Description
A British company is among a new breed of businesses offering electric conversions for classic vehicles. London Electric Cars removes petrol or diesel engines and replaces them with power trains from Nissan Leaf or Tesla models. On their current order books are a Lincoln Continental bound for Dubai, an orange VW camper van and a classic Bentley, but founder Matthew Quitter says newer cars are also sent for conversion to stop the vehicles' tailpipe emissions and extend their working life. Garry Wilson of the Historic & Classic Vehicle Alliance (HCVA) says that the choice to convert vehicles is up to owners, though he would prefer historically significant models not to be converted. The HCVA believes the long-term future of classic fossil-fuel cars should ideally be secured by enabling them to run on synthetic fuel. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES