Plus the car, and shipping to and from the UK. This is one of the best conversions I've found so far and it is anything but a cheap date. I think I'm going to wait for the electric Corvette and swap my F-Type out instead but this provides a decent baseline for what a conversion would cost and it is surely cheaper than the Jaguar $500K alternative. These costs should come down sharply over the next decade as packaged solutions and better battery options show up. I also expect there will be incentives offered to do this before the end of the decade. Even with a major driveline problem, it would be far cheaper to fix the car, and the result would be worth more near term, than doing this. But it would result in a unique ride and we'll likely see this become somewhat of a requirement next decade. 1967 Electric Jaguar E Types Conversions For Sale | Car And Classic

 

I wouldn't even consider doing that to an E-Type. That's all I have to say about this.
Bill.

 

Most wouldn't, but clearly, there is an interest otherwise we wouldn't have Project Zero or this effort. In Europe, it may be the only way some of these older cars can remain on the road in cities in 10 years. Once Europe goes I doubt the US will be that far behind though I'd be surprised if it became a huge problem here before 2035.

 

Yah, its coming. But I think it will take longer, much longer than 2035.
First; we have over 200 million vehicles on the road and Europe has a bit less. It will take a long time to flip all these drivers to driving electric cars. The US government (I don't know about Europe) will have to grandfather all internal combustion engine cars. That does not mean that you and I won't be heavily taxed to drive our Vroom vroom cars.
Second, we don't have the infrastructure to supply so much electric power to charge 200 million cars. We don't have enough power for the houses and businesses we have now. We can't go a summer without rolling brown outs.
Third, we will need Nuclear power plants to supply all that electricity. We have not built a new nuclear power plant in this country in about 30 years. And it takes years to permit and then build one power plant.
And then, you have to convince people to change over. People don't like change.
In the middle of all this electric car growth, you have to factor in that sooner or later people are going to have to deal with the pollution caused by all these batteries, and the destruction of all the natural areas to mine the Lithium.
Now; if you tell me that we will have hydrogen cell cars... that is another story, but it will still take longer than 2035.
My humble opinion.
Bill.

 

I set 2035 as the earliest time it could happen. We will have to have the infrastructure done by that time and Europe is talking about banning ICE cars in cities now. The far bigger driver is autonomy. The insurance models indicate that only the wealthiest people will be able to afford non-autonomous cars once they hit critical mass and we just got clearance for Level 4 autonomy this week. Most folks simply won't be able to afford the huge insurance premium jump anticipated at that time. The electric car bans have already started: 31 Countries, States, And Cities Have Gas/Diesel Car Bans In Place (cleantechnica.com) South Korea, Norway, Austria, and Belgium should be close to fully electric by 2035. Like you, though, I don't think the US will be able to pivot as quickly but 2040-2045 is likely.

 

Sacrilege - don’t do it, you will destroy the character and what the E-Type is all about! The sound of the 4.2 litre 6 cylinder XK engine driven under power is intoxicating. My neighbours know when I start my car even though they may not be able to see it. Some come up the drive to have a look!

 

Rob, won’t happen here in the U.K., classic cars are massive business and classic cars won’t have to be converted to electric in order for owners to be able to drive them. I certainly would never even contemplate doing such to my cars in a million years.

 

1vorjagman,
I am with you. If the day comes that I cannot drive my classic cars because they are not electric, that is the day I'll park them in my leaving room and rotate them every week.
In any case, I think a lot of these proclamations by car companies and different governments are just political correct rhetoric because it benefits them and gets them on the news. Can you imagine an all electric Jaguar??? Maybe if it is built by apple and no Lucas "Father of Darkness" electrics. The car would never leave the garage. Ha Ha.
Bill.

 

We are clearly at the beginning of a trend and the bigger driver to eliminate old ICE cars is still autonomous driving and not electricity. However, it will still make it very difficult to drive older cars on the road (at least in cities or on highways) much after 2035. Like horse-drawn buggies, which can still be driven on rural roads, it seems more likely we'll continue to be able to drive our cars in the country, but they could be banned from cities. 15 cities so far plan to ban cars altogether, and that trend is likely to expand, but it is hard to believe it will become the global standard. But the insurance models we worked with since we started working on autonomous cars suggest human-driven cars will increase dramatically in terms of insurance costs as autonomous cars drop. We are working on a magnitude change meaning autonomous cars would cost 1/10th what human-driven cars do to insure. One other thing to consider is where you'll get gas and how much it will cost. As government incentives and electric car adoption become more common (and gas incentives are eliminated), gas stations' viability will decline further (they've been dropping in number for some time). In contrast, the cost of gas goes up significantly. I can see a future where gas is sold in retail outlets in cans and where some rural gas stations continue, but gas stations in cities evaporate over time. We should see the first inflection point around 2028-2030 that will allow us to predict a timeframe better. But, I expect that by 2040, driving an ICE car for any distance will be very difficult, and the costs may limit ownership to those with lots of free disposable income. Some of the latest models (that companies like Lift, Uber, and Ford are working from) have us not owning cars by then and just subscribing to a future service like Uber running robotic cars. However, predictions that are out more than 5 years are very unreliable, and this future is only likely not certain. In any case, it is too early to do electric car conversions because the battery technology is going to change over the next 10 years massively. The major events forcing the switch are also around 10 years out, so, from an economic perspective, it would make more sense to hold (not do) this conversion for around a decade and then revisit it when it is far cheaper and ICE trends are more certain.

By the way, I got a huge kick out of the "imagine an electric Jaguar" comment since I drive an I-Pace (electric Jaguar), and of the 3 Jaguars I own, I drive it the most. It is surprisingly fun to drive, and I can't get over how awesome it is in the snow.

The kit that I highlighted would make the most sense for an XKE like mine that was an early V8 conversion done badly but taking it to a new updated V8 is something like $50K or a third of taking it electric, making the ICE route more economical here for now. I expect, within 10 years, that will change, but for now, this kit is more for someone that wants to make a unique statement. I'm not dropping an extra $100K to make a statement but some will, and it will be fun to watch them much like it will be fun to watch folks buy that new Telsa sports car with the rocket engines unless you are in front of it when the driver loses control.

 

I agree that the future regarding ICE cars and electric cars is uncertain at best. There are many more factors involved than the ones you mentioned. President Biden declared that he wants to replace the fleet of US government vehicles (670K of them in total including the US post office) with electric vehicles. If that gets approved it will be a great boost for the electric vehicle market. That is if Greenpeace doesn't make a big deal of Lithium mining destroying Bolivia and its indigenous people. Wish I had a bag of good popcorn to enjoy while I watch how this develops.
Bill.

 

Rob, what is the mileage range of the car before it runs out of power? How often do you have to charge it up? Emissions zero?

 

I Am sure the car has Zero emissions if it is all electric. But I think we should also be asking about the pollution being created to mine and process the Lithium into batteries. The pollution isn't eliminated, it has just been shifted.
Bill.

 

Not forgetting another huge factor which is that in 2024 the Worst President Ever doesn’t get re-elected who claims global warming is just a myth and pull the US out of the Paris Climate Accord again and set about reversing all the good work done by all the previous good Presidents.

 

Let's watch the political comments please, several of the forums have gone off the rails as a result. I'm in Oregon and here electricity is mostly hydroelectric and very clean. And, the in-depth reports continue to indicate electrics, with everything factored in, are still cleaner than ICE cars. However, peak electricity production is often done by older oil and coal-fired plants which will be problematic if we push hard to electrics. The last report I saw indicates that if more than two houses go to electric cars per street we will have a grid failure as we currently don't have that kind of extra capacity. A bunch of us are pushing for new nuclear plants to handle the extra load since they are relatively clean and far safer than they were 30 years ago. I know a lot of the Tesla drivers have gone to solar but the issue is that solar doesn't work at night which is when we generally charge our cars. Solid-State batteries are around 5 years out and that should help battery capacity, remove the Lithium mining problem (they are basically compact ultra-capacitors), and lower dramatically charge times. Already electric cars are more reliable and have showcased performance that gas cars have a very hard time reaching. I have a first-generation I-Pace and am getting around 200 miles of range this time of year. I mostly drive it in 5-15 mile hops though and charge it in my garage. The dealer is 180 miles away and downhill which makes coming home a bit of a scare as we don't yet have high-speed chargers here where we need them but it is getting better. Mining for electric car batteries 'hundreds of times' better than petrol car emission cycles - Electrek

 

Coal and gas plants are relatively dirty but until we have better storage capacity to smooth out wind and solar generation we're going to have to use them. Most coal and gas plants (with the exception peaker turbines) run more or less at idle at night so charging your EV between 12AM and 6AM can be a very efficient use of those plants. Obviously if demand were to spike at night that would negate much of that advantage but given the decidedly gradual adoption of EVs in the US we have some time to figure out how to charge the coming wave of EVs. I love my gas guzzling V12 E but I also really like my wife's Model Y. EVs are coming whether we like it or not.

 

Agreed energy storage has been a huge problem for green energy, thankfully some of the new GeoThermal tech, which runs 24/7 may help. Some of the interesting moves are to combine solar and wind with hydro and use the hydroelectric system for storage (pumping the water back up).

Pumped-Storage Hydropower | Department of Energy

Geothermal Well Construction: A Step Change in Oil and Gas Technologies (spe.org)

 

Totally agree with you Daytona. An electric conversion robs one of the vehicles intended overall experience. Just my two cents.

 

Studies have shown that in the US, Europe, and in China, producing an electric vehicle creates more greenhouse-gas emissions than producing an equivalent gas-powered vehicle.

 

When you cite a study it would be handy if you linked tp it than I could comment on the merits. But this Forbes article does point out that battery manufacturers in China, where a lot of the cells are built, are 66% less green than similar plants in the US suggesting what you saw was likely situational. Here is the Forbes article for background: Are Electric Vehicles Really Better For The Environment? (forbes.com) It concludes that, in general, electric cars are greener to build using now current technology. And if we could switch to a greener battery technology, which is also coming, they'll get greener still. But, we do have new green fuels coming as well the question is whether older cars can be modified to use them. How Green Gasoline Could Power the Future | Live Science

 

Enderle thank you so much for point out to provide references for studies, etc. Totally agree and in the future I will for a better discourse with forum members.

Additionally, really enjoyed the feedback from others on this subject. Seems like some of you are engineers...or just really well in touch with this subject matter.

I am old school petro guy and still not completely convinced on EV's. Nonetheless, I have been seeing a lot of progress with each passing year base on the multitude of manufactures investing so much R&D $$$.