Icon Teaches Old Dog Electrifying New Tricks
Image Credit: Icon.
Icon has decided that the old is the new… electric. And about time too. I’ve seen more battery-swapped contraptions lately than hot dinners, and unfortunately, some of them look like they’ve been cobbled together in a garden shed with bits pilfered from a washing machine. But Icon? Ah, Icon is a different kettle of rather expensive, but undeniably desirable, fish.
Icon usually faff about making old American trucks and even some bewildered European saloons from the ‘70s look utterly magnificent (and cost the earth in the process). But now Icon turned their attention to the venerable Ford Bronco. And not just any Bronco, but a proper, old-school, straight-axle, mud-plugging Bronco. Ten of these electrified beasts are being unleashed upon the world, each carrying a sticker price that would make your bank manager faint – a mighty $449,000. For that kind of money, you could probably buy a small island, but would that island come with over-the-air updates? I think not.
Image Credit: Icon.
I’ve always been a bit cautious when it comes to stuffing electric gubbins into classic cars. It’s like putting a smartphone in a grandfather clock – technologically impressive, perhaps, but does it feel right? However, after listening to Icon’s main man, Jonathan Ward, and the bright spark from Moment Motor Company, Marc Davis, I’m starting to see the light. These aren’t just backyard conversions; this is serious engineering. They’ve spent thousands of hours tinkering, testing, and probably arguing about the best way to blend the rugged charm of a vintage Bronco with the silent, surging power of an electric motor.
Ward, a chap who’s clearly obsessed with getting things just so, made a rather good point. Why rush to be first when you can take your sweet time and be the best? He’s seen the marketing spiel from other electric restomodders, the lofty promises that often fall flatter than a punctured tire. So, instead of leaping headfirst into the electric revolution, Icon waited. They bided their time until the right technology became available, until they could build an electric powertrain that met their ridiculously high standards.
Image Credit: Icon.
And that’s where Moment Motor Company and their Mr. Davis come in. Apparently, he’s a kindred spirit when it comes to not cutting corners, which is always a reassuring thing to hear when you’re dealing with something that could potentially turn into a very expensive paperweight if it all goes wrong.
The Icon approach sounds a tad sophisticated. They’re banging on about safety, full system integration, over-the-air updates (fancy that in a classic Bronco!), proper thermal management, and understanding the delicate dance between the controller, the battery, and the motor. Apparently, these bits all have their own little temperature tantrums, and keeping them happy is crucial.
The challenge, of course, was to replicate that old-school charm with electrons doing the heavy lifting. And according to Davis, they’ve stuck to the original Bronco’s architecture. It’s still an Icon chassis, preserving that classic Bronco feel. They’ve just removed the noisy, smelly bits and replaced them with something altogether more zappy.
Image Credit: Icon.
At the heart of this electric beast lies a 105-kilowatt-hour battery pack, sourced from the same top-notch Japanese supplier that Volkswagen uses. But these are custom-built to Icon’s specifications. Two-thirds of the battery lives where the engine used to reside, and the rest is tucked away at the back, which, rather conveniently, resulted in a perfect 50:50 weight distribution. That’s better balance than I have after a particularly enthusiastic Sunday lunch.
The motor itself is a repurposed Tesla unit, but not as you know it. It’s been re-geared, completely serviced, and given a whole new brain in the form of a different controller, circuit boards, and inverter. Apparently, despite Ward’s initial reluctance to use second-hand parts, this particular Tesla motor is just too good to ignore. “No one can touch that motor,” he declared.
From there, the power goes through a more traditional drivetrain, sitting in a custom Art Morrison chassis, sending torque to a solid front axle with a locking Dana 60 diff and a solid rear with a Dana 44 limited-slip. You see, when you want to keep those proper off-roading credentials – the massive suspension travel and axle articulation – you can’t just stick a motor on each wheel. It messes with the fundamental principles of a straight-axle setup.
Image Credit: Icon.
Under the hood, where you’d usually find a tangle of belts and hoses, there’s now a massive radiator with two separate cooling circuits – one to keep the batteries from getting too toasty and another for the motor. The wiring, I’m told, is a thing of beauty – high-quality, weatherproof connectors, and designed to be relatively easy to service down the line. An electrical engineer’s idea of a good time, apparently.
The numbers are rather impressive, too. A 400-volt system with 440 horsepower, and a hefty 500 pound-feet of torque. The range is a claimed 175 to 200 miles, which isn’t bad considering this thing weighs 5,420 pounds – about the same as a small bungalow. It’ll charge at 6.6kW on a Level 2 charger and also has CCS DC fast-charging, although the exact speed hasn’t been divulged.
And here’s the clever bit: over-the-air updates. Just like your fancy smartphone, this old Bronco can receive software tweaks and improvements remotely. They’ve also got remote system monitoring, which should make life easier for mechanics when things need fettling.
What Icon and Moment have managed to do is rather remarkable. They’ve taken a classic off-road machine and given it a thoroughly modern electric heart transplant without losing its soul. You still get the engagement, the articulation, and the suspension travel you’d expect from a proper Bronco, but in a package that’s designed to cope with hard work. Heck, the batteries are even waterproof to IP67 standards, meaning you could theoretically submerge it in three feet of water for half an hour. Not that I’d recommend it.
This blend of old and new is rather exciting. If Icon and Moment, who are highly respected in their field, can pull this off, it could pave the way for more companies to create properly engineered electric off-roaders. And that, in turn, could lead to more manufacturers producing the motors, batteries, and other bits needed to make it all happen, potentially giving a boost to smaller American businesses in the process.
Icon has proven that the thrill of driving, and indeed, the ability to conquer rough terrain, isn’t solely the domain of internal combustion. The future, it seems, might just be a bit quieter, but no less exciting.
