UAE startup electrifying classic cars: UAE-based green tech company Fuse is on a mission to replace the combustion engines in classic cars with all-electric alternatives, Zawya reports. The company designs EV drivetrains that are compatible with the make of any car models, according to their website.

How they do it: Fuse replaces combustion engines and drivetrain components and assesses if the vehicle needs upgrade to work well with the new drivetrains, their website explains. The company is particularly focused on developing conversion kits for combustion-engine classics in a bid to offer an affordable all-electric route for motorists who may not be able to spring for new EVs (watch, runtime: 0:25).

Retrofitting classics: The company’s focus on retrofitting older car models is also driven by the affordability of their conversion kits — compared to kits for newer models — due to less amounts of research required and development for engine design (watch, runtime: 3:22). The conversion process takes between three to six months and the company is currently working with the UAE government on regulations for usage of their electric drivetrains, which it says currently cost some USD 20k (watch, runtime: 4:45).

Expansion plans afoot: Fuse already has several clients in the GCC region, and plans to expand into the remainder of MENA and is also eyeing the African market in a bid to help decarbonize the continent’s taxi fleet (watch, runtime: 7:41).

We have another retrofitter in MENA: Egypt’s ShiftEV has developed a retrofitting process using locally manufactured batteries that can turn any conventional vehicle into an EV. The company’s retrofitting process takes less than a few hours per vehicle to do the conversion. ShiftEV takes an assembly-line approach to convert fleets of minivans and tricycles and is currently on to convert pickup trucks and microbuses into EVs. The conversion time goes down with every production cycle by 20-30%.