I like to keep an eye on developments within the electric car sector although naturally enough I have a particular interest in the specialist car side of things and three recent developments have caught my attention. Two of them are available to buy with the third one a concept – at the moment.

They definitely fit under the term restomod and are also very specialist but it’s good to see a couple of mainstream giants revisiting their pasts. I do wonder if these cars weren’t electric if they’d ever see the light of day, though.

First up is this lovely Fiat Jolly Icon-E Spiaggina. An electric version of the original Fiat 500 Spiaggina ‘Jolly’ complete with proper wicker seats (who remembers the very short-lived but cool JouJou Jolly replica?) It comes from Garage Italia and is available now from €61,000 BUT will require an IVA test to use it on the road.

Fiat Jolly Icon-E Spiaggina available from www.garage-italia.com

Secondly, comes a modern take on the Citroën Mehari marketed by the French manufacturer limited to 1000 vehicles. It costs from €25,000 although you have to lease the batteries with this one.

It’s produced under license by specialist French maker, Bolloré and is basically a re-badged version of their own Bluecar.

Image courtesy of Norbert Aepli, Switzerland

Finally, this one, a collaboration between Renault Classic, Renault Design and French classic car parts giants Melun Retro Passion is arguably my favourite of the three – an electric replica (sort of) of the Renault 4 Plein Air (500 built from 1968).

It’s called the Renault 4L e-Plein Air and was built to celebrate ten years of the Renault 4 festival (who knew?!). It’s based on a Twizy 80 Urban model which is clever but not very fast. It uses the 6.1kW lithium-ion battery which means 17bhp and a range of 30 miles. Oh … and it’s 130kg heavier than a Twizy!

Image courtesy of dailyrevs.com

Even so, I think it is very cool and I hope Renault Classic go on to build it commercially.

I hope you have enjoyed our little specialist electric car/retromod round-up.