When I was a kid and we would travel to India, all the taxis looked the same. The model that dominated back then, and for decades before and after was the Ambassador—alternately described as “virtually indestructible” and voted “the world’s best taxi.” Despite the fact that the factory making them operated from the 50s until closing in 2014, many of the cars on the road had, in fact, been built decades earlier.
Their longevity on the road was a curiosity that I only later discovered could be explained quite logically with a practice I was pretty sure never happened in America. When the engine and mechanics of an Ambassador taxi got too old to drive, they would just replace all of it and keep the shell of the car. In this process, many of those cars stayed in operation for decades.
I was reminded of those Ambassador cars this week as I read a story about how a company called Everrati is building a business out of electrifying iconic older cars. They too can take out the engine and inside of an older car and replace that interior with EV modifications. Right now, it seems mainly like a luxury service but if they can find some economies of scale, this service could be transformative. In case you were wondering, someone is indeed already working on electrifying those Ambassador taxis too.
