GATOR & THE GAMEPLAN

How Rocco Calandruccio and Current EV Motors Are Rethinking Classic Conversions and the Future of Electrified Fleets

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ESTES Park, Colorado— The air is thin, crisp, and tinged with pine. Parked against a backdrop of mountain ridges, a patient but proudly green 1978 Ford F-150 sits in the wild. Known as Gator, it looks like a clean but unassuming workhorse of another era. But under its hood and down its drivetrain lies something more radical: the first prototype in a patented vision to simplify EV conversions, scale them, and open the door to an aftermarket that needs order, safety, and efficiency.

At the center of it all is Rocco Calandruccio, founder of Current EV Motors—a Texas-based company that isn’t content to just swap motors into old classics. His ambition is to design and deliver patented, bolt-on, reversible EV drive systems for trucks, SUVs, and fleet vehicles— numerous solutions that keep costs under control, simplify installation, and accelerate adoption across both enthusiast and commercial markets. “We wanted to prove that conversions didn’t have to be complicated, one-off science projects,” he explains. “If we could take away the most complex part of a vehicle, the engine and transmission, then we could start scaling EV conversions to the point where they made economic sense.” And Gator was where it all began.

Building Gator: The First Pass