ISSUE 012 Winter 2021 Sigma Powertrain EMAX transmission dossier l In conversation: David Hudson l 48 V systems focus l 2021 Battery Show North America and Cenex-LCV reports l Everrati Porsche 911 digest l Switching insight l Motor laminations focus

Want the authentic feel of driving a classic car without harming the planet? ‘Resto-mod’ company Everrati can help. Rory Jackson reports All mod cons T he consumer EVs sector is welcoming a constant tide of all-new electric cars, often designed from blank sheets. However, this approach neglects not only the many existing IC-engined cars still on the road but the countless classic car designs that remain some of the automotive world’s proudest and most cherished examples. To prevent them from being consigned to museums, more and more people are seeing restoration- modification – or ‘resto-modding’ – of classic cars into roadworthy EVs as the ideal way to prolong the lives of these beloved vehicles while minimising their impact on the environment and people’s health from driving them. Resto-modding typically entails replacing the original IC engine powertrain with an electric one, and retaining the original body and chassis as far as possible. It is proving popular, although some dissenters decry it as being tantamount to removing much of the car’s ‘soul’. Arguably they have a point, as the enjoyment of many such cars is closely linked to their feel and the noise they make. So, to get an idea of how resto- modding can be accomplished well enough for a fully commercialised electrification service, EME met with UK-based Everrati, the team behind a fully electric conversion/restoration of Porsche 911s (also known as the 964 internally by Porsche) and the company’s current flagship offering. For a fee, the company takes customers’ Porsche 911s in their Coupe, Targa and Signature Gulf Edition variants, and fits them out with all the necessary parts for a high- performance EV. Company history As Nick Williams, co-founder and COO of Everrati, recounts, “We started the project just over three years ago, after I’d been talking to a friend who was as interested as I was in breathing new life into classic cars. At first, we were looking at either a Jaguar E-Type or a Porsche 911 as the ideal cars to start with.” Williams quickly encountered a wide range of potential challenges in his quest to achieve fully qualified and certifiable electric resto-modification. First, a car had to be sourced, then experts in design, components, engineering and testing had to be found and convinced to take on the risk of the project. Perhaps the stiffest challenge of all though was that targets for output quantity and quality had to be specified, despite this being a mostly unregulated sector. “Even so, based on all those unknowns, we decided that there was actually a great opportunity here. There’s a huge audience watching the 50 Winter 2021 | E-Mobility Engineering