Here are 15 cool electric restomods

The Charge Ford Mustang’s spec: four motors (for a total of 536bhp and 885lb ft of torque), four-wheel drive, 64kWh battery capacity for a range of 200 miles, 0-60mph in under four seconds and 50kW DC charging.

Talk about dynamics and refinement and, yes, there’s some polishing to do, but what it nails is keeping some of the Mustang’s spirit alive, not just smothering it in technology.

Early Mustangs were always cars that drove like soggy flannels, but came with character, a big heart and approachability as standard. You get all that here and who knows? It might even work on that rare sunny Sunday, so long as you remember to plug it in.

This restomodded Chevrolet 1977 K5 Blazer is known as the Blazer-E. That might give you a clue as to what’s gone on here. Yep, the original 6.6-litre V8 and three-speed automatic gearbox have been removed, to be replaced with a 200bhp, 266lb ft electric motor from a Chevrolet Bolt EV.

The reason for this potentially sacrilegious swap? Chevy is planning to sell this powertrain as a crate package, for those who don’t fancy a hulking great LS Series V8 in their project car.

That means in addition to the motor, there’s a 60kWh lithium-ion battery pack and even regenerative braking. The Blazer-E does keep its transfer case, driveshaft and axles though. Shame it doesn’t keep the rear seats as well. Oops.

Electrified restomods are, it appears, quite polarising. So prepare to be entirely polarised by Totem Automobili’s first product. As you can see, it is a restoration of the delightful Alfa Romeo Giulia GT, rendered here using the medium of electricity.

Lots of electricity, because this car – dubbed the GT electric – features 518bhp. That’s quite a bit more than the original Giulia GT’s 192bhp, and a fair bit more than the new Alfa Giulia Quadrifoglio. Heck, it’s only a smidge off the power of that mad new Alfa GTA.

Totem begins by performing a potentially sacrilegious act (depending on how you view these things of course) – stripping and disassembling a 1970s GT Junior 1300/1600, and then stiffening and tuning the frame by hand so that aforementioned 518bhp doesn’t cause the entire structure to collapse.

You’ll be aware of Lunaz by now. The Silverstone-based company is in the business of electrifying hyper-luxury classic cars and has already unveiled its takes on the Jaguar XK120, Bentley Continental and majestic Rolls-Royce Phantom.

It doesn’t just stick a load of batteries in the boot and send you on your way – far from it. This is a complete re-engineering of the old-school Range Rover. The Classics (either in three- or four-door form) are stripped back to bare metal before being fitted with an EV powertrain.

All cars will get seamlessly integrated modern tech too, with proper infotainment, air conditioning and entertainment screens throughout the cabins. If you’ve seen its other projects, you’ll know that Lunaz is unlikely to mess this up. These are proper works of art.

Not to hate on the Caddy and the Transporter too much, but oh how design has regressed since the wonderful Type 2 you see above. This particular 1966 Samba Bus isn’t exactly standard, though, because under the skin is an all-electric e-Up powertrain. So cool.

Yep, with the help of eClassics, VW has removed the old 43bhp four-cylinder boxer engine and has instead plugged in an 82bhp electric motor driving the rear wheels. Said motor is connected to a 45kWh battery, which provides a range of over 125 miles and can fast charge from empty to 80 per cent full in just 40 minutes.

Top speed is now electronically limited to 81mph too, whereas in its original format physics would have limited it to around 65mph.

Don't forget, there's a new electric VW bus, and it's really very good indeed...

Welcome to Opel’s fantastic new creation. Or old restoration. Or whichever blurring of those lines resulted in what you see before you. As you might be able to tell by the vintage-approved styling, this is designed to catch the tidal wave of popularity for restomods.

It’s also electric. Gosh, if there was only a way to sum up all this information in a wilfully capitalised portmanteau for maximum nouveau-hipster cred. Ah, Opel already has. Meet the Manta GSe ElektroMOD.

You’ll get about 120 miles of range from the 31kWh battery if you don’t drive like Vatanen – or indeed a Mantafahrer – but it’ll only take four hours to replenish your charge from a regular wall socket. Like the Corsa-e and Mokka-e, the Manta will also recover power from the brakes, too.

Besides the Ford Bronco, the full Zero Labs treatment is also available for the Series III Land Rover. Available in open-backed ‘Beach’ and more traditional ‘Classic’ specs, each costing around $185,000, Zero Labs equips the Series III with independent front and rear suspension, either an 85 or 100kWh battery good for up to 235 miles of range and an e-motor with up to 600bhp.

As well as swapping the internal combustion engine for a battery and electric motor, Zero Labs totally re-engineers its old 4x4s – mechanically and aesthetically transforming them into hugely desirable, charming, high-quality objects. Hell, it’ll even rebody one entirely in carbonfibre if you ask nicely.

This is a new, 1961 Rolls-Royce Phantom V. A restoration of one of the world’s very finest motor cars, here packing nothing more polluting than the moral superiority its lucky new owner will exude.

Lunaz strips each car back to the very base metal then 3D-scans, weighs and fully restores it before ripping out the messy, dirty, oily drivetrain. Which itself was originally engineered to be as silent as possible back in the Sixties.

In its place you’ll find a whopping 120kWh battery pack, which Lunaz claims is enough to power a range of over 300 miles. There’s a two-tone paint scheme, leather, the car’s original 1961 woodwork, here restored and treated to rose gold inlays, a pair of screens behind the privacy division, a bar service – bar service! – and space for eight. Yep, eight. Who needs an SUV, what what.

Inside Jaguar Classic’s skunkworks, it was titled ‘Project Marmite’. Because the company knew that ripping out the beating heart of a classic E-Type and fitting a full EV drivetrain in its place would likely kindle a wave of aneurisms not seen since Land Rover fitted a wonky number plate on the new Discovery.

The E-Type Zero was never going to be universally loved or adored, and Jaguar Classic knew it. It liked the contradiction.

And, in perhaps the most explicit admission that not everyone will get on board, you could apparently just slot the original engine and drivetrain back in if you changed your mind. Bingo: your old E-Type’s back.

The project is reportedly on pause, but let’s hope not for long…

We’ve all done it. We’ve all said to ourselves, ‘I’d love to buy a classic Mini and restore it’. Now’s your chance to do just that, while keeping with the times. Swindon Powertrain has launched its ‘Classic Mini Kit’. Which is a kit. For Minis. That are classic.

Said Classic Mini Kit is a box of toys comprised of the company’s ‘HPD E’ setup, featuring a 107bhp brushless, permanent magnet motor, a transmission, open diff, and all the relevant cabling. Only here, it’s all pre-mounted to a Mini’s front subframe, with brackets specifically designed for the install.

The kit weighs just 70kg, and prices start at £8,850 (plus VAT, so £10,620). Tempted?

The basis is a completely original (yeah, including that supremely patinated paint) 1949 Mercury Eight Coupe. So named, of course, for its eight-cylinder engine. Which the Icon Electric Mercury Coupe patently does not have. Really, there’s a lot of ‘what it says on the tin’ action going on here.

The gist of Icon’s Mercury EV is roughly the same as any other professional restomod: take old car, make wonderful – and daily driveable – with new bits, then charge like an aggrieved rhinoceros. The difference here, of course, is the EV part. Rather than a shiny crate engine to make hundreds of thunderous horsepower, there’s a brace of batteries from a Tesla Model S and a pair of shiny electric motors to make hundreds of whisper-quiet ones.

Aston Martin Works is genuinely worried that everyone from start-up companies to plucky garage-bound enthusiasts might try hacking apart their own classic and muscling in on the territory. Which would be economically distressing, not to mention somewhat dangerous.

This is just an idea, an offering, an experiment. It’s another adventurous chapter in the life of one gorgeous DB6. And it’s a proof of concept. Expect to pay around £200,000 for a fully reversible EV conversion to your DB4, DB5, DB6 or DBS. And they’ll look at electrifying your Lagonda or Vantage too.

This is not an old MGB, no matter what it looks like. This isn’t a restoration, but rather a 1960s car made new - hence the brand-new number plates. It's an upgraded and re-engineered pure electric version of a classic hobbyist project that’s usually more infamous for bleeding out slowly on the driveway, or gently composting itself in a lonely barn.

The electric part comes courtesy of a HyperDrive/Nissan Lithium-Ion battery pack (with an extender-pack option that lives in the boot) that tops out at 35kWh capacity, coupled to a 70kW Continental Engineering Services motor.

That all provides a modest 0-60mph time of just under nine seconds and a limited 80mph top speed, with a possible 160 miles of range - or around 200 with that optional bigger battery.

This isn’t modern-day AC Cars’ first all-electric Cobra. The Series 1 was announced last July. Designed to look like an early, original Cobra, it had a 304bhp e-motor and 54kWh battery for 0-62mph in 6.7 seconds and 150 miles of range. The new Series 4 Electric, though, is something else.

Looks proper, doesn’t it? Styled after the Cobra ‘Superblower’, the Series 4 ups the ante with a whopping 617bhp/738lb ft electric motor from Derby-based company Falcon Electric. That means 0-62mph takes just 3.8 seconds. It still has a 54kWh battery, but now AC claims around 200 miles of range, which is useful.

This gorgeous old road-boat has had a full electric heart transplant, the work of EV restomodders Lunaz Design, who have been ruffling feathers in the classic car scene for a few years now with their meticulous conversions and restorations.

Tucked away where the sun don’t shine is a pair of front-mounted e-motors sandwiched together, producing around 350bhp and delivering drive to all four wheels.

Thanks to an 80kWh lithium-ion battery it has a real-world range of 250 miles, can rapid charge up to 150kW, has regen braking, luxuries like cruise control and traction control and the batteries are split so there’s some at the back, some at the front, to keep weight distribution and handling just so.