needs to offer affordable conversions on cheap old cars, to make use of the scrapped EV batteries which have raw materials that are still sky-rocketing in price.”
Why bother?
Well, there’s the small matter of the UK government’s proposal to stop the sale of petrol- and diesel-driven cars by 2030, which effectively spells the end of the road (sorry) for the petrol-driven internal combustion engine. Oh, and there’s the not so small matter of the imminent threat of environmental disaster as well.
What do classic car owners say?
Like their cars, many remain unconverted. The stylish good looks of a decades old classic car is a large part of its appeal, but don’t underestimate the thrill they feel when they gun the motor and the engine rumbles. If there’s one thing an electric vehicle doesn’t do, it’s growl like a pure-breed Jack Russell terrier.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel