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Video: Georgia Tech Startup Turns Classic Cars into Electric Vehicles


Image via CreateX
Image via CreateX

Editor’s note: As part of a collaboration with CREATE-X, an entrepreneurial program teaching students at Georgia Tech how to launch startups, we’re sharing a few videos and guest posts at Atlanta Inno, along with details about what each company in the program does and how it plans to get to the next level.

It started in 2015, when Ben Horst, Georgia Tech mechanical engineering graduate and now co-founder of Eddy Motorworks, started a personal project to design and build a plug-in hybrid track car.

What resulted was a tube-framed, two-seat concept vehicle capable of super-high fuel economy, all-electric driving and impressive performance. The project, named PH571, became a Georgia Tech senior design project for Horst and Josh Preissle, a fellow mechanical engineer, where it won best interdisciplinary project in the Capstone Design Expo.

After that, the team was accepted in the CREATE-X Startup Launch program with an idea to start a company called Eddy Motorworks. The startup planned to build specialty and custom electric vehicles, from racecar prototypes to utility trucks. They would also take classic cars and revive them with modern 100-percent-electric powertrains.

"What that gives you is a classic, very unique vehicle---like a Mercedes or a DeLorean---but with the modern efficiency and reliability of the electric cars you see today," Horst said.

CREATE-X enabled Horst and his team to take the idea and product and turn it into a viable startup. As an entrepreneurial program for students at Georgia Tech, CREATE-X works to instill entrepreneurial confidence and supports them in creating startups.

Based entirely on experiential learning, CREATE-X provides the knowledge and skills that students require to confidently pursue entrepreneurial opportunities. The Eddy Motorworks team was given $20,000 in seed funding, legal advice and mentorship to get their startup off the ground.

Since completing the program, Eddy Motorworks has grown quickly, moved into a permanent shop space in Decatur and completed multiple commissioned electric vehicle builds for customers. The team includes Horst (CEO), Preissle (VP) and Kenny Adcox (VP).

Hear more about their startup journey.


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