This Company Will Make Your Classic Rolls-Royce Electric For £395k

Do you have a classic Rolls-Royce Corniche in your garage, piddling oil all over the floor from its 6.75-litre V8? Do you also have £395,000 sitting around in the bank doing nothing? Luckily, there’s a new British company that’ll not only fix your leaky Roller, but also relieve you of that pesky money in one fell swoop.

It’s called Halcyon, and it’s just unveiled an electric restomod for the big Rolls produced by the company in the 1960s and ’70s. It’s chosen to demonstrate the fruits of its labour with this Corniche convertible, although the conversion is also available for the Silver Shadow saloon.

Through a process that takes a year and over 1000 hours of work, the old drivetrain is entirely thrown in the bin, and replaced by a rear-axle electric motor that delivers between 400 and 500bhp, depending on how you spec it. There are two battery pack options – a standard 77kWh configuration for upwards of 200 miles of quoted range, or an extended-range setup that offers 94kWh and allows for over 250 miles of travel between charges. Powering it all is a proprietary 800V electric architecture, which should allow for faster charging.

It’s more than just a powertrain swap, though. Halcyon also fits active suspension which, along with the throttle map, changes its behaviour depending on which of the three drive modes are selected. There’s a regular setting, plus the cruising-oriented Touring mode and the Spirited setting, which is as close as you’re going to get to a sport mode on an electric-swapped Rolls-Royce Corniche.

The interior – which we only have a sketch of for now – has been thoroughly reworked, given a minimalist makeover and topped off with a bespoke audio system and a CarPlay-enabled infotainment screen. Taking a leaf out of the modern-day Rolls-Royce book, there’s space on the dash for a personalised art piece. Naturally, pretty much every other trim and paint element can be personalised too.

All this is yours for a minimum of £395,000, plus a donor car and taxes. There’s no two ways around it – that’s a lot, especially considering Rolls’ own shiny new EV, the Spectre, starts at around £330k. Quite frankly, though, if you’ve got that kind of cash to drop one car, you can probably afford both.