Founded in 2017, London Electric Cars is looking to transform UK roads with fleets of their converted electric vehicles.
Currently the company is focusing on converting antique cars, such as classic Minis, Land Rover Series and Defenders, Morris Minors, as well as travellers and vans. This is because the older cars tends to be simpler and cheaper, therefore making it more financially viable for potential customers, with prices for conversion ranging between £22,000 to £33,000, depending on the kWh. To reduce costs the company offers new or salvaged parts and offer a wide range of batteries from the most economical to high performance, with many upcycled batteries coming from Nissan Leaf and Tesla.
As well as being good for the environment and helping to reduce emissions, the conversions also help to prevent the cars going to landfill, reducing any byproducts or waste which would of otherwise been created. Looking into the future, the company also wants to be able to eventually provide conversion kits for customers, which would be sent via the mail. These kits would allow the amount of conversions to become more scalable, and at a faster pace.
"We are trying to figure out a way of bringing this to the mass market. We can send them the conversion kits to convert their cars and that gives us a much greater reach." - Matthew Quitter, founder of London Electric Cars.
The company is looking to cut down conversion times from six months to three on average, so the cars can be turned around quickly. Some cars take longer than others, however take less time, like this Mini for example:
The 1993 Rover Mini was converted with a Nissan Leaf motor and drivechain with a 20 kWh battery pack. Amazingly it costs only around £1 to charge, with one charge providing upto 60-70 real-world city miles. If you are based in a city such as London, the fuel costs only amount to an incredible £50 per year, which means customers could save huge amounts of money on fuel charges.
"We are focusing on getting cars in and out as quickly as possible, reducing the time it takes to convert the cars from six months to three months." said Quitter.