Juice Under the Hood

Electric cars even a jet-setter could love

March 1, 2007—Electric cars are generally more about doing good than going fast, but a company called World Class Exotics (not an escort service—we checked) changes that equation by taking fire-breathing, smog-belching supercars and turning them into vehicles your Hollywood friends would approve of. How? By replacing gasoline engines with electric versions—picture an overgrown blender motor—along with anywhere from 15 to 28 batteries. Specifications and prices vary depending on the buyer's priorities—not to mention taste in cars. An electric-powered Porsche that rockets from 0 to 60 mph in five seconds and goes 200 miles on a charge will run you $100,000, while the Rolls-Royce Phantom above cost a tidy $400,000. Sure, a three-ton, leather-swathed, tropical-hardwood-adorned Rolls may never be the greenest machine on earth, but it's a step in the right direction. And if you miss that V-8 roar, fear not: World Class throws in an audio CD of engine sounds for free.

World Class Exotics, 1288 Glen Rd., West Palm Beach, Florida, (561) 301-2369, www.worldclassexotics.com.