One Company Is Electrifying Vintage Rolls-Royce and Bentley Models

Unless you’re looking back into automotive history by a century or more, you’re going to have to make a choice: do you want a classic car or do you want an electric car? And while that might look like an either/or situation, there are a few enterprising companies out there that dare to ask: what if that decades-old vintage auto could be plugged in at a charging station? A few years ago, Lunaz revealed plans for an electric Rolls-Royce Phantom — and this year, Evice revealed ambitious plans for electric iterations of iconic models from Bentley and Rolls-Royce.

As Autoweek‘s Jay Ramey reports, Evice has been working on an electrification project that would encompass three models in total: the Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow and Corniche and the Bentley T-Series. Ramey points out that the shared platform for these three models allowed Evice to come up with one strategy that encompassed all three. The revamped vehicles will have a 400hp powertrain and a range of about 200 miles per charge.

“By integrating smooth, silent 800V electric power, we are elevating these classics to new heights, surpassing the capabilities of their previous combustion engines,” said Evice co-founder Matthew Pearson when announcing the initiative. “We choose electric not out of necessity, but out of a desire to make cars that are better, purer, and more enjoyable.”

Our correspondent spent three days in the half-million-dollar coupe and found out why Rolls-Royce is the ideal brand for electrification

Evice is currently in the process of testing R001, an electric Silver Shadow, with road testing scheduled to take place this fall. As of June 2024, the company was — by its own estimation — six months into a two-year development schedule. All of which means that it may be a little while longer before you see an electric T-Series on a country road near you — but hopefully it’ll be worth the wait.