If you saw this Marathon Blue VW Beetle 1303 parked outside a café, you’d expect the usual air-cooled burble, a nostalgic whiff of petrol, maybe even a few drops of oil under the oil pan. What you wouldn’t expect is deafening silence followed by tyre smoke the moment someone steps on the throttle.
That’s because this seemingly innocent Bug is hiding a Tesla Model S Performance motor in the rear, fed by 17 Porsche Taycan battery modules. It’s the EV equivalent of stuffing a MotoGP engine in a Honda Grom. This concoction of a powertrain produces 601hp and 702Nm. In a Beetle. With no traction control. Because sometimes, engineering is about asking “why not?” instead of “why?”
Standard Mode Or Full Power?
In Standard Mode, it produces around 200hp, which is plenty in a car with a low weight figure. Even at one-third power, the RS-E punches forward like it’s been launched off an aircraft carrier catapult. Linear acceleration, no gear changes, no drama. Full output? Strictly for the track, and legally capped on the road. Which is fair, because 600hp in a Beetle would make most influencers retire.
A Classic Shell, A Mega Frankenstein Drivetrain
The RS-E started life as a 1975 Beetle rescued from a Californian salvage yard. Today, it’s a ground-up rebuild where almost nothing remains original except the silhouette.
- Suspension: Mostly Porsche 944
- Brakes: Porsche 944 Turbo S + 964 discs
- Wheels: Porsche Cup 2 (17-inch)
- Tyres: Toyo Proxes TR-1
The rear wings are wider carbon pieces, there’s a subtle carbon roof spoiler, and under the skin, it’s basically a Stuttgart-Tesla mashup engineered with German precision and just a hint of madness.
0–100 km/h? 2.9 seconds, already verified. With ideal conditions, expect low 2s or early retirement for whichever tyres are currently attached.
Retro Cabin, Electric Soul
Inside, it still looks like a Beetle until you notice the missing gear lever, the BMW 2002 Recaro seats, and a digital control panel that replaces 1970s mechanical simplicity with EV wizardry. There’s even electric heating, because comfort matters when you’re outrunning modern hot hatches in a 50-year-old shape.
And yes, it’s road-trip capable. Knepper proved it by taking the RS-E on a four-week European and North African tour, ferrying it from Seville to Tangier like it was the most normal thing in the world. Range varies from 100 to 250 km depending on throttle bravery, and charging is via CCS.
The Knepper 1303 RS-E declares war on everything you thought you knew about Beetles, EVs, and engineering restraint. It’s absurd, it’s brilliant, it’s borderline irresponsible, and it might just be the coolest electric conversion on the planet right now.
