Kindred Motorworks has just delivered the first customer car, a restomodded Kindred Bronco Heritage Edition, to customer 001. 1,700 hours. That is how long the team needed to complete the vehicle.
Jeff Tsai received his car during a ceremony at Kindred Motorworks' headquarters in Mare Island. Kindred founder and CEO Rob Howard says it was the most exciting day in the company’s young history.
Jeff, their first customer, spent the entire day there, meeting with the Kindred team members, touring the facility, and performing hands-on work on his own Bronco. For him, the day ended with a test drive of an upcoming Kindred model and saying that he felt part of the company.
The Bronco that drove out of the workshop evolved from an idea inspired by the trials and tribulations faced when restoring a classic vehicle. But for them, the only way was up. The production team’s headcount went up by 300 percent since January. Twenty donor Broncos have been torn down on-site in Mare Island since January 2023.
The team will not take a break after delivering their first vehicle. They’ve got work in progress. Eight Kindred Broncos are currently moving through the assembly stage. Others are waiting for their build slots to open. The company has five more deliveries slated through the end of 2024 and hopes to ramp up production in 2024 to keep up with the demand.
Photo: Kindred Motorworks
At the moment, building a car from (almost) scratch takes 1,700 hours, but they count on shorter times in 2024. By the end of the year, Kindred will have started producing 13 more Broncos. Twelve will be delivered to customers, and one will be retained by Kindred internally as a new marketing vehicle.
Before delivering the first Bronco, Kindred had documented over 400 build tasks in detail, with standardized process work instructions, quality inspection standards, and technical specs being on their list. This is how they make sure that every single build rolls off the production line compliant with the same standards. This separates Kindred from other restomod experts that build one-offs for much higher prices.
For the past year, the production floor at Mare Island went from single-stall build stations to a linear one-piece flow as the production process continues to standardize and optimize.
Kindred will also roll out electric Broncos. They are currently working on the project from the ground up to make sure that the vehicle will be as potent and fun to drive on and off the road as much as the ICE-powered versions. The Bronco EV prototype is set to debut in the third quarter of 2024.
It would not be the first time the team has worked on an electric model. The Volkswagen Bus and 3100 Pickup prototypes have recently driven out of the Kindred workshop.
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