Vintage 1968 Porsche 912 Fitted With Tesla Electric Motors
โ€” Updated on 30 January 2023

Vintage 1968 Porsche 912 Fitted With Tesla Electric Motors

โ€” Updated on 30 January 2023

Two American car enthusiasts have teamed up to reinvigorate a classic Porsche with an electric motor, pairing the retro design of the much loved sports car with a contemporary performance motor straight out of a Tesla Model S P85.

Car refurbisher David Bernardo of Zelectric Motors and EV West founder Michael Bream dropped a the Tesla drivetrain into a Porsche 912 they found wasting away in a Vegas scrapyard. The new electric 912 gives off 550 horsepower with 4,500 pound-feet of torque, making it much more powerful than the original Porsche engine. They also used the P85โ€™s inverter, rear differential and throttle pedal.

Due to the smaller size of the Porsche, there was no way the standard Model S battery would fit, so Bernardo and Bream had LG Chem build a smaller 32kWh battery pack that was divided into two equal components to balance out the weight of the car.

โ€œ[It was] a little bit of a challenge, engineering-wise because the car is much smaller than the cars that weโ€™re pulling the components out of,โ€ said Bream in an interview with The Verge. โ€œA Tesla drive unit comes out of a 5,500-pound car (2,500kg), and weโ€™re trying to shoehorn into about a 2,300-pound car (1,043kg). So thereโ€™s a lot of engineering challenges there.โ€

Due to the success of the build and the attention itโ€™s received, EV West plans to sell a 912 conversion kit for US$50,000 in the near future. Check out the full video about Bernardo and Breamโ€™s gas-to-electric creations below.

RELATED: DeLorean-inspired Tesla concept car will take you โ€˜Back To The Futureโ€™

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