Inspiring the Next Generation

WORDS AND PHOTOS BY DAN CORONADO

AS a teenager, Mark Brems grew up with a passion for Volkswagens, and had nearly every model— Beetles, Ghias, Fastbacks, and buses.

“I had a 1973 VW Adventurewagen that I lived in for two years on the beach in Santa Monica while I worked at the Criterion Collection, and drove it cross-country twice,” Brems recalls. “One of my favorites was a 1967 Triumph GT6 Mk1 with an electric overdrive. That was a fun car that I also drove across the US twice.”

Putting cars aside for a few decades, in 2010 he decided it would be fun to convert a gas car to electric. After doing a lot of blog surfing, he discovered that many people had already converted Porsche 914s to electric using lead acid car batteries and DC motors. Those conversions were heavy, had no regenerative braking, were very limited in range, and both trunks and motor bay were “filled to the gills” with leaky and off-gassing batteries. When lithium batteries and AC motors became available for EV conversions, he jumped right in on his first 914 conversion.

”It’s very important to have a vision of how you plan to use your new EV. It should feel like a dream that will eventually become reality.