ICON invited us up to its office in Chatsworth, CA, to have a chat with its founder, Jonathan Ward, and to take a quick spin in its bonkers new Bronco EV restomod.
Jonathan Ward is stuck in the past.
His office is littered with cars, newspaper clippings, toys, and furniture that are all half a century old, at a minimum.
He lives an analog existence, and has built a name for himself in an analog business. Ward runs ICON, a company focused on restoring old vehicles to absolute perfect condition, or making hand-built modernized versions of the classics. Ward has made quite a name for himself, and is considered by many to be the best in the business of restomods.
But time does not stand still for any man.
The automotive industry is changing, more than it has in a century. And even the grognards need to adapt.
This is not to say that Ward is an entirely begrudging participant in the transition – his “GAS GUZZLER – NO ACCESS” mock carpool lane sticker notwithstanding. He merely says that he wants to ensure the transition happens in what he considers the right way – he wants to carry over the analog processes that he appreciates from the past and apply them alongside the technology we have right now.
Ward has toyed with electrification before, with a few one-off projects – a 1974 VW Thing, a 1966 Fiat Giardiniera and a 1949 Mercury Coupe.
But he never thought the technology was quite ready to make a scaled-up project – at least until now.
So, Ward has created the ICON EV Bronco, and it’s something else.
Broncos have been a popular platform for restomods both electric and otherwise, with multiple other companies doing their take on the same era of the Ford classic. ICON itself has a gas-powered Bronco restomod, which it calls the ICON BR.
The ICON EV Bronco builds on the ICON BR chassis. But it replaces the powerplant and software with an electric drivetrain with 500hp and 440lb-ft of torque – much more than the 100-200hp from the straight-six or V8 options in the first-generation Ford Bronco the ICON EV Bronco is based on, and also more than the 426hp of the gas-powered version of the restomod.
It uses a Tesla drive unit, remanufactured with upgraded bearings and seals and an altered gear ratio. The motor drives both axles.
ICON says it spent about 5,000 hours of development on the EV Bronco over the course of 18 months, in partnership with Marc Davis and Moment Motors in Austin, Texas. Moment is another shop focusing on vintage restomods, but with more of a focus on electrification than ICON has had in the past.
Ward brought Davis on for his electrification expertise in particular – while Ward was happy to talk with us about CNCed billet aluminum, powder coated chassis and locking front differentials, he paused and called in the cavalry when we started asking questions about fast charging (it should manage around a 100kW peak charge rate, Davis told us, or about an hour to fill the 105kWh pack from 20-80% on DC – otherwise, it has a 6.6kW level 2 charger).
The 105kWh battery pack should be good for somewhere around 180-200 miles of range. It’s not the most efficient vehicle, but it’s not trying to be.
- Drivetrain and Performance Specs
- 440+ lb-ft of torque
- 500+ hp
- Full-time All Wheel Drive for on and off road performance
- Currie axles with rear LSD and ARB locking front differentials
- Advanced Ringer Adjustable Suspension
- Brembo Brakes
- Eco, Normal, and Sport driving modes to control performance and power usage
- Battery Pack and Charging Specs
- Industry standard 400V architecture
- 105kWh capacity for 175-200 miles of range
- IP67* Waterproof Standard tested battery enclosures
- Full thermal management to keep the pack in the optimal temperature range at
- all times
- On board 6.6kW Level 2 charger for easy at-home overnight charging
- Level 3 CCS Fast charging via all the leading charging networks
- VCU and System Control Specs
- Completely integrated Battery Management, Power Management, and Vehicle
- Management for complete control of the entire EV drivetrain
- OTA remote diagnostics and updates
- Traditional ICON gauges transformed to show essential EV stats at a glance
- Head Unit with complete system monitoring and control available in the center
- console along with CarPlay and Android Auto Compatibility
- Ancillary System Specs
- Fully electro-hydraulic power steering
- Electric power brakes and parking brakes
- Electric heat and Air Conditioning
- Traditional ICON gauges now reflect basic EV stats at a glance, then the center
- console mounted Audio head unit provides even more EV system stats and
- controls along with a reverse Camera. Apple Carplay and Android compatible.
- Dimensions (estimated)
- LENGTH ……………….14’9” (177”)
- WIDTH …………..…….6’3” (75”)
- WHEELBASE………7.59 3/8” (91 3/8”)
- HEIGHT ………………. 6’6” (79”)
- TRACK WIDTH FRONT……5’9”” (69”)
- TRACK WIDTH REAR……..5’7”” (67”)
- Curb Weight………..5420 lbs.
We took the Bronco EV for a short drive around the streets of Chatsworth – not necessarily the best spot to get a feel for performance or to find many stretches of unoccupied pavement, but it’ll have to do.
The car is, obviously, full of ancient character (and I’m not just referring to Ward himself). The switches, the seats, the shifter, all have their retro flavor, though many have been updated behind the scenes (e.g. the window levers are electronic, but look manual).
The one thing that betrays the car’s modern underpinnings is the screen between the seats, which allows control of vehicle functions and even includes CarPlay and Android Auto
There are a few other modern touches as well, like my favorite, an electric step that automatically pops out when you open the door. Given how high the stepover is to get into this truck, the step will be appreciated by many.
I do think the drive software on this pre-production vehicle could use some more refinement. While the ICON EV Bronco does offer different drive modes thanks to drive software provided by Ampere EV, the instant 440 lb-ft of torque available to us is honestly too much for such a tall vehicle (79″) with such a short wheelbase (91 3/8″).
As a result, torque just has to be limited on the low end, even despite its all-time all-wheel drive. It would be too squirrelly without. It can get from 0-60 in 4.5 seconds, but there will likely be a good amount of drama on the way there.
The various drive modes do provide vastly different drive feel. Ward himself likes to drive in Eco mode, which he says is uncharacteristic for him, but that the car just too much without something to moderate all that power. I preferred the responsiveness of Sport mode, since I’m a stickler for rapid throttle response, but it was still very easy to spin the tires on this topheavy vehicle even during the simplest of maneuvers. So, maybe Ward is right on this one.
But, amazingly enough, this exercise in analog thinking also includes something that even many modern cars (and certainly most restomods) don’t: over-the-air software updates. So, even though we drove a development version, there’s even the possibility that post-release vehicles could be tweaked over time.
It even has off-throttle regenerative braking, something rare in the EV restomod scene.
Compounding the squirreliness of the accelerator, the steering system in the EV Bronco carries over much of the character of the original (though it has been upgraded with electro-hydraulic power steering) – which is to say, a big steering wheel with a lot of “play.”
We didn’t get a chance to try the Bronco EV off-road, but it felt like its driving dynamics would be most at home in the dirt, where it can use all that torque for rock climbing instead of racing.
For those purposes, the Bronco is packed with all the equipment you’d need, with off-road components carried over from the ICON BR chassis – Reiger Suspension, Brembo brakes, Currie axles, ARB locking front/ limited slip rear differentials, and multi-link suspension. And the ample ground clearance and approach angles you’d expect out of a box on stilts.
All that said, this is not a vehicle for a casual buyer – which you might have guessed from the $449k pricetag. It is obviously lacking much of what you might want in a regular vehicle on the road these days, and a lot of the things that you would expect out of an EV.
But if you’re looking for classic charm mixed with new technology underneath, and you happen to have recently found a bitcoin drive you lost in 2011, you know who to call.
Ward plans to make ten examples of the EV Bronco, each customized to their respective buyers’ tastes such that no two are alike. The buyers will be able to choose from the same design packages ICON offers for the gas-powered BR (New School, Old School, and Derelict) and body styles (soft top, hard top, roadster), with additional customizations for color, seating position, and so on.
And he wants to scale up from here. Heading into the future, Ward hopes to offer an electric powertrain as an option on all of his builds sometime in the next 3-5 years.
With what we’ve seen out of this one (and his past derelict builds in particular), we’re certainly excited to see what crazy projects he comes up with next.
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Author: Jameson Dow
Source: Electrek
