Nest co-founder Matt Rogers invests in EV conversion company Everrati

Image: Everrati

The UK-based company that converts classic cars to electric vehicles was about to enter the US market. In April, the company formed a partnership with the Irvine-based manufacturer of electric cars to work on state-side electric conversions of prestige cars. The owner of the first EverratiPorsche in California is a major investor in the group that is building it.

Rogers has fond memories of riding in his father's car when he was a kid. He promised himself that he would get one if it were electric. Since leaving Apple, the engineer has focused on technologies to help fight climate change. Rogers heard about Everrati through a publication in the UK and contacted the company to inquire about its business and future.

The low-volume manufacturer has worked on vehicles from Singer Vehicle Design, which makes custom vehicles, and has also worked on the first US-builtPorsche 912 wide body Ever. It can travel up to 200 miles on a single charge, and can go 0-62 mph in under four seconds. California has more interested customers than anywhere else, and Lunny says that demand for their icons is surging around the world. Lunny told us that Everrati had picked up four more orders of the car.

The transcript was lightly edited for clarity.

So, it's called "restomods." It's a modification because most shops still modify cars.

That is correct.

So it's a restoration. Is that not giving it enough justice?

The best of what it was is brought out in restoration. The best of what it was is being brought forward in the future by savesay. I think they didn't call it a restomod like they did the originalTesla. It would be.

What has changed since we spoke last? You pick up a partner from gettacar.

That is correct. The man joined. He is looking at how we develop some of our commercial operations. You will know that we are working very closely with them. matt's car is being built by a person named aria.

Some fun photos were taken by Matt the other day.

It is sort of exciting. I am aware of why things like restomod are used by definition. The vehicles are going to be better than new because they are.

Image: Everrati

Oh wow, and she's building that right now.

Matt received that a few days ago.

There is a lot of interest from people who have Singers or are on a waiting list for Singer and two of them are going to cancel that.

Matt wouldn't do it. Why do a gasoline-powered engine if you are going to build something special? It makes no sense.

This is something that a lot of the high-end vehicle manufacturers are seeing. General customers are telling them that they don't want this kind of stuff anymore.

It's a really good question. I think we have a lot of new products out there right now and our gateway drug is a car. People who own a Taycan think, "Oh, this is an amazing performance EV that drives like a proper car"

The plan for each model car was built by Everrati. Is that what you're doing? Is it possible for the group to repeat the process if they have a sort of blueprints of a vehicle?

Completely. Mike, our head of engineering, designed the powertrain for the brand new EV that we built, and that's the big difference with what we do. We go about it differently. Good luck to the ones that are out there. EV West is one example of a person who isn't necessarily doing a productionized thing. They have started an interesting industry. The process we call "redefined" is when we re-engineer what a vehicle is. It needs to drive as close to the original as possible. That is our secret sauce.

They used a crate motor for the Ford F-100 Eluminator that I drove. Is there a lot of room for growth in that side of the market?

We are different but we are part of it. In the same way as you might treat a beautiful brownstone house in New York, you're not going to tear it apart, you're going to keep the bits that are classic. To update it sympathetically, you are going to treat it like the work of art it is, so that it still looks, feels, and drives like an original. The tailpipe emissions for them are pretty horrible, they're pre-catalytic converters, I dread them, you know, stuff that you don't want around you, right? It is not pleasant.

• Everrati Porsche 911 (964) Gulf Signature Edition
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You have an extensive design background and you found out about Everrati. How did that come to be, and why did you invest in them?

It's true, Matt. I remember seeing a piece in the UK press about them. It's one of those things, as both an environmentalist and clean tech entrepreneur, and aPorsche enthusiast, there's not a lot of intersection of those things. At this point, there is no partnership with Aria, so I reached out to them, and they were interested in building it in the UK. There is a lot of demand in the US and maybe we should build out some US operations. This is how it goes.

In California, everybody is buying an electric vehicle. You can see them wherever you go. Do you own an electric vehicle?

Matt was one of the first customers for the company. I used to have a Model X, but we got rid of it, and I only had a small garage. I think I will sell my vintage car once the Everrati is ready.

Despite the low range on a Nissan Leaf, I started driving an EV in 2016 and have been ever since.

Matt had that as well. I thought the Nissan Leaf was a year older than it actually was.

The same thing happened to me as well.

The range was 70 miles. It wasn't good. Not going to a gas station was great.

Today, things are different.

It is indeed. Technology and scale drive costs have gone down and battery technology has gotten better. The fact that you can buy a car that has 500 miles of electric range is crazy.

Which car is in the shop that you are converting?

It is a 962, so it is similar to a 1991 car.

Two of these vintage cars are going to be converted to EV.

I'm going to get rid of the 988. I don't need a pair of vintage cars. I believe electric is the only way to travel. My four-year-old daughter sat in the back and asked me why it was so loud. It is like a time capsule.

My seven-year-old son and I rode in my car on the way to school, and the car had fumes coming out of the rear, it was probably only water. It is interesting that the younger generation are on board with all of this so quickly.

How has the price of batteries affected your market?

It doesn't affect us because we're paying so much for batteries. Performance is getting better at a price per kWh. It will go down eventually. Right now, it isn't affecting us.

What kind of cells are you using?

We use envision cells from the Nissan group in our Land Rover series. A sports car is a sports car, and it should feel alive despite the fact that it is not light.

The sweet spot is between 150 and 200 miles.

Image: Everrati

Image: Everrati

The GT40 is capable of charging up to 150 kilowatts. If you think about that in a car that is done by a restomod company, that is a 700-volt architecture, and it is able to do multiple performance runs. You can back out on the track in 20 minutes if you have fast charging on the track.

Has the US standardizations affected you?

The intention is to use CCS1 in the US. You can use your CCS port if you're in Europe. We can use any potential core as long as that continues to grow in popularity.

This is just a problem with the electric car. The rest of the industry is pretty much the same. The times are changing between what the non-profit environmental community is pushing on and what the industry groups are pushing on.

In Europe, they have stopped people from using different charge plugs, so they have to use the same one. That is good. You are just wasting resources if you do something else with technology.

Today it is just creating bifurcation in the market to have it.

They wouldn't even dream of having a non-EV, that's getting really exciting for us. My wife did an all-female car tour in order to raise money for female charities in South Africa. I had to drive my sister's G wagon because I missed her for that week. It cost me almost 500 pounds for a few trips. The argument has been lost if you stick with the engine.

Can you tell me about one of your conversions?

I couldn't drive my Land Rover because they had it on site at the UK government site. I made a lot of excuses when I turned up with my G wagon. They saw a picture of my wife in Barcelona with my EV, so it wasn't all bad. I was a true petrol head but I am not there now.

Did you get any more US orders?

The backlog is important at this point.

In the last five or six weeks, there have been six orders for the sports car. It's fantastic. Land Rover orders are a bit different of a market. We were going to launch the business in March 2020, but that wasn't the best time for a business. We continued. During the Pandemic, people's view on sustainable, on clean air, accelerated.

Do you think Everrati is going to convert a lot of cars?

The powertrains themselves are what we focus on. We are talking with a company that may want us to build hundreds of Landrovers over the next three years. We will do the whole thing. The whole car won't be done by us. That is where we get the volumes. There is a kind of thing called 'Everrati inside'. It's great for us because we're getting involved in more vehicles From an economies of scale perspective, we are buying more batteries, more inverters, and hopefully we can reduce our own material costs as well.

I think about the forks in the road along the journey of the electric car, and they started in a similar place. Then they did a deal with Toyota and they had the RAV4 EV. They decided to go the full Apple way. There is a market for the EV inside. There is a new market that doesn't exist.

Just a quick question for Matt, do you still have the Nest fire truck?

It's funny you should say that. A friend of mine called me and asked if I wanted it. There is a parking lot in Mountain View where it is sitting. It's sitting down.

What can you do with it?

There is an electric fire truck. That would be a lot of fun.

It would be a fun one.

You should say that. It's sitting down.

Nilay will get in if the horn continues to work, and he will be able to honk it as many times as he wants.

Oh my gosh, yes!

We appreciated talking with you. I want to talk to you guys again and see where this is going.

Absolutely!

Thank you so much.

Matt said yes.

Have a great day. It's important to take care.