This Ready-Made EV Chassis Could Be The Perfect Fit For A Classic Truck

A plug-and-play solution from the world’s largest converter of classic cars to EVs.

Electric Classic Cars skateboard EV chassis

Photo by: Electric Classic Cars

Iulian Dnistran

By: Iulian Dnistran

Mar 7, at 8:00am ET

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The world’s largest EV conversion specialist has come up with a plug-and-play solution for vintage pickups and SUVs.
Electric Classic Cars’ modular EV chassis offers dual-motor all-wheel drive and up to 530 hp.
The Tesla-sourced electric motors are paired with a battery pack that can be fast-charged.

Converting a classic car into an EV is now easier than ever, thanks to an abundance of available motors and batteries from models like the Nissan Leaf and Tesla Model 3. But going down the conversion route is often filled with compromises because the original car was never designed to be powered by batteries.

As a result, the battery sometimes needs to be split into multiple packs that take up valuable trunk space and can even eat into the interior. But it doesn’t have to be like this.

Vintage cars, especially pickups and SUVs, are usually made from two parts: a standalone chassis and a body that bolts on top of the chassis. So why not swap the original underpinnings with something more modern, while retaining the classic look of the original bodywork?

That’s exactly what the United Kingdom’s Electric Classic Cars thought of doing, and it might just supercharge the EV conversion world.

The company, which bills itself as the world’s largest converter of classic cars to electric, has come up with a modular EV skateboard chassis that can act as a base for many vintage pickup trucks and SUVs that were shipped from the factory with a body-on-frame construction. Think first-generation Land Rover Defender, Ford Bronco, International Scout, and many more. It showcased the first build using the new product in a video published last week.

The platform can be modified to accommodate vehicles with wheelbases between 88 inches and 130 inches, making it a great choice for a lot of owners who are thinking of swapping their cars’ original gas engines with electric motors. Motivation comes from a pair of Tesla-made motors, which have a combined output of up to 530 horsepower—a lot more than what most of the models suited for this conversion offered from the factory.

There’s independent suspension front and rear, as well as limited-slip differentials, with the latter axle getting a Tesla Model 3 subframe. The electronics suite includes traction control, torque vectoring, and hill descent control, among others. Air conditioning is also part of the options list.

As for the battery, there’s a 56-kilowatt-hour pack available for cars that have a wheelbase between 88 and 108 inches, and an 82 kWh version for cars with a wheelbase between 108 and 130 inches. There’s no word on the range that could be achieved with these configurations, but that’s to be expected, seeing how every car is different. Whatever the battery capacity, though, they all come with DC fast charging capabilities.

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Considering there are some off-the-shelf Tesla Model 3 suspension parts involved, the cars that will use this chassis won't exactly be rock crawlers. ECC is aware of this and says that its modular platform was designed to transform old SUVs and trucks into cars that perform great on the road and can handle light off-roading. With so much power, accelerating from zero to 60 miles per hour is expected to take less than four seconds.

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There’s no word on pricing, but the UK-based conversion specialist said it would start shipping its ready-made chassis to restomod shops around the world, including the United States.

Established in 2015, ECC made a name for itself after converting classics into electric cars, including the original Volkswagen Beetle, Mini, Land Rover Defender, Range Rover, Porsche 911, and many more. It even transformed a Ferrari Testarossa into an EV.

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