Land Rover has built the most intriguing EV experiments we've seen in years: an electric Defender that can pull 12 tons up a 13 percent grade and ford water nearly 3 feet deep.
No, really. Hear us out. This thing sounds awesome.
Land Rover is bringing seven electrified Defenders to the Geneva Motor Show, each equipped with a 300-volt lithium-ion battery that powers a 94-horsepower motor with 243 pound-feet of torque. Range might seem far from livable at a paltry 50 miles, but given the Defender's natural habitat – low speed, off-road terrain – and a beefy regenerative braking system, it totally works. Anyone who's wandered off the beaten path and onto rocky terrain knows crawling and braking are the keys to a successful climb or descent. That's what makes an electric Defender so bloody brilliant.
By combining a modified version of the LR's four-wheel drive system with a single-speed transmission, a reworked version of the automaker's Terrain Response System and regenerative braking, Land Rover's Advanced Engineering Team devised a system that can recover and store up to 80 percent of the kinetic energy otherwise lost as heat during braking. In typical off-road, low-speed conditions, the Defender EV can soldier on for as long as eight hours before needing a recharge. That's more than enough for an entertaining day in Moab.
If you do need a charge, you can utilize the onboard 7 kW fast charger to top up in four hours or a portable 3 kW unit to do the job in 10.
Land Rover managed to keep curb weight in check, something that's always an issue with electric retrofits. The front-mounted battery weighs 900 pounds, but since Landie nixed the diesel engine and transmission, it's only 220 pounds heavier than the stripped-down Defender 110 – which is no featherweight to begin with.
Land Rover concedes that the electric Defender isn't bound for production. However, Antony Harper, head of research for Jaguar Land Rover, says the vehicle "gives us a chance to evolve and test some of the technologies that may one day be introduced into future Land Rover models."
All seven of the prototypes will wander the far corners of the globe this year for real-world trials.
