Everrati’s take on the 964 Porsche 911’s going to make a small portion of the internet emit some sort of angry screech, and another hopeful there’s a future for classics when gas-powered vehicles are eventually priced off the road for all but the Pebble Beach regulars. See, the Everrati Signature 964 is all electric.
Now, the screeching portion of the web will comprise two hardcore groups: Porsche fans, and classic car enthusiasts. Each cares deeply, passionately about their chosen subject. They believe that if a car’s numbers match then it is worthy of transporting royalty and that any modifications made should be sympathetic and in the right spirit of things. There’s a group that takes a sort of masochistic pleasure in seeing fluids gush forth from their cars’ motors, saying “Well, they all do that!” before losing a weekend and plenty of knuckle skin to their loves.
The news that a small British start-up, Everrati, is daring to take something as saintly as a Porsche 911, rip out its hallowed howling guts, and throw a battery in it is unthinkable to them. You can see where they’re coming from, sure, but as the UN has said that, maybe, we should be, y’know, not burning quite as many fossil fuels, perhaps having a clean(er) 911 out there is a good idea? I had a go to find out whether green is good.
Everrati 964 Signature: By the Numbers
- Base price: $345,000
- Powertrain: Electric motor | 53 kWh lithium-ion battery | single-speed transmission | rear-wheel drive
- Horsepower: 500
- Torque: 369 lb-ft
- 0-60 mph: Less than four seconds with the Performance Pack
- Range: 150 to 180 miles
- Curb weight: 3,090 pounds
- Quick Take: A joyous mix of classic style with modern tech that’ll annoy all the right people.
Stoke the Fires
Where its gas-burning flat-six used to sit is a Tesla motor connected to a 53-kWh battery. Despite its new EV innards, Everrati says the car weighs in at 3,090 pounds, putting it on par with an ICE Carrera 2 964. That small battery has less to push because it’s not adding as much heft… It’s hugely up on power than even a Turbo of its era, pumping out over 500 horsepower and 369 pound-feet that’ll punt the Everrati from zero to 62 mph in under four seconds.
The firm says you’ll get more than 150 miles out of a charge, which is “enough” as it considers the car an “A to A” vehicle—something to go for a Sunday morning blast in. If you’re worried about range, a “Pure” edition comes with a touch less power and a claimed 180-plus miles of range. It takes about an hour to charge from 20 to 100 percent, so you won’t be waiting long to get back on the road if you do need to top up on the fly.
Seeing as the price tag kicks off at $345,000 (give or take) before options, you don’t simply get an electric motor where there used to be… not that. You also get a painstakingly restored car. In a similar vein to that company whose name starts with S, or the UK’s Lunaz Design, a car is either provided to or sourced by the company, stripped back, and made as new again with a nut and bolt restoration and thoughtful upgrades throughout. Thanks to a Porsche Classic Communications Management modern infotainment unit built for older 911s, you even get Apple CarPlay.
If you want your oily bits preserved, Everrati will keep ‘em. Should you fancy going back to the old ways, or turning your motor into art for your living room, you can. Alternatively, you can lob the lot in the trash. When EV tech inevitably moves forward, Everrati says it’ll be able to update its tech as and when.
At first glance, it looks like a well-looked-after 911. There are a few hints that it’s had some work done: namely the new headlamps, wing mirrors, and tailpipes. Yeah, tailpipes. They’re, obviously, stuck on the back for effect, to keep the public guessing what an ‘Everrati’ is. That’s not to say it doesn’t make noise. The Everrati team, which is made up of engineers and clever people from most of the UK’s major car manufacturers, installed a sound synthesizer that sounds… decent enough to make you think there’s a flat-six somewhere nearby, but a touch uncanny valley up close. It’s a neat trick, but if it were my car I’d delete the “pipes” and never bother with the fake sound, instead opting to listen to the noises the car naturally makes.
Driving an Electric 911
Like any EV, you fire the car up to silence. When you move off, the gentle whirs and buzzes of an electric powertrain gleefully hum through the cabin. This being an old 911, you’d expect it to be a creaky, wobbly thing, something having no gas motor would reveal straight away. Instead, it’s a sturdy temple, a testament to the build Everrati puts the car through. It’s as solid as they come.
Building pace, the whirring of the powertrain is replaced by wind noise as the car hammers along the road. With all its torque available all the time, it shifts just as you’d expect a 500-hp EV would. Relentless, unending, fuss-free, supercar power. In something like an I-Pace or a Model Whatever, it’s easy to be entertained with the power, then find the handling lacking because they’re so heavy. Here, that doesn’t feel like the case.
The powertrain is a little further inboard than a 964’s set up, but weight distribution is largely the same as the original. It’s at this point things get more interesting—you have a car with more power than a 911 Turbo of its time, lower weight than one would usually expect, and instatorque. The thing flies, but isn’t overwhelmed by its power. In the right hands on the right road, it’d be a beast to keep up with. The Porsche steering magic is pretty much there, each lump, bump, and imperfection on the road fed through to my fingers, fast steering letting the car dart from corner to corner. The pedal box is original, which means that in the right-hand-drive car, my feet are pointed toward the center of the car, contorting my back in a sort of yoga pose.
There was still one big “911” question: Does it do the squat thing when you fire it out of a corner and give it the beans? Yes, yes it does. Everything happens with greater urgency thanks to the powertrain, and it doesn’t feel as ass-heavy as you’d expect. The lack of noise doesn’t bother you either, because it means you can hear yourself laughing like a loon.
Everrati’s built-in different damper setups to allow customers to adjust their cars to the roads they’re driving. If you want to hit the track and keep each corner stiff, feel free. On the UK’s awful roads, it’s jarring for everyone except the kinda person who either thinks they’re hot AF or is a legit racer. That’s it. In its more road-biased setting it wasn’t Rolls-Royce smooth, but it suited the car—it allowed for more body movements, letting the car lean into corners.
Can’t We All Just Get Along?
This isn’t the experience you’d expect from an old 911, but it’s one that certainly made me think. Is a classic conversion the right thing to do? On the one hand, stripping something like a Porsche 911 of its flat-six is like ripping its soul away. On the other—there are over a million 911s in the world, and people have done some truly stupid stuff to them. In the name of preservation, there’re some who’d rather see all of them completely unmolested, driven until the gas runs out. But what happens then? Do they all get put in glass boxes to be stared at? Or do we start figuring out how to give them a new lease on life?
That’s what Everrati is proposing, just a little earlier. And its proposal ain’t bad at all, even if the high price is out of reach for most at the moment. The 911 is just the start, too. Everrati just announced a partnership with Superformance to build an EV GT40. If you hate the ideal of an electric 911, steer clear of the Ford. I, however, will be front and center begging for a go.
It’s not cheap, it’s not “pure,” and it sure as hell isn’t going to save the world. But it is a showcase of an arguably sustainable future for classics. A good one, too. Not every vintage 911 need be converted, but we shouldn’t doubt the resolve of those that are. Nor the wisdom of those doing the converting—at least with Everrati, anyway.
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