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Is it sacrilege to strip out the iconic engine from the Toyota 2000GT?

With climate change an ever popular subject, we’ve seen a host of different electric vehicles over the past few years, but few really manage to attract the petrol heads in us. The Toyota 2000GT SEV is something completely different, and although it may also be seen as sacrilege, it’s by far the coolest and most unique electric car we’ve seen to date.

The vast majority of electric cars that we’ve seen have been efficient but incredibly dull, poorly styled and aimed more at the environmentally conscious than petrol heads.

The Toyota 2000GT SEV is a world away from most electric and hybrid cars.

This hasn’t gone unnoticed by Toyota, which claims that environmentally friendly and fuel-efficient cars pursue “functionality and efficiency” and “lose some sense of excitement and amusement” offered by classic cars. With this in mind, the Toyota 2000GT SEV – nicknamed the “Crazy Car Project” – was born.

Is this an electric car you would purchase?

The Toyota 2000GT SEV is a world away from most electric and hybrid cars. Aside from the lurid decals, huge brakes and modern wheels, it looks every bit like a classic car. It’s not just the technology underneath the Crazy Car Project that impresses either. This car is as bespoke as they come, with hand-beaten aluminium panels, a bonnet that also features solar panels to help recharge the batteries, and a carefully crafted alcantara interior.

Even the dashboard looks authentic – with no initial sign of the huge colour screens that dominate modern vehicles. Toyota has been clever about the integration of technology, however, with a display that’s neatly built into the mirror, offering functionality without spoiling the retro feel.

The interior retains its classic retro look.

When it comes to power itself, the Toyota 2000GT SEV gets an LSHV electric motor and a stack of lithium-ion batteries. It may be a world away from the original straight-six carb-fed combustion engine, and lack character because of it, but we’d still take the Crazy Car Project in a flash over nearly every other electric car – with the Tesla Roadster currently the only genuinely fun rival.

But it is years before an electric car like this could be available for the UK public.

The one question on our mind, however, is whether it’s sacrilege to strip out the iconic engine from the Toyota 2000GT – one of Japan’s first and most collectable classic cars – in order to create an electric car?