Tesla Rossa: Electrifying a Ferrari classic

CGTN Europe

A Ferrari Testarossa—now fully electric! Meet the Tesla Rossa, a classic supercar transformed by Electric Classic Cars. We explore how legacy automakers are facing the same challenges as retrofit specialists: adapting old designs to a battery-powered future. Can classic cars keep their soul without the roar of an engine?

Transcript

00:00Well, this is the iconic Ferrari Testarossa, originally had a 12-cylinder engine in, but

00:13now we've called it the Tesla-Rossa for a good reason.

00:16What's that?

00:17You'll find out if I lift the engine bay lid to reveal what is not there anymore.

00:23Where is it?

00:24Exactly.

00:25What have we got here?

00:26This is the Tesla motor that we've put in this, taking the big 12-cylinder, big lump

00:31of the thing out, and we've replaced it with a motor and battery pack, so down there is

00:35the main battery pack as well.

00:36We've got another one up front that balances the car out, so now it handles better, it's

00:42got more reliability, less maintenance issues, and a lot more power because it's electric.

00:47More power.

00:48Oh yeah, a lot more power.

00:49Why have you done this?

00:50Why do people want cars like this beautiful-

00:52You lose a lot with the noise and the vibrations.

00:55But modern cars can be a little bit soulless, they can be treated like white goods, for

01:00instance.

01:01And there's a lot of people that want that emotional connectivity to their classic cars,

01:06but still have it electric and without emissions and have that reliability, so they can use

01:12it and enjoy it every day without the stress of whether or not it's going to break down,

01:16what's that vibration, et cetera, et cetera.

01:19So that's why a lot of people now are considering converting their classic cars to electric.

01:23A Ferrari Testarossa is very much at the high end.

01:26We do little cars, city cars, Fiat 500s, little minis, Land Rovers, all sorts of classic cars

01:32that people want to continue to use into the future, we can convert to electric.

01:36Would you say that there's a comparison to be made between the work that you're doing

01:40to convert these cars to electric, these classic cars, with the problems that are facing more

01:45of the traditional car makers when it comes to competing with new electric vehicles coming

01:49from China, for example?

01:50Certainly, because we've got to try and fit a battery pack to an existing ICE vehicle.

01:55And to get started, a lot of the legacy manufacturers have also got that same challenge, that they've

02:02already got a platform that's with a petrol or diesel car.

02:06Let's see how we can actually convert that existing platform to electric.

02:09Well, that's essentially what we do in very niche format.

02:12And again, we also use new batteries as well.

02:14So all the batteries and the components like chargers, DC converters, et cetera, come from

02:19the same factories in China.

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