Kia marks 80th anniversary with manual-equipped EV restomod

• Kia is Korea’s oldest car company at 80 years old
• To celebrate 80th anniversary, Kia unveiled 1996 Pride hatch powered by batteries
• Electric Pride was built by EV restomod expert Electrogenic

Kia turned 80 this year, and the automaker’s U.K. division celebrated with the unveiling of an electric restomod based on a 1996 Kia Pride subcompact hatchback.

The one-off restomod made its debut on Oct. 6 during Bicester Heritage’s Scramble classic car gathering held annually in Bicester, U.K., and was developed in partnership with Electrogenic, a British EV conversion company that recently turned a 1929 Rolls-Royce into an EV for actor Jason Momoa.

Uniquely, the restomod retains the donor car’s five-speed manual transmission, which is now paired with a single electric motor instead of the original 1.3-liter inline-4. The electric motor drives the front wheels, just like its gas counterpart did, and draws its energy from two 10-kwh battery packs, one under the hood and the other under the trunk’s floor.

The electric motor packs 107 hp and 173 lb-ft of torque, or about 60% more power and close to double the torque of the original gas engine. To get the manual transmission to handle the extra power and torque, a performance clutch was installed. A drive-by-wire accelerator was also installed in place of the original mechanical linkage that connected with the gas engine’s throttle.

Impressively, weight has only increased by 44 pounds, with the electric Pride tipping the scales at 1,918 pounds, according to Kia.

Kia said it will publish performance details like acceleration figures and range at a later date.

Kia made efforts to retain the original look of the car, though some subtle modern details were added. The headlight internals are new, and were added to improve visibility at night. The paint finish is also new, and matches the White Pearl finish offered on Kia’s current EVs. Some lime green accents for the seat piping and floor mat stitching were also added to the cabin, as a link to the green accents found on Kia’s high-performance EV6 GT.

As with all EV conversions performed by Electrogenic, the original structure of the Pride has been entirely preserved, meaning all modifications can be reversed.