Electrogenic September 2020 Newsletter

Dear R-EV enthusiasts

Electric classic cars at Bicester Heritage

We finally escaped the workshop!  We all went to a real, live car show.  I know!!!  People and cars and good conversations and a semblance of normality!  So hats off to Brand Events for making The Classic Car Drive In Weekend happen, and roll on next year.

Our other big excitement of the month was the birth of our new electric classic Mini, which has now been returned to its owner.  We have developed a really fabulous package for our electric mini conversion and expect to be delivering a lot more of them in the future.  It’s really exciting, and as you can see below, Steve has come over all Jeremy Clarkson!

As we head into Autumn, we are planning to expand the team.  So if you know a really good electronics technician who fancies helping us to continue to develop our unique R-EV hardware and software, please ask them to get in touch.  And what else to do as the evenings start to draw in?  Kick back, relax and read our September newsletter…

The eMini: Electrogenic’s electric classic Mini conversion

Electrogenic's eMini electric classic Mini

Let me take you back to 1959…  Fidel Castro was victorious in the Cuban revolution, Khrushchev told Western ambassadors “Мы вас похороним!”, petrol was still being rationed following the Suez crisis and on 26 August, the BMC launched the Morris Mini-Minor at the Cowley Motor Works in Oxford.  The Mini was a second revolutionary design from Alec Issigonis, designer of the Morris Minor and in 1999 was voted second place (behind the Model T Ford) in an elaborate international selection system for the “Car of the Century“. (Incidentally, nos. 3 and 4 on that list – the Citroën DS and the VW Beetle – are sitting in our workshop as we speak!)  The Mini was revolutionary because its transverse engine and front wheel drive enabled 80% of the floorpan to be used for passengers and luggage.

Roll on to 2020 and we bring you the eMini.  And that’s e for EPIC!  How epic?  Take a look at this.

And it is epic too.  0-60 in under 5.5 seconds, and that was before tuning.  For the technically curious, it’s a 110V Netgain Hyper9 motor mounted transverse in a custom Electrogenic subframe and married to a secret-sauce 5-speed gearbox that is smooth, sweet and strong enough for all that torque.  Batteries?  2 x Tesla Model S battery packs in the front, and two or three in the back (two if you want to keep the boot space).  Plus the usual Electrogenic electronics and panache.  This is a picture of what’s under the front battery pack.

We think this is one of our coolest creations for a while.  It’s neat, it’s innovative, it packs a huge punch into a tiny space, and it drives like a dream.  And even more excitingly, it belongs to one of our customers who will soon be launching a new Retro-EV brand, and we can’t wait to see what it looks like in its final livery.  Watch this space.

Fancy driving one of these beauties in the post-Covid Spring?  We are able to offer a limited number of slots for electric classic Mini conversions in December/January which will be allocated on a first-come, first served basis…  See you soon!

The Classic Car Drive In Weekend

Vintage car ready to roll onto the track

So we attended The Classic Car Drive In Weekend at Bicester Heritage.  A dream of an event for us – we simply drove up in our electric classic cars – the Stag, the Beetle and the Marmite Bus, took the marquee off the back of the bus, and 20 minutes later – hey presto!  And what a breath of fresh air – literally.  All outside, Covid-secure and enthusiastic crowds.

Our highlights of the weekend?  It had to be watching The Italian Job, on the giant, drive-in screen (Minis again!).  You were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!

What’s in the workshop?

This is where we make you do some of the work: figure out what vehicles these photos are from, and earn yourself a pat on the back when we publish the answers in the next newsletter.


Mystery Picture 11

Mystery Picture 12

Answers from August:

Mystery Picture 9 – it’s one of our new screens, for those of you who like a bit of colour on your dashboard.  This one shows battery and how heavy your foot is – it dials up and down to help you drive more economically – and it alerts you when you have 20% battery left, etc.  You can toggle other screens to show you other things, and it can go anywhere in the car – it communicates with the controller CANBUS wirelessly, so all you need is a power supply.

Mystery Picture 10 – from modern to ancient.  This is our venerable, but new to us, Colchester Chipmaster lathe.  It’s now in use every day, making those little parts that previously we would have had to send out, or make something slightly less beautiful.

And welcome to… our new resident artist!

Electrogenic's resident artist: phoebelou.irvingx

We have a resident artist!  Phoebe Irving is studying at Oxford Brookes School of Arts and needed space to create.  So she has taken over a corner of our mezzanine, and looks down at the car ballet dancing underneath her.  3D is her thing.  She’s planning on learning to weld and we hope that eventually the art of classic R-EVs will seduce her.  In the mean time, she has been observed to manufacture new art tools out of old car parts…

If you want to see some of her work, you can find her on Instagram and Pinterest.

And finally…

Thanks to our friends at smallcarBIGCITY for the fabulous banner picture for this month’s newsletter.  We just couldn’t resist it.  Minis, Abbey Road and the genius of the modern Routemaster in the background.

We’re famous in the States!  We had a customer walk in here the other day to look at our electric Stag.  He lives 3 miles away but was told to come and have a look by his uncle, who read about us in the Los Angeles Stag Owner’s Club newsletter!  It just goes to show that true art is universal.

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