https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/jobs-offer-electric-range-rover-19963506
whats your views on this 🤔
I had already read this from them karlos: https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/tesla-powered-electric-land-rover-18245297
How Much ????????
Similarly on TV (2020): https://www.vintagevoltage.tv/
Prices for doing these 'classic EV conversions' are staggering: I recall their Defender cost about £100K !
Even this.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvyCetgy_os&ab_channel=TheLateBrakeShow
......and stating prices "from 50K excluding car" .... are certainly enough to put most people off !
thats true I told my missus the price she said ne quicker buying a house lol
Quoted from the link
Lunaz announced it was to produce classic electric Range Rovers - with prices starting at £245,000.
The company, based in Silverstone, Northamptonshire, is creating an initial run of 50 of the luxury SUVs built in the ‘classic era’ between 1970 and 1994.
£245000 lol.. but they expect 50 buyers at least and I'd bet they get them, crazy though.
They'll double their workforce to 100. That means they've got to take on another 45 first.....
I honestly can't see anyone wanting to pay that sort of money for an EV built by a few blokes in a shed. If you can afford that, buy a couple of Teslas and an unmolested Classic to take out occasionally.
What amazed me was when the Vintage Voltage guys converted a Fiat 500 for 'just' (another) 20K.....
When you can get a Brand New (Factory/Warranted) Electric Fiat 500 for about the same price !
Decided to put one of these in my boot instead:
https://youtu.be/GSQALI9k1OQ
Only "about" 12KEuros !
£245k, are they having a laugh, I’m pretty sure if I looked I could find a smashed up Tesla or similar, even paying someone to swap it out I’m sure I’d be quids in..
I wouldn't mind paying that price for a petrol classic but no way a electric one
250k is a lot and like some of you said someone will pay it just to say " I've got one "
Prompted me to look at parts (batteries, drive units, etc) from breaking EVs on Ebay... Seems sellers expect top prices for parts and it would be difficult to buy a complete smashed up EV. These firms that convert classic cars to EV must have some sort of arrangement with insurance companies to get first shot at buying a smashed up EV? I'd be up for doing EV conversions if parts were available at reasonable cost, there seems to be a market for it.
The new black cabs in London are going, or rather have gone, hybrid and now even to all electric.
They are made by Geely, the Chinese firm that also owns Volvo.
I have got a Volvo hybrid and the black cab seems to have a similar mechanical layout. The taxi has only a small 3 cylinder petrol engine however.
Not sure I would want a classic E type converted with a 3 cylinder petrol / hybrid engine.
The Toyota Prius uses the old NiMH batteries so not worth doing conversions based on that imho.
Holland seems to be the place where old hybrids go to die. I looked at Volvo bits for mine just as a matter of interest and there were loads of Dutch breakers.
I doubt they'll even sell 1/2 of what they estimate..
How many people would spend 245k on an Old 2dr classic?
I'd rather a brand new Ferrari..
2dr classics are horrible fucking things to drive.
They even do an XK120 which is a tad odd, being the only reason you'd buy one for the XK engine, what a nice noise and driving experience..
Nah lets remove the engine and throw in a washing machine motor and call it better, or lower maintenance..
If rich young or old wankers are too lazy or stupid to not be able to look after an original classic then leave them well alone..
No need to bastardise the classic car movement with EV's too...
What next?
An EV Lambo countach? or espada?
Maybe even a miura!
dave3d wrote:
Holland seems to be the place where old hybrids go to die. I looked at Volvo bits for mine just as a matter of interest and there were loads of Dutch breakers.
That's interesting, mind you the thought occurs that if it were easy to sell an EV converted classic for £245k it would be worth buying a brand new EV, perhaps even a Tesla, to remove it's drivetrain to fit in the classic!
I also don't see the market for a £245k EV converted classic rangerover but would expect the firm making them to know their market... I expect the 50 classic rangerovers will end up being shipped all over the world?
Someone clear this up for me - Is it usually classic cars that are converted to EVs because converting an older car avoids having to type test the results? Or why not an EV L322 etc?
The bit I don’t understand, the early classics are horrible to drive, like being in a rowing boat, why would anyone want to drive round in that unless there doing a complete overhaul of the suspension and interior to be honest I wouldn’t go anywhere near them.
I'd suspect some of it is having something to show off for the kind of folk that work in places like Canary Wharf. Or used to when they still went to an office for their job. I used to see some proper classics driven around that area when work took me down there, and theres no way the driver of them would have even known where to put the oil in to look at them, let alone deal with something as basic as changing a tyre etc.
I'd also wonder how messing with the weight distribution on something like that would effect the suspension as well, I would imagine the suspension would have to be seriously gone over to make it handle in an acceptable way to someone parting with that sort of cash for one. Though only ever been in one RR classic and didn't find it was a particually nice journey (very bouncy from what I remember)
Early Classics are pretty horrible to drive but the sort of people that buy them pay serious wedge for ones that have either been fully restored to as new condition or ones that have spent their entire life stored in an air conditioned garage (now there's an opening for me, if anyone wants AC in their garage, drop me a PM, I seem to be specialising in installing AC in summer houses being used as home offices just recently). They'll buy them as an investment knowing that they will never fall in value as long as they remain standard. They don't buy them to use them so I can't see the point in having something that looks like a Classic Range Rover, whether using original body parts or a replica, that has a boot full of batteries and a Dyson motor where a V8 should be.
"Dyson motor where a V8 should be" !! reminded me of this:
https://retro-electric.uk/2020/06/30/jaguar-e-type-zero-first-deliveries-due-later-this-year/
Hmmm.... Not enough of the 'right 'noise and too much ££ for most.....
although perhaps if you put some (Dyson) brushes underneath too and clean the roads the (inevitable) VED is reduced..... ?
The right noise is something I've had an objection to from the start. Watching Formula E on TV and in my house it's been referred to as Formula Scalextric from the noise they make. People complained when Formula 1 went from a V8 revving to 18,000 rpm to a V6 revving to 15,000 rpm and with turbos acting as silencers that they were too quiet and no longer sounded right. I know someone who bought a BMW i8 and I commented that when you have 350 bhp, you want something that makes the right noises. He complained that he can't drop the windows and floor it through a tunnel listening to the noise. The Mercedes C63 AMG and any model Aston Martin were once described as making a noise that is automotive pornography. If you've got a performance car you want it to sound like a performance car.
I've certainly described the 6.2 AMG V8 as car audio pornography - the fact it can go from a completely subtle C/E class around town to something apoplectic with a bit more loud pedal is just like something out of those naughty videos online that hit the good spot.
Unfortunately though, they won't be around forever, with freshly-squeezed dinosaurs becoming scarce.
Formula E I can't stand watching because a) the noise is just dull b) the commentary is irritating and c) the on-screen graphics make it look stupid.
Formula 1 - the noise is at least the sound of something happening, but I can't say I've preferred the noise of any era in particular - I actually get a bit more excited when the safety car(s) come out... because... oh wait... its that (admittedly these days smaller turbo'd etc) AMG V8 thundering around again.
The i8 though doesn't exactly sound bad - a 3 cylinder at least has some unique tone to it unlike a boring 4 cylinder of any kind.
Furthermore.... converting any vehicle to electric is never going to be brilliant if you start with a vehicle that is excessively heavy before you even start the conversion, like a P38.. you just end up needing more battery capacity to get further mileage, which is yet more weight... which needs to expend more energy to move said weight...
So short of there being some revolutionary battery technology improvement that gives us a similar capacity/weight ratio as a full tank of petrol or diesel, I don't think a P38 will ever be a great contender for a useful EV conversion.