How Electrogusto is turning classic cars into EVs

Nick Cummins, 59, is the founder and managing director of Electrogusto. He lives in Sydney's Inner West. Electrogusto is one of only a handful of businesses in Australia that specialise in converting petrol-fuelled classics cars into electric vehicles. Before that, he had a successful career in advertising, founding Sputnik Agency and The Royals.

For some people, it's baking or playing guitar. For others, it's bookbinding or geocaching. The world is full of passions and interests, but few seem to capture people so fully as a love for cars.

"I actually think it's a bug that you're born with," says Nick Cummins. "And what I love about the car bug is it hits people in all sorts of different walks of life and it really connects people in an interesting way."

Nick was born with the bug. Growing up on a dairy farm in Leongatha in South Gippsland, Victoria, he couldn't escape it.

Fixing and tinkering was just a part of life.

"I spent my early days fixing up things on the farm. Part of that was out of necessity and part was out of a love for vintage vehicles. One that I remember fixing up was a 1970s Honda motorbike with my dad and getting that up and running in the machinery shed.

"Then there was a beautiful old Falcon XP ute - it would have been a 1965 or 1966. I decided I wanted a floor shifter instead of a 'three on the tree' shifter, so out came the angle grinders and the welders and a bit of tinkering."

Nick wasn't destined for a life on the farm though. Instead, he studied graphic design and went into advertising.

What followed was a successful 30-year career in the industry, which included founding Sputnik Agency and The Royals - agencies that he ran for about 10 years each.

That was until three and a half years ago when Cummins gave up his life as an ad man in search of new pastures. His passion for advertising had dwindled. In its place came a new venture stoked by an old passion: Electrogusto.

When form meets function 

In a way, the idea at the heart of Electrogusto is pretty straightforward. Working out of a garage in Sydney's Inner West, Cummins and his team convert classic cars from petrol to electric.

While the idea will be novel to many, Nick says that there are a few companies doing the same thing around the world, including a handful in Australia.

In fact, it was a space he was avidly watching before founding Electrogusto - a business that, as he puts it, appealed to his love of form and function.

"I love old watches, I love old cars, I love old motorbikes. Something that works beautifully, or is built beautifully with craftsmanship, but has that form element. Some of the electric cars out there are amazing and I'm in awe of their technology. So, there's a lot of function, but no form.

"You know, Teslas are amazing, but they look like a fridge on wheels. But if you can take an old Porsche or Land Rover - any of these sorts of cars that have beautiful design cues - and you can bring that modern-day driving function to them, then I think that's lovely."

For Cummins, it's also about playing a role in keeping these classic cars on the road, which is becoming harder for owners to do.

"The support and maintenance for classic cars is dwindling. The old timers that might work on a particular kind of Alfa or an E-Type Jag are retiring or dropping off the perch," he says.

"So, a lot of these cars are sitting in sheds because they're not working properly, or people are frightened to drive them because they might break down. But their passion for those vehicles doesn't go away."

It's easy to imagine an owner pulling their classic car up to the Electrogusto garage. Out comes the combustion engine and petrol tank. In goes the electric motor and battery. Job done, right? Not quite. It's a long process, and it begins with research.

Cummins and his team start by looking at the original power of the car, the position of its motor and the wider ecosystem of the vehicle.

This helps them narrow down the electric motor needed. That could be Tesla, Netgain HyPer 9 or Nissan Leaf - it depends on the car in question.

Then comes the scan. Using a 3D scanner, Electrogusto's mechanical engineers assess how many batteries can fit into the vehicle and where they - and all the other components - will go. In Cummins's words, it's a bit like working out a car-sized jigsaw puzzle.

Cummins is quick to stress that because classic cars weren't designed with batteries in mind, there's a limit to how many batteries each vehicle can hold and, subsequently, the driving range they can get.

"We're working with boot space, engine space - we have to find room for those batteries. So, we can't put in as many batteries as a Tesla," he says.

"What we find is that the range is normally around 200 kilometres for our vehicles. For a lot of our clients, these aren't their only cars, though. It's the car that comes out on weekends or a couple of times a week, so that kind of range works well."

From vans to hatchbacks

After the scan, it's a matter of removing the old components, installing the replacements, adding any technology a client may want and, in some cases, doing restoration work such as spray painting the interior or replacing missing parts.

"A car typically takes us six to eight months to convert and there's probably more than 500 components that will go into it. But some cars might take two years because of the work involved," says Cummins.

Given that the process is a long one, the price isn't inconsequential. Realistically, Cummins says that clients can expect a job to cost around $100,000, give or take, depending on what's needed. "It's not a cheap exercise. But we pride ourselves on our work, on our safety, on not cutting corners and in creating elegant solutions.

"When someone opens the bonnet or looks at the battery box, we want everything to feel considered and reflect the quality of the car that we're converting. We want to make sure that these cars are beautifully built for the next 50 years."

It's a cost that plenty of owners are clearly happy to pay. What's interesting, though, is that these are by no means only top-of-the-line vehicles either. Sure, there are Mercedes Benz G-Wagons and Porsche 911s, but there are also classic vans and tiny hatchbacks.

The common theme is not the cars themselves, but the passion that their owners have for them and, in some cases, the connection they have with them.

"We're working on this really cool Subaru Sherpa at the moment, which is a little 1980s hatchback. It's a great little car, but for the client it's really special because it was his father's - so there's that connection that he has with his father through it."

For Cummins, it's hard to choose a favourite.

In fact, he says that every car that comes into the shop is truly interesting in one way or another.

"I kind of love them all. There's this amazing moment when we put them up on the hoists and, for the first time, hit the accelerator and see the wheels spin under electric power. It's always magical."

Beauty returns to the road

It isn't just classic cars that Cummins gets excited about, though. It's the possibilities for new and interesting designs that technology can unlock.

"In some countries now, there are manufacturers making what we call a skateboard set-up. Imagine a giant battery pack as the floor of an electric car, and then everything else sitting on that platform - your four wheels, your suspension, your steering, your brakes.

"Now, combine that with the ability for a young designer to be able to design a sports car and get that sports car's body 3D-printed, because we're able to print in metal now," he says.

"So, you could imagine automotive designers designing and owning their own cars - whether that be a four-wheel drive, a little van to carry goods around or a sports car. Or small companies making 10 of these kinds of cars a year."

At the heart of this excitement is Cummins's desire to see the same level of design creativity and diversity on our roads that there was in decades past.

"When you were on the road 50 or 60 years ago, all the cars looked different, whereas now, I think everything is starting to look the same. As a designer, I think that that's a little bit sad," he says.

"So personally, modern, electric, reliable, safe vehicles that have got beautiful, bespoke designs - that's my fantasy."

Whether or not this dream becomes a reality is another question. But in a way, Cummins is doing his part through Electrogusto by giving classic cars a new lease on life and ensuring that the passion their owners have for them keeps burning.

"To me, gusto is that enjoyment of life or living life to the fullest. That's my interpretation. And that's what our business is all about.

"We're all about the enjoyment of these beautiful vehicles, making them incredibly reliable and getting them back on the road and just watching our customers enjoy them."

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