Triumph of engineering: Halifax man switching classic car to electric power

A research engineer at Dalhousie University is in the process of retrofitting his classic car to be powered by electricity.

Nathaniel Pearre brought his 1971 Triumph Spitfire to the Halifax Waterfront on Saturday for the Electric Avenue — an event that touts itself as the largest electric vehicle event in Atlantic Canada.

"Having a little electric convertible is something that's a little bit rare on the market and having something that has the vintage style is a nice touch," Pearre said.

Pearre is with the Renewable Energy Storage Laboratory at Dalhousie, a group he described as "enthusiasts of all things electric, including renewable energy and energy storage and electric drive."

Getting started

He found the convertible in New Brunswick on Kijiji about a year ago. He said it was a good candidate for an electric conversion because "it had a pretty solid frame and body, but a lousy drive train."

During the winter, Pearre said he slowly removed all the greasy bits and over the summer he hired an undergrad, Mitch Gregory, to work on the vehicle to develop necessary enclosures and to do a lot of the fabrication work.

"We were in the Dalhousie heavy prototype lab, so we could really make some progress over the summer and get it to the state that it was in at the show, but we had to get out of the lab by the time the students came back for fall semester," he said.

Almost ready to drive

The convertible isn't ready to drive — but it's close. "There's a lot of fiddly work," Pearre said.

"In an ideal world, it might be two more weeks of work but it's gone from being a full-time project of an energetic undergrad to a weekend and evenings project, so timelines tend to drag," he said.

"But we hope to make it driveable, if not get it on the road by the end of the year, and then over a long cold winter try to refine suspension and make it more roadworthy."

He said retrofitting a classic car to be electric is not the most sensible or the most economical route, but he said it's a great route for anyone wanting a hobby and a passion and a fun vehicle for Sunday driving.

"The motivation for building this car was not to save the world, the motivation for building this car was to have fun," he said.