- The Volkswagen Beetle convertible is a great bang-for-your-buck classic.
- This one tosses the air-cooled flat-four in favor of an electric motor.
- The conversion uses parts by EV West, and it gives the car a range of about 100 miles.
With 21.5 million of them built, the Volkswagen Beetle is an ideal candidate for electric conversion. No one can accuse you of taking the combustion-engined soul out of a rare classic, you get everyday turn-key reliability, and if you miss the clattery soundtrack of an air-cooled engine the cyclist following in your hydrocarbon-free wake won’t. The only thing that could make the experience better is dropping the top for some fall motoring. Well, here you go.
Up for auction on Bring a Trailer—which, like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos—is a lovely orange slice of 1970s nostalgia, blended with 2023 technology. It’s a 1978 Volkswagen Super Beetle convertible (the Beetle purists’ least favorite Beetle, but who asked them?) converted to battery-electric power thanks to some parts from San Marcos–based EV West.
EV West has built EV swaps for many Hollywood high-rollers, including Ewan McGregor’s 1954 Beetle sedan. In this case, the build was completed on British Columbia’s west coast, by Canadian Electric Vehicles of Parksville.
The 1585cc air-cooled flat-four is gone, replaced with an 88-kW electric motor. At 120 or so horsepower, this is roughly twice as much power as you got in the original Super Beetle, though this EV restomod won’t be nearly as quick as a modern EV (the seats, at least, do go Plaid). The 23-kWh battery pack consists of 36 lithium-ion batteries and is good for a claimed 100-mile range.
Even more fun is the presence of an old-fashioned manual gearbox. Granted, you only get two gears, reminiscent of the tortoise or rabbit selectors of an old lawn tractor, but at least there’s some shifting to be done.
And how much fun would a little runabout like this be on a sunny fall day? The real benefit of EV conversion isn’t so much added power, it’s the more reliable on-demand performance. No fiddling with carburetors, no worrying about fuel stabilizers over the winter—just jump in and go for a ride, any time the weather’s fine.
This BaT auction runs through October 11.
Contributing Editor
Brendan McAleer is a freelance writer and photographer based in North Vancouver, B.C., Canada. He grew up splitting his knuckles on British automobiles, came of age in the golden era of Japanese sport-compact performance, and began writing about cars and people in 2008. His particular interest is the intersection between humanity and machinery, whether it is the racing career of Walter Cronkite or Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki’s half-century obsession with the Citroën 2CV. He has taught both of his young daughters how to shift a manual transmission and is grateful for the excuse they provide to be perpetually buying Hot Wheels.