The classic cars going electric
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 14 November 2023
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Some owners are converting their vehicles into EVs.
The idea is to boost the performance of these cars and make them ready for a green future.
The process is not cheap - it requires specialists who can retain the vintage value of these cars while fitting them with a modern electric engine.
Critics feel that such a transition takes away the emotional and engineering legacy of these vehicles. So we travel across the UK to find out about the challenges and the future of this niche business that is helping classic cars go electric.
Produced and presented by Devina Gupta.
(Image: 'Isetta', owned by Aleks Hughes which has been converted to electric. Credit: Richard Heeley, Bite the Hand)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Sport, but not as you know it. |
| 0:03.4 | Yes, you're good enough. |
| 0:04.7 | We wish we could take you, but you're a girl. |
| 0:08.1 | Amazing sports stories from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:11.5 | The rules were holding her back. |
| 0:13.9 | So she would have to rewrite them. |
| 0:16.0 | Listen now wherever you get your BBC podcasts. |
| 0:20.9 | Hello, namaste and welcome to Business Daily. |
| 0:24.4 | I'm Divina Gupta. |
| 0:26.2 | Today on the show, we're talking about classic cars. |
| 0:30.6 | Have you ever had this experience that you are going on the road |
| 0:33.9 | trying to navigate through the traffic |
| 0:36.1 | and suddenly you spot a classic car. |
| 0:39.7 | Have you ever noticed the sound it makes? |
| 0:46.8 | This one is BMW Isetta, a small car which was quite a rage in the mid-1950s. |
| 0:53.7 | It runs on three wheels and instead of a bonnet, |
| 0:56.5 | there's a door in the front opening all the way like a refrigerator door and the driver |
| 1:01.2 | can climb in its two-seater drive. How about this one? |
| 1:10.2 | This is a bit older. |
| 1:11.8 | Austin 7 originally made in 1923. |
| 1:15.4 | Its earlier versions came with a crankshaft |
| 1:17.8 | that had to be turned all the way in a circular motion |
... |
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