Text and photos by Steve Temple

EV West’s Michael Bream drives an unassuming ’65 VW Microbus/pickup (commercial truck) that’s been converted to an all-electric vehicle with a 150kW output twin motor and a 54kWh Tesla battery pack. It will as about 200 miles of range, and 250hp.

With than much power on tap, it can catch fellow drivers by surprise, as he relates:

“My wife Julie, son Eli, and Eric and I went out for sushi the other night. As we left the parking lot, the car exiting behind me swung wide on a three-lane road and passed me, revving the crap out of his motor. 

It was a brand new Audi A8, still wearing dealer plates. “Hutchison gives a, ‘You going to take that crap?!’ look to me. Knowing that I don’t shy away, I punched it and proceeded to pass him in a 50-year old car that is typically known for holding up traffic.”

 “We were all pretty certain that he was trying to figure out how his brand new luxo-sedan was getting spanked by something held together by 50-year-old rust, and no engine noise.”

“I literally get stopped everywhere I go in the truck,” Bream says. “Can't even grab a cup of coffee without being stopped in the parking lot, or coming back to the truck with folks checking it out.”