NFL Vet Jason Kelce Enlists High Schoolers to EV-Swap His Chevy K10
Retired Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce has owned his square-body ’86 Chevy K10 for a few years now, and he admits that the engine’s been giving him problems. After talking with his brother and Kansas City Chief tight end, Travis, Jason decided on a creative solution—an EV swap orchestrated by Operation Breakthrough, a not-for-profit organization helping communities in Kansas City since 1971. “They are giving these kids from under-resourced communities a chance to learn real-world skills like welding, engineering, you name it,” said Kelce. And, after seeing how Operation Breakthrough transformed a 1969 Chevelle into an EV, Kelce was excited to see what could be done with his truck.
There’s ample evidence that Kelce’s K10 has already been engine swapped at least once, as there are clips of a big-block Chevy being pulled from the engine bay, an engine that was not offered in a Chevy half-ton 4×4 in 1986. In its place, students and staff at Operation Breakthrough will add battery packs from a Tesla Model 3 and supply electric power to both axles, although we’ll have to wait to see how they package the motor/motors.
Operation Breakthrough students Lola Hoyt and Emmanuel Gonzales, both high school seniors, presented Kelce with plans for the truck’s EV conversion. Options included a mild build that offers a Tesla Model S powertrain and a 200-mile range, and an all-out, show-stopping version that would add range and completely revamp the interior. It didn’t look like it took much convincing to get Kelce on board for the more ambitious project.
We’ll be checking back with Jason Kelce’s YouTube channel to see the rig’s transformation, and are looking forward to seeing how the powertrain is packaged into the 4×4.
-2 for EV swapping that Chevy. +5 for helping the young folks out. Another +2 for his superbowl speech
Ya totally want to swap my IROC, but it’s a rich mans game $50K!
Troy, yes its a rich mans game but the more they do it the lower the price will be for us commoners. So go forward and go far big spenders. Make all the mistakes at your cost and leave us with the knowledge to do the work more efficiently. Trickle down auto retromods.
Go to a shop and pay someone $75K or more for a restomod, or take it to a high school and let the young mechanics learn from doing. I think he made a great choice. EV conversion isn’t for everyone, but then pickup trucks are not for everyone either.
It’s the helping the kids to learn skills that WILL give them jobs that is great.
Somewhere, there’s a motorless Tesla available to receive that orphaned BBC.
I expect a write-up on that, too. Fair is fair: this ain’t Motor Trend after all.
Ha! No S*! I was thinking LS though!
Tired of seeing the Kelce’s everywhere. Nice he helped the high schoolers to do something but I’d rather have my Chevy Pickup with a V8.
Well, at least this was not a Taylor Swift article. At least not yet.
I thought for sure Ford was going to make EV swaps like crate engines when they announced the EV motor available a while back, but I have not heard or seen anything like that. I am waiting as I have my first new car bought an 84 Mustang 20th Anniversary model has over 200,000 hard miles on the 5.0 and that would be an interesting swap, but I am not going to pay 50k to get it done.
Ok, ok, some of you guys complaining about puttin an electric motor in a truck?
Have you heard those new 4 cylinder f150s?
EV in a K10 Pull his man card!! Tired of this crap.
I am waiting for the article on taking a Tesla and turning it into a ICE car. Tesla’s have a beautiful body, (some of them) just waiting to be made into a real car. There is so much dangerous weight that could be taken out of that thing.
Don’t worry car guys. This truck, being a celebrity owned vehicle, probably won’t get used enough to even get close to running the battery dead. Cudos for helping the kids, but stuff like these WAY overpriced conversions are just something to get a mention in a magazine or on a tv program.
Don’t worry, they’ll be plenty of ownerless EVs clogging up parking lots to swap over to IC engines in a few years. Let the the rich guys have their toys and silly projects, but the real world needs inexpensive transportation that’s user friendly.