Watch: An Electric Thing Does a Donut

Patty and Selma Bouvier, your new chariot has arrived. Jonathan Ward of ICON built an electric Thing.

The thing is a weird vehicle, even by VW standards, so that they inspire fierce love in a few people isn’t surprising. As a result, it kind of makes sense that someone would spend thousands upon thousands of dollars getting the craftsmen over at ICON motors to build their perfect Thing kinda makes sense.

In this case, perfection involved removing the luftgekühlt (it’s not just a Porsche thing) flat four and replacing it with a 180 lb-ft of torque electric motor from Zelectric. As a result, this yellow oddity can do some pretty sweet donuts… which sounds safe.

To make the Thing a little less hazardous, ICON has put coilovers all around and added some sway bars, which according to Ward makes it a bunch of fun.

Charging the Thing does take 8 hours, and Ward doesn’t mention how far it’ll go, but it can at least be charged pretty much wherever. Whether you’re at home or at a Tesla charging station, you’ll be able to juice up.

The usual ICON attention to detail has been paid to this Thing, too. According to Ward, they spent 3,000 hours chasing rattles and squeaks, because without the VW engine crashing about back there, even more rattles emerged.

As lovable as the old air-cooled engine is, it’s hard not to be charmed by this electric Thing.

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