Mod Squad

A Classic 4x4

Who: Sloane Paul, founder and CEO of Arc Motor Company What: 1974 Ford Bronco How much: $150,000

During Covid, Sloane Paul, then a marketer at Microsoft, developed a passion for classic cars. In 2022, she bought a rusting Ford Bronco from a friend in Alberta who restores them and decided to transform it into an EV. “Battery-powered cars are where the world is going,” she says. “I wanted to do my part for the environment.” She enlisted her brother Tom Chep, an automotive and electrical engineer, to help.

Chep removed the internal combustion engine and replaced it with a handful of recycled Tesla batteries. They created a 3-D template of an electric motor to make sure it would fit, and then bought one with similar dimensions from Cascadia Motion. Then they painted the Bronco turquoise and built electric running boards that pop out of its underbelly when the doors are opened.

Related: Everything you need to know before taking the EV plunge

The process took about two years. The result is a playful show car that seamlessly merges old and new. It has the same sporty frame as the original Bronco, but it’s whisper quiet, has faster pickup and can travel 320 kilometres on a single charge. “The first ride was incredible,” Paul says. She passed other cars while barely making a sound.

It all went so well that, last November, Paul decided to team up with Chep to launch Arc Motor Company, which converts classic cars into EVs. Now, just one year later, Paul has three commissioned conversions under her belt—two more Broncos and a Pontiac Firebird.

A Street-Legal Buggy

Who: Steve Payne, co-founder of Beachman What: 1960 dune buggy How much: $20,000

Steve Payne was ahead of his time when, in 2010, he challenged himself to make a car that ran on something other than fossil fuels. He swapped out the engine of his 1972 Volkswagen Beetle with a hand-crafted electric motor powered by recycled marine batteries. But, when he realized that a gas-powered VW would sell for a lot more than an electric one, he reversed the conversion. “People were not yet looking at electric vehicles, let alone EV conversions,” says Payne.

Twelve years later, he bought a 1960 dune buggy without an engine, fixed it up and installed his old electric motor. Then he removed the transmission to make the vehicle direct drive from the motor, bringing to life a battery-powered summer ride.

Payne’s bright-yellow revamped buggy can travel only 60 kilometres on a charge, but he says he could double that range by adding more batteries. He uses it mostly for city driving, where people do double-takes at the sight of a classic ride with manual shifting that’s quieter than a Tesla. “It’s silent, peppy and fun to drive,” he says.

Payne has since bought four more vintage cars and converted them into EVs (they include a 1987 Porsche 924 with a Tesla Model S battery and a 1972 Volkswagen Squareback with a Nissan Leaf motor). “I love combining technology and vintage,” says Payne. “You get something that looks really cool but also performs well.”

A Showy Roadster

Who: Jean-Paul Gagnon, a professor at the University of Canberra, and Jane Wang, a research coordinator at a not-for-profit What: 1969 MGB Mark 2 How much: $60,000

While living in Australia in 2018, rare-car enthusiast Jean-Paul Gagnon boughta 1969 MGB Mark 2—one of just a few hundred of its kind—for $10,000 from a colleague. Gagnon was the vehicle’s fifth owner and the first to make major upgrades, like adding a new roof and heated seat covers. In 2021, he enlisted auto engineering company EVolution Australia to transform the gas-powered relic into an EV. Six months later, the conversion was complete. Gagnon named his newly electrified car Elvis.

The next year, he shipped the car to Toronto, where he and his wife, Jane, live part-time. They stripped the MGB down to the metal and had it repainted its original colour, Berger blue. The couple finally tested out the car’s range on a trip to Collingwood this summer. When Elvis refused to start up again after a traffic stop, they concluded that 160 kilometres was the best it could do between charges. “The planning that goes into charging is forcing me to slow down and appreciate the rides,” says Gagnon. He’s seen estimates for similar cars in the six figures but has no plans to sell. He calls the MGB a city car.

Much like its namesake, Elvis transfixes onlookers, in part because its steering wheel is on the right. “Once, a man waited 15 minutes for me to return to my parked car to ask me about it,” Gagnon says. “When I told him it was electric, he couldn’t believe it.”