He started out refurbishing Toyota FJ 40s; then things got out of hand. Soon he was doing original Ford Broncos -- Early Broncos, as they’re known -- then old American sedans and coupes, then all kinds of things. Now, OMG, now what is he doing? Electric cars? At the SEMA show this year, Jonathan Ward showed an electric ’49 Mercury. Blasphemy! We tracked down Ward, founder of ICON 4X4, and demanded an explanation.
AW: You’ve been known forever for converting cars into things God and Detroit never intended, but you always did it with gasoline engines or sometimes diesel. Now you’re suddenly going electric? Why?
JW: Because I think people are ready for it. I think for a while there, consumer confidence wasn’t to the point where they were even embracing Tesla en masse. Now that that’s been adopted and understood and OEMs are coming out with high-performance viable-range electrics, I thought that people would tolerate me going on another weird tangent. I didn’t start the (ICON 4X4) brand with any degrees or education or internship, I just started it because I’m an idiot who had my own ideas, and I had the audacity to just try and make it happen. I just want to kind of keep pushing. I had been kind of sniffing around at doing something like this for a while, but I wasn’t confident that the tech was there yet. It was actually the owner of the (’49 Mercury), when they commissioned the car, a guy I’ve built several vehicles for. He’s the one who called -- after everything was already designed, all the paperwork, everything’s already in the back -- he’s the one who pushed me to do it. Even though I said, just to be clear, you’re seriously a guinea pig. (Oceanside, California, electric vehicle specialist) Stealth EV is who we’ve always partnered with on all our EV projects. What I love about (Stealth EV founder) Matt (Hauber), there are bigger companies that we could have partnered with, but honestly, I think (Stealth EV) may be better. Matt is a geek like me and not that smart like me but an incredibly gifted engineer because he’s pushing the limits. So all the things that I felt were lacking, he was right there with me. So the client enabled and funded the build, and having this gifted electrical engineer hold my hand allowed us to build it.
Icon 4X4
AW: Weren’t you intimidated by -- I don’t know how many volts are going through this system, but you could seriously fry yourself. Weren’t you intimidated by all this electricity?
JW: No. There’s a master kill switch in the back, so if me or any of my lowly 12-volt guys need to do anything, we just kill that (switch) and we’re good to go. And again, Matt was our development partner for all of the EV knowledge, all of the EV science. As far as the naysayers, I’ve always kind of enjoyed pissing people off with my builds, like the Rolls and all that. I don’t mind the guys who just can’t get their head around it. Actually, they’re kind of funny, like my Instagram --“You’ve ruined a Merc!” Whatever.
AW: You’ve been known for this kind of derelict approach to making these fabulous projects. Do you see something other than an old Chevy, an old Mercury? Are you going to start doing something else?
JW: Generally the older you get, the better and purer a (potential project) car is. There’s all sorts of crazy platforms I want to do, for sure. For me, to get people to embrace the romance and the patina and the age (of old cars and infuse it) with new technology, this platform (the ’49 Mercury) was perfect. We’re talking to a client right now about doing a ‘60s Ferrari in pure electric.
AW: Is that the 250 GTE that has been seen in the ICON 4X4 shop for some time?
JW: No, it’s a different one. We’re going to do an engineering feasibility study instead of doing that car, which, again, was already greenlit, rendered and done in gas. So now we’re pausing, backing up and doing the engineering study to go all electric with that one as well. But the car I mentioned is actually a different one. That’ll be coming in from Prague.
AW: So the 250 GTE is going to be electric?
JW: Still in debate. Just greenlit the engineering review yesterday. So (the other one is) the Ferrari 365.
AW: Where do you get your batteries?
JW: I’m sourcing Tesla batteries on the open market. (From wrecked cars).
AW: So what’s the next big thing for you?
JW: We’re deep in R&D for the next production model for ICON, like our FJs and our Broncos and the Thriftmasters -- which is absolutely killing me financially but keeps me excited every night. It’s gonna be off the hook. I think it’s going to be a radically different approach and outcome to what we are known traditionally for doing and how we traditionally have done it. But the dark side of that is it’s severely pioneering in ways that … I can’t even tell my core team when we’re gonna stop hemorrhaging money because these are unknowns that our industry, to my understanding, have yet to get past. So it’s not like, “Oh, all we gotta do is 1-2-3.” Already 3 has turned into -- now we’re probably on 39 and climbing, so I can’t tell if that’s a freight train at the end of the tunnel or a light. But I’m super excited.
AW: But you can’t say what it is?
JW: Right. We’re super keen to start electrifying the FJs and the Broncos. And the TRs, the Thriftmasters.
AW: Is there a market for that?
JW: Definitely. Definitely. Yeah, for sure.
AW: Lotta room for batteries.
JW: Yeah. And picture this: You can have a 10- to 12-kW generator on skids in the engine bay as an option. Like I don’t even provide it, but I leave you room for it. If you’re kicking out 10-12 kW out of a generator, you have a mobile office, you have a mobile geology research center, paleontology, whatever the hell you’re doing, and enough juice left over to kick back to your vehicle’s battery pack. Plus, you’re stealth, you’re not disrupting the environment. The OEMs that I’ve consulted seem to see EV as totally a mismatch for outdoorspeople and 4X4 enthusiasts, which I’ve never understood. Mostly the people that are in the 4WDs have a stronger connection to the land than the dude in a Prius who never leaves the pavement.
We’re hoping by Christmas to have a functioning zip-tied-together mule that we can take out and do electronic analytics on. It is gonna be super killer.
AW: That was more than five questions.
JW: Hahaha.
