- UK-based EV-conversion specialist Fellten offers a bespoke kit for the 964 generation Porsche 911.
- The kit doesn't require any modifications to the car and it's fully reversible.
- The cost of the kit is about $78,000 and it requires around 100 hours of work to install.
Much of the appeal of driving an older Porsche 911, like the 964 built between 1989 and 1994, one of the last air-cooled 911s, is derived from the smooth six-cylinder boxer engine revving away behind the rear axle. Having a big heavy lump so far back in the vehicle gives it unique handling characteristics, which can make it a handful to drive spiritedly.
Still, enthusiasts just can’t get enough of the feeling of straddling the line between fun and danger that you can’t really find in another car. Maybe in early Alpine sports cars or the Chevrolet Corvair, both of which have similar engine placements.
That’s why removing the original engine from an older 911 and replacing it with something else is a sensitive topic and if you want to do it, you will be met with a lot of opposing views. If you want to turn the 911 into an electric car, people might be as blunt as to tell you straight up that you’re going to ruin it.
But if you have a kit that has been specially designed for the car, like this one by UK-based Fellten, you are by no means ruining it; you’re just changing its character and eliminating tailpipe emissions. The kit doesn’t require any modifications to the car, and the best part about it is that it’s fully reversible, so you can reinstate the combustion engine if you ever want to in the future.
The Fellten kit features a 450-horsepower Tesla large drive unit that can propel the car to 60 mph in about 4.5 seconds. It has 53 kilowatt-hours of battery capacity, which is split between an 18 kWh front and 35 kWh rear pack, both of which are liquid-cooled and allow the car to travel about 180 miles on one charge.
Taking the battery from flat to full on a Level 2 charger via the 32-amp onboard charger, which has a peak charging power of 6.6 kW, takes around 7 hours. The system also features a 70 kW fast-charging capability via a CCS2 connector, which should considerably reduce wait times.
The gauge cluster that comes with the kit is pretty cool too. It has several analog dials that show power, temperatures, speed and range, and they’ve all been designed to look like factory Porsche gauges from the early 1990s. The kit also includes a new low-voltage electrical system, a different brake vacuum system, electric power steering, the cooling system and cabin HVAC.
The cost of the complete Fellten kit is about $78,000, and it requires about 100 hours to install. The company also makes similar kits for the classic Mini Cooper and the Land Rover Defender.
