Land Rover has built seven electric Defenders to act as research vehicles for EVs off-road. All seven Defender EVs will be at Geneva 2013.
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What it is is the 2013 Land Rover Defender – in a variety of body styles – with the diesel gubbins removed and replaced with a big bank of batteries and an electric motor, as Land Rover try to find out if EV off-roaders have real world application possibilities.
The single electric motor in the Defender turns out just 94bhp and 243lb/ft of torque and is powered by a 410kg battery planted where the engine used to be. But it does have instant torque thanks to the electric motor which send power through a single-speed ‘box to the Defender’s normal 4WD system.
Land Rover say the Defender EV is good for around 50 miles on a single charge and about eight hours of low-speed off-road running, and it takes four hours to recharge from a 7kW fast charger (or 10 hours from a 3kW portable).
Anthony Harper, Land Rover’s research boss, said:
This project is acting as a rolling laboratory for Land Rover to assess electric vehicles, even in the most arduous all-terrain conditions. It gives us a chance to evolve and test some of the technologies that may one day be introduced into future Land Rover models.
Land Rover have managed to get the Defender EV to tow a 12-tonne road train up a 13 per cent gradient and wade to a depth of 800mm and, after a debut at next week’s Geneva Motor Show, they will be off playing in inhospitable terrain with the Defender Evs.
But don’t expect an electric Defender, Range Rover EV or Discovery Ev to arrive in your local Land Rover showroom any time soon.
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