ELECTROMECHANIC

Meet the electric restomod that you can create at home it's so easy you can do the conversion in a day, apparently

- GREG POTTS

Electrogenic’s drop-in kit allows you to convert your old Mini into an EV from the comfort of your own garage. Apparently it’s so straightforward, even a novice could fit it…

“It’s super simple,” read the missive from editor Rix. “Aim is to fit the entire EV kit to a Mini in a day. Prove how easy it is.” Erm, right. I will freely admit that, while I can talk and write about cars until the brake horsepowers come home, I’m not exactly the handiest with a spanner.

The kit itself is Electrogenic’s latest offering. The Oxfordshire-based firm has been converting classics since 2018 and will still build your car for you if you ask nicely, but having racked up a two-year waiting list it recently decided to progress its self-install scheme. You won’t be recreating Jason Momoa’s electric 1929 Rolls-Royce Phantom II in your living room any time soon (Electrogenic reckons that build was the most ambitious and complex EV conversion ever undertaken!), but the Mini kit doesn’t require any high voltage work and so can be done by those with a small amount of mechanical experience, a ramp and a decent toolkit.

That convenience is what we’re here to test, and why the Electrogenic Mini is our Retro Hero of the Year 2024. Oh, and because the converted Cooper van that we tested back in issue 389 wiped the floor with the Moke and the Microlino.

Anyway, best get started if we’re to drive this thing out of the workshop later today. Thankfully Electrogenic hasn’t just stuck me in a corner of the workshop (an ex-TWR facility in Kidlington) and left me to it. I’ve got the help of engineer Louis Hayes-Hamilton for the entirety of his working day to turn this Japanese-spec 1996 Rover Mini into a proper electric restomod.