First Drive: This All-Electric Bronco Restomod Blends Balance With 500 HP of Brawn

Yahoo

02-04-2025

In hindsight, an electrified Bronco from restomod outfit Icon 4×4 might seem inevitable given today's modern automotive landscape. But Icon founder Jonathan Ward had wanted to hold off on building an EV Bronco until he felt the industry's components and knowledge were finally on par with his exacting standards. In the end, Ward partnered with Marc Davis of Moment Motor Company, an electric-conversion specialist based in Austin, Tex., to produce the initial prototype that will serve as the test bed for a forthcoming run of customer builds.
That prototype is now nearing completion, and we have the opportunity to drive it through the hills of Southern California with both Ward and Davis riding alongside to answer our many questions. On paper, the concept seems simple: drop a Bronco body onto an EV chassis. That recipe wouldn't quite work for a true 4×4, though, so Icon uses a novel approach—mounting a single 500 hp electric motor longitudinally at the center of the frame, then feeding solid front and rear axles via CV joints rather than more traditional U-joints.
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A pair of battery modules housed under the front hood and beneath the rear cargo area total up to 105 kilowatt-hours of cells, or enough for about 175 miles to 200 miles of range. And Icon surrounds all the components with beefy skid plates and custom armor to protect the motor, batteries, high-voltage wires, and cooling hoses.
All in, the EV Bronco weighs around 5,400 pounds, but thanks to the electric motor's instantaneously available 440 ft lbs of torque, the vehicle still provides starkly more potent acceleration than a V-8-powered Bronco. When we step up to Sport mode, via a small touchscreen, the truck entirely transforms and seems almost untamable, chirping the rear tires and bucking like, well, a Bronco. Putting the pedal to the metal requires full concentration, since acceleration from zero to 60 mph takes just 4.5 seconds.
As improbable as that sounds for an upright, short-wheelbase 4×4, the EV Bronco prototype is about much more than just straight-line speed and all-electric range. Ward wanted to build the kind of restomod that anyone can just jump in and enjoy, and picked Moment Motor Company as his partner in the project.
'We were down in Austin visiting friends,' says Ward, regarding how he first met Davis. 'I always noticed his detail and elegance in the retrofits he was doing, they were above and beyond what everyone else thought was good enough. And he was honest and direct with customers.'
In many ways, the EV Bronco delivers an even more approachable driving experience than the highly refined internal-combustion restomods that Icon typically builds. The center of balance rides lower than ever before, with weight distribution in such equilibrium that Ward even corner-balanced the truck. New suspension, using Reiger shock dampers, helps to manage weight transfer and body roll, while absorbing all but the worst road surfaces with the kind of comfortable, cushiony float that only optimal valve tuning can produce.
The steering system presented a bigger challenge, since Ward wanted to continue using a classically wide steering wheel with a thin rim. But finding an electric power–assist setup took multiple iterations. The final solution employs a traditional hydraulic steering box fed by an electric pump that varies pressure based on an angle sensor on the steering column. This results in light muscle required to actually turn the EV Bronco, but a new level of precision for such a boxy SUV.
The NMC battery cells require liquid cooling to stay at the ideal temperature for operation—especially as we repeatedly floor the accelerator pedal—so Davis developed a custom stack of Griffin radiators. These are exactly the kind of unexpected details that reflect years of experience. Yet management of the power train almost seems like the easier end of the spectrum. By contrast, integrating all these new functions to play nicely with Icon's classic-style gauges, billet aluminum switchgear, and NVH (noise, vibration, and harshness) solutions, sounds almost more difficult.
'With Icon, it's really impressive to see how they have essentially defined and productized their offerings, the process, all of the components, and how they come together,' says Davis from the passenger seat. 'That was the fun part for us, coming into this partnership, we knew that the level of quality that Icon achieves across the board was impressive, and we were happy to be able to meet or exceed that.'
Ward readily admits that this prototype still needs further work to reach the level of finish quality his customers expect. In fact, he deliberately left off sound-deadening materials and carpeting in order to help locate newfound creaks and rattles that a Coyote V-8 might have otherwise covered up. Call it 90 percent there, and yet I still heard some squeaks and clunks, especially from the front-suspension mounting points and the rear tailgate.
Converting a Bronco to a full EV requires answering many unexpected questions. But of course, there's the overarching question of whether a classic Bronco needs to be electrified in the first place. Both Ward and Davis recognize that the truck will attract some resistance from diehard traditionalists.
'There's always going to be guys who miss carburetors, and that's cool,' says Ward, 'but I think this widens our appeal and brings in a demographic that previously would've just been stone-age-old fossil burners.'
This EV conversion takes a much different tack than Ford simply building an all-new electric crossover and bolting Mustang badges on it as a desperate appeal to the masses. Ward expects that many customers will already have made the leap to the EV lifestyle, and now believe in the inherent cool factor of merging classic style with bleeding-edge tech.
That tech, and Moment's contributions to the EV Bronco, will eventually proliferate through the rest of the models in Icon's lineup. For now, the first 10 limited-edition EV Broncos—available in either the Old School or New School spec—will start at $499,000, with customer deliveries expected to begin in Q1 of 2026.Best of Robb Report
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