When British custom electric car maker RBW unveiled its Roadster and GT models at this year’s Monterey Car Week, the vehicles wowed many attendees, CEO Peter Swain recently told TechCrunch.
“We experienced four ‘wows’. People said: “Wow, that’s beautiful.” Wow, look at the interior. Wow, is it really new? ” And they say, “Wow, that’s all it costs? ”’ he said.
That might seem like an odd reaction for a car that starts at $139,000. But Swain insists the price is competitive compared to many EV conversions taking place around the world. And because his company builds them new from the ground up, he thinks they’re a bargain compared to other custom builds.
“It’s not an outrageous price for a hand-built vehicle,” he says.
Now, Swain and the RBW team are embarking on a new initiative to further delight the people who have said “wow” to them over the past few years.
On Thursday, they will launch a company called Spirit EV. The company is a self-described EV-as-a-Service design, testing, and production company with an artisan approach.
The idea is to take everything we’ve learned over the past few years developing RBW cars and make that expertise available to other companies who want to build new custom electric cars in classic style. Professional sports and classic car manufacturers looking to develop EVs can rely on Spirit for help with specific components. Or, if you prefer, you can outsource the entire design to Spirit.
Swain said this is a business that other companies have essentially begged him to run as he and his team developed RBW cars. Swain said he was always “too busy getting the product to market and had to say no” and said it took “five years and 1,874 quality documents.”
Now, he said, the work RBW was doing can be applied on a larger scale. “I spent $18 million to get to where we are today, and that’s because not only do we love small sports cars, but we know the systems business,” he said.
Although Spirit is based and operates in the United Kingdom, the group is also in the process of incorporating in the United States, with plans to open a factory in Danville, Virginia, by February 2025. This initiative and RBW are receiving a total of $18 million in funding. $10 million is coming from Meson Capital Partners.
Ryan Morris, president of Meson Captial (and chairman of RBW), told TechCrunch that this is a possible idea because the push toward electrification has lowered the cost of batteries, motors, and other components. That’s why, combined with the engineering and procurement efforts RBW has undertaken over the past few years, he believes Spirit will only need about $20 million in total investment to reach profitability. , he predicts this could happen as soon as 2025.
“If you look at an auto repair shop that repairs a dozen cars a year, and they buy one aftermarket part every time they repair it, our costs are much lower than that. “We’re buying hundreds of components,” he said.
Besides cost, Morris said the main difference between Spirit’s approach and traditional conversions is that the latter still requires a lot of attention and maintenance. Building a classic-style car from the ground up theoretically means owners don’t have to worry as much about maintenance, thereby expanding the market of potential buyers.
“I have two kids, I work a lot and I’m busy. I don’t have time to fix my car every third time I drive it,” he said. “It’s like people watch old movies and glorify the past, but if you were actually in the past, you’d be like, ‘Oh, toilet paper was worse.’ Cars broke down all the time. There are so many little things that we take for granted.”
Spirit’s approach also means these classic-looking cars are equipped with the latest safety and convenience features, including Apple CarPlay.
Swain, on the other hand, believes in the idea not only because of his attention and success with RBW, but also because he employs people who have been working on EVs longer than almost anyone else. In particular, he spearheads several employees who spent their time developing the earliest and most frustrating modern EVs.
Automakers have been slow to fully develop electric vehicles for years. If they did develop them, they were often criticized as “compliance cars”. While sufficient to satisfy regulators, it is limited by available technology and is a depressing option for most consumers.
Neil Heslington, who leads development at Spirit, worked on some of these cars, including Daimler’s Smart EV in 2008. But while original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) viewed them as “painful exercises,” these projects provide first-hand information, he told TechCrunch. Work at Spirit.
“We learned a tremendous amount about how to run small projects to OEM standards so we can keep them on the road with less budget and less time. That’s acceptable,” Heslington said in an interview with TechCrunch.
Swain is confident in the idea, but recognizes that with the Spirit, his team is walking into even deeper uncertainty than with RBW.
“We are in a new market of our own making, and this is a very unique, completely new classic EV vehicle,” he said. “But where will it go? To be honest, we don’t know exactly. We already have people who want this system, we’ve sold over 300 cars, and we have a huge I think we know that because we have a waiting list. So the signs are good. We have to keep moving forward.”
This article has been updated with more information about RBW and Spirit’s total investment to date.
