The Mazda MX-5 Miata has always been a charming, pleasurable driver's car, but not necessarily because of its engine. Instead, the Miata wows with its low curb weight, perfect balance, and simple, pared-back driving experience. Honestly, would anyone even miss their Miata's engine if it just disappeared?

Yes, probably. All the same, the EV conversion experts at Zero EV have spent the last few months ridding an old NB Miata of its dino juice-burning motor and replacing it with one that sips electrons. That car is now complete, and the company just released a new video going through every nitty gritty detail of the build.

First, the crucial bits: this Miata is powered by a Netgain Hyper9 AC motor good for up to 120 horsepower and 160 lb-ft of torque on 120 volts, which lives in the transmission tunnel and is fed juice by a 26-kWh LG battery pack. On a full charge, the car will do 100 miles of "real world" driving, Zero EV Managing Director Chris Hazell says, and might even go as far as 120 miles in the city, with a lightfoot at the wheel.

If you're wondering what all that has done to the Miata's weight and balance, the answer is: not much. The car now weighs in at right around 2,360 pounds - all of 200 or so pounds more than it weighed from the factory - and it maintains a just-about-perfect weight balance: 50.2-percent front, 49.8-percent rear.

After the conversion, 0 to 60 mph is right around 8.5 seconds, and while that's not going to set the world on fire, it's also not too far off from where the NB Miata was from the factory. Top speed is a not-blistering 82 mph or so, thanks to an 8,000-rpm limit for the AC electric motor.

But the Miata has never been about straight-line performance, so much as delivering a pure, distilled driving experience free from artificial additives and preservatives. This electric-converted one is poised to do the same.