A Classic Mercedes Roadster Is Going Electric in a New Partnership
3 min
Hemmels, a Cardiff, Wales-based company that rebuilds Mercedes-Benz SLs, will soon offer an electric drivetrain for the W113 “Pagoda” models to the tune of half a million dollars through a new partnership.
The W113 SL is a glamorous two-seat roadster, which replaced the 190SL. It was introduced as the 230 SL at the 1963 Geneva Motor Show, then was gradually replaced by larger-engine models until the end of the line in 1971. The model was quite popular in the U.S., where nearly 20,000 were sold.
“We were on a route to develop a battery powertrain in-house at Hemmels, and we began to realize what a complex undertaking it is, given international regulations. That’s when we discovered that Everrati had already engineered a solution,” says CEO Tom Butterfield.
The result is a collaboration between Hemmels and Everatti—which restores and electrifies classic “icons” from Porsche, Mercedes, and Land Rover from its base in Bicester, Oxfordshire. Hemmels will restore the cars and Everrati will install electric powertrains. The partnership will be officially announced on Friday, and SLs from both companies will be shown at the upcoming Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance during Monterey Car Week (Aug. 9-18). The first jointly produced car should be available to customers in November or December. Ordering a car and taking delivery will take eight to 10 months.
The price for a full Hemmels build, with the Everrati electric drivetrain, is £400,000 (US$513,000), excluding the donor vehicle that the company can locate for customers. The cars will be offered internationally.
The SLs will have 68-kilowatt-hour batteries, distributed to help maintain the car’s ideal front-rear balance.
“The bulk of the weight will be where the original engine and gearbox were located, and there will also be batteries in place of the fuel tank and a small pack in the boot [trunk] occupying about the space of the spare tire,” says Justin Lunny, Everrati’s founder and CEO. As battery technology evolves, Lunny says, it should be able to get a more powerful pack into the same locations, and upgrades can occur.
Another British company Helix, a Lotus supplier, will provide a power-dense but compact 300-horsepower motor that together with the battery pack should yield a range of 200 miles and a zero-to-60 miles per hour time of under seven seconds. The cars will use a limited slip differential for good grip, and will be equipped for regenerative braking—recapturing energy and allowing “one pedal” driving. “The end result is a very usable driving experience,” Lunny says.
“Our process in rebuilding the cars is very in-depth, and it’s what makes us stand out,” says Butterfield, whose family bought Hemmels in 2018. “We use brand-new and upgraded parts—we don’t restore what’s there unless we absolutely have to go that route.” The restoration process can take 4,000 worker hours, and bespoke buyers have wide latitude in colors, interior materials, and a choice of options. High-end audio and Bluetooth are available.
The cars will have already been rebuilt by Hemmels by the time they take their 130-mile journey to Everrati, where the drivetrains are—very carefully—installed.
Lunny says that the SLs will not be cut up or altered during the drivetrain installation. “We don’t damage the structure of the vehicle,” he says, “and everything is technically reversible. We retain the value of the original vehicle. The owners can keep the original internal-combustion engine, ensuring that it’s still with the car.” Butterfield adds that one of his clients is turning his engine into the base “for a glass table that will be installed in his man cave.”
Lunny describes the SLs as “art pieces that happen to have wheels. We love them like our babies, and everything we do is to a replicable standard, on par with what an [original equipment] manufacturer would do.”
The W113 SLs may be more than 50 years old, but their styling—and appeal across generations—remains timeless.
“It’s not just a certain age or demographic,” Lunny says. “The new audience is the ultra-high-net-worth individuals who adore beautiful iconic cars, especially the Pagoda, but want a clean-air powertrain, with modern air conditioning, that is enjoyable to drive.”
Butterfield intends to keep production relatively low, producing perhaps 10 to 12 electric Pagodas annually. “To stretch to 25 cars per year would risk the quality of our builds,” he says. Some 60% to 70% of Hemmels’ output has gone to U.S. buyers, and that’s one reason the Monterey appearance—the company’s first—is important to the brand.
Hemmels also works its magic on the earlier 190SL, and electric conversions of those models, through the partnership, are possible in the future, Butterfield says.
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Nearly half a century after a military prototype first rolled out of Sant’Agata Bolognese, Lamborghini’s Super SUV lineage culminates in a 800CV plug-in hybrid that does 0–100km/h in 3.4 seconds
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There is a photograph of the LM002 that tells you everything you need to know about Lamborghini’s ambition.
A powder-blue behemoth, all muscle and menace, blasting through forest tracks at speed. It looks like nothing else on earth – because in 1986, it wasn’t.
That vehicle, the world’s first Super SUV, was the unlikely starting point for one of motoring’s great dynasties.
Nearly 40 years later, its spiritual successor, the Urus SE, will hit 312km/h and travel more than 60 kilometres on electric power alone.
The distance between those two facts is the story of Lamborghini’s most improbable, most spectacular achievement.
The journey began not with glamour but with grit. In 1977, Lamborghini unveiled the Cheetah at the Geneva Motor Show, an all-wheel-drive prototype built for military applications, featuring a rear-mounted Chrysler V8, a tubular steel chassis and a fibreglass body.
The US government contract it was designed to win never materialised. Neither did its follow-up, the LM001, which retained the V12 from the Countach but struggled with weight distribution in desert conditions.
It took engineer Giulio Alfieri to crack the problem. By relocating the engine to the front, a move that sounds obvious only in retrospect, he produced the LM002, debuted at the 1986 Brussels Motor Show.
Powered by a 5.2-litre V12 producing 450CV, it could propel its 2.7-tonne body beyond 200km/h. Pirelli developed bespoke Scorpion BK tyres just to handle it. Inside, leather upholstery, wood trim and air conditioning made it as sybaritic as it was savage. Just 301 were built before production ended in 1992.
Twenty-five years passed before Lamborghini returned to the segment.
The Urus, unveiled in production form in 2017, was not merely a new car — it was a reinvention of the brand.
To build it, Lamborghini doubled its Sant’Agata Bolognese facility from 80,000 to 160,000 square metres. Its 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8, the company’s first turbocharged engine in its modern era, produced 650CV and 850Nm of torque, reaching 100km/h in 3.6 seconds. Its carbon-ceramic front discs, at 440mm, were the largest fitted to any production vehicle at launch.
The range has evolved rapidly since. The Urus Performante lifted output to 666CV, swapped air suspension for steel springs for sharper dynamics, and in 2022 set the production SUV record at Pikes Peak — 10:32.064. The Urus S, launched the same year, matched that power figure while prioritising luxury and adaptability over lap times.
Now comes the Urus SE, and with it, a genuine inflection point. Unveiled in 2024, it pairs the twin-turbo V8 with a 141kW electric motor for a combined 800CV and 950Nm, making it the most powerful Urus ever produced. A 25.9kWh battery enables over 60km of fully electric driving.
Top speed is 312km/h. The aerodynamics have been entirely redesigned, the infotainment system gains dedicated hybrid management displays, and buyers can choose from more than 100 exterior colours.
None of which would have seemed remotely plausible in 1977, when Lamborghini was trying, and failing, to sell a fibreglass truck to the US military. Sometimes the greatest stories begin in failure.
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