Steve McQueen’s Le Mans Porsche is now charged

In the race for electric cars, even the Porsche 910 driven by Steve McQueen in the movie Le Mans has been powered up.

Three Austrian brothers have reworked a limited-edition Porsche race car model driven by the actor in the 1971 film to run on plug-in power, The Washington Post reports.

Kreisel Electric plans to sell the EVEX 910e for €1.1 million (NZ$1.67 million), according to an email. The car has a range of 350 kilometres and accelerates from zero to 100 kilometres an hour in 2.5 seconds. The original model 910 car in the film used petrol.

“With the first purchasable electronic Kreisel car, our company is entering into a new phase,” company managing director Markus Kreisel says.

“In contrast to the historical original by Porsche, this is licensed for use on public roads.”

Working out of a garage, the Kreisel brothers – Johann, Markus and Philipp – are making battery packs and drivetrains for a new generation of plug-in cars, boats and planes.

Dubbed “E-Mobility Maniacs” at trade shows, they’ve convinced established car companies to visit them in Freistadt, 200 kilometres northwest of Vienna, to test drive their creations.

The Porsche 910 finished sixth in the 1967 World Sportscar Championship, a 24-hour race 200 kilometres southwest of Paris.

Lee Katzin directed the 1971 movie about the race starring McQueen, who died in 1980.

Kreisel says it’s working with EVEX Fahrzeugbau, a German manufacturer of classic automobiles, to make the car. The Austrian team developed new cooling and transmission technologies.

Production of very limited numbers of the plug-in Porsche will start next year.

It’s not the first time Kreisel has tapped a Hollywood film star to market its creations. In January, former California governor and Austrian-born actor Arnold Schwarzenegger began trialling a Mercedes G 350 all-terrain vehicle retrofitted to run on electricity.