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Chevrolet to Offer Kit to Convert Gasoline Classic Cars into EVs

July 20, 2022

Detroit Free Press
July 20, 2022
Jamie L. LeReau

General Motors will soon offer an electric crate-motor package to allow people to replace gasoline-powered engines with fully electric propulsion systems in classic cars.

It’s dubbed the Electric Connect and Cruise eCrate Package and it is seen as a “future business opportunity,” Chevrolet Vice President Scott Bell told the Detroit Free Press recently.

The eCrate is a motor and a package of components for use on vintage GM vehicles. But GM is not yet specifying which vehicles will be compatible with the eCrate.

“We’ve done spectacular with what we call ‘crate’ engines in old cars … putting new V8 internal combustion engines in older cars to make them more reliable and perform better,” Bell said. “Now we have that same group of people working on EV conversion kits for classic cars.”

Chevrolet first introduced a concept of the eCrate in 2018 and brought out new iterations of the concept in 2019 and 2020. It was supposed to start rolling out to the market in late 2021, but it remains in development. Ford Motor Co. launched its EV crate version late last year.