The argument for EV classics

We start with a question. Do you see classic cars as works of art, as unsuitable for modification as the Mona Lisa? Or do you view them in the same way as great architecture: to be preserved, sure, but also rewired and replumbed to suit the times and the changing expectations of successive generations of owners? As one very serious but pragmatic collector once told me, you wouldn’t live in a fine old house and still chuck your sewage out of the window.

Your position on this defines how you feel about old cars having their engines and gearboxes stripped out and replaced with electric motors and batteries. Is it sacrilege, or progress?

However you feel about it, it’s happening, and it’s becoming a big business. There are around a dozen credible companies in the UK and the US offering EV conversions of classic cars. Silverstone-based Lunaz has a two-year waiting list despite capacity for around a hundred cars a year and prices which start at £300,000 for a restored, electrified Range Rover, and extend well north of £1m for an Aston Martin DB6.