UAE studio reimagines local icon

The restomod craze continues to roll on, and generally to one of two set formulas. The first is to follow a nut and bolt restoration with contemporary updates to hardware and underlying components – a screen, better suspension, lights that work and brakes that stop. The second is to go a little more audacious and remove any suggestion of ‘stock’ specification, modifying bodywork, original paint, perhaps dropping in a Hellcat engine.

Based in Dubai, Peec Studio’s approach seems to somehow straddle both approaches with its new limited-run product: RePatrol. This is instantly recognisable as the original Y60-generation Nissan Patrol, the car that in many ways unlocked mobility for families in the region, with its boxy frame and approachable face. But it has been given a raft of touches that go beyond clout farming and instead lean on genuine cultural influences throughout.

Propulsion was originally intended to follow the route of its parent organisation Peec Mobility, which specialises in EV conversions for high-mileage taxis. However, a second option was announced shortly after in the form of a rumbling V8. Both, we are told, have been about as popular as the other. To learn more about the project, Car Design News sat down with Clara de Souza Bartholomeu, lead CMF designer at Peec, and head of brand Zain Shaikh, to learn more. 

Car Design News: First off, what does the name Peec stand for? 

Zain Shaikh: Peec was founded about five years ago, and it means “petrol to electric.” Our founder observed that in the UAE there’s a mandate that every four to five years the taxis need to be replaced. The reason is because these taxis tend to have around about 800,000 to a million kilometers on the clock – really high mileage but relatively young in terms of the chassis age. For the last five years we’ve been building out our EV technology and have reached a point where Peec is an expert in creating a really solid electric vehicle from a previous petrol vehicle.

CDN: When did you make the decision to do a Patrol? 

ZS: We had the initial idea in October last year, which is when we kicked off the design with the first proposals. It got to a point late last year where we started looking at what else was going on in the market with a lot of these retrofitting companies, but we felt there was a massive gap in the market to leverage the merging of fashion and automotive.

Clara Bartholomeu: 

We’ve seen it in a number of spaces. Louis Vuitton recently signed a ten-year sponsorship deal with Formula 1; Ferrari has been producing really high-end luxury clothing; Moncler did a collaboration with Mercedes and we’ve seen Kith teaming up with BMW. That’s one area that we didn’t feel was being tapped into by the retrofitting space. 

We also noticed that the design language is always western focused, even if the market is worldwide. They’re great, but they don’t tap into the whole of the creative community of Asia, Africa and South America that have amazing creative talent. To that point, Peec has always been very proudly UAE-based so we really wanted to bring these ideas into a new project.

CDN: Why did you choose the Nissan Patrol specifically? 

ZS: In order to honour our…