So I recently bought a Tesla and pretty much instantly realised that fossil fuels are dead, I'm not really the techy geeky type who likes that kind of thing but I have to say I am so impressed. I immediately stated googling Defender EV Conversions and found reference to a few. My 110 has done 145,000 miles and although it's still going strong it feels ready fro a make over. Conversions vary in style but the one thing they have in common is they are seriously expensive! I realise that any EV conversion is going to be pricey simply due to the cost of the components, Lithium Ion batteries aren't cheap! But I think I could do something better. I rebuilt my first 110 from the ground up, so the engineering side of things doesn't scare me at all, but there's more to an EV conversion than just nuts and bolts.
What you need is: (please feel free to chip in here)
Remove: engine, gear box, transfer box (some conversions don't) axles, (some conversions don't.) fuel tank.
Add: electric motor, motor controller, lots of batteries, electric heater element, electric PS Pump, electric brake servo, battery cooling system? motor cooling system? charging system battery management system...
Then you have to make the components all talk to each other, thats the tricky part. With a modern vehicle like my 2.2tdci there's the CANBUS system to integrate so that everything still works. This is where I fall down, I'll need someone to do the programming for me. This is why in the US where EV conversions are getting popular that are more common in older classic vehicles where there is no CANBUS to worry about.
Many components are available off the shelf thanks to a burgeoning EV conversion market, so I think a decent conversion can be done for a lot less than the £70k that seems to be the cheapest out there at the moment. What would make this even cheaper is if a few vehicles were converted at the same time, the first one is going to be the most expensive by far, the second and third will be easy by comparison. I can't see why with a bit of preparation a decent bolt on kit could be made which would make EV conversions more affordable.
I think I have spent £30,000 or so on diesel in my 110 since I bought it so I think the cost of an EV conversion should be looking at making a return over say a 10 year period. At the current costs I don't think it would but it would be interesting to see how close you could get. My guess is that an electric 110 would be about half as efficient as my Tesla, maybe slightly better than half, the Tesla is way more aerodynamic but still quite heavy thanks to the batteries. So the tesla will do about 300 miles using about £8 worth or electricity (that's charging up at home) so if the landy cost £16 to do 300 miles it would still be way cheaper to run than the existing diesel which costs about £70 to do 300 miles. As fuel costs rise this will probably become even more expensive to run. But the conversion cost is huge!
There are lots of advantages to the defender as an EV conversion, the simple mechanicals and vast amounts of space available for batteries, (the engine bay and fuel tank spaces alone would probably suffice). The simple ladder chassis makes attaching motors very straight forward too.
So are any of you crazy enough to want to try and convert a defender? I would love to do this as a group, pooling resources, expertise and buying power. The end result could be an EV kit that could be sold as a bolt on to other landy owners.
The setup I am looking at right now ditches the Transfer box and puts an electric motor on each prop shaft, located where the T Box was, on paper it delivers 320Hp and 370Lb of torque. All the torque is available at 0RPM, so it should be pretty good...
What you need is: (please feel free to chip in here)
Remove: engine, gear box, transfer box (some conversions don't) axles, (some conversions don't.) fuel tank.
Add: electric motor, motor controller, lots of batteries, electric heater element, electric PS Pump, electric brake servo, battery cooling system? motor cooling system? charging system battery management system...
Then you have to make the components all talk to each other, thats the tricky part. With a modern vehicle like my 2.2tdci there's the CANBUS system to integrate so that everything still works. This is where I fall down, I'll need someone to do the programming for me. This is why in the US where EV conversions are getting popular that are more common in older classic vehicles where there is no CANBUS to worry about.
Many components are available off the shelf thanks to a burgeoning EV conversion market, so I think a decent conversion can be done for a lot less than the £70k that seems to be the cheapest out there at the moment. What would make this even cheaper is if a few vehicles were converted at the same time, the first one is going to be the most expensive by far, the second and third will be easy by comparison. I can't see why with a bit of preparation a decent bolt on kit could be made which would make EV conversions more affordable.
I think I have spent £30,000 or so on diesel in my 110 since I bought it so I think the cost of an EV conversion should be looking at making a return over say a 10 year period. At the current costs I don't think it would but it would be interesting to see how close you could get. My guess is that an electric 110 would be about half as efficient as my Tesla, maybe slightly better than half, the Tesla is way more aerodynamic but still quite heavy thanks to the batteries. So the tesla will do about 300 miles using about £8 worth or electricity (that's charging up at home) so if the landy cost £16 to do 300 miles it would still be way cheaper to run than the existing diesel which costs about £70 to do 300 miles. As fuel costs rise this will probably become even more expensive to run. But the conversion cost is huge!
There are lots of advantages to the defender as an EV conversion, the simple mechanicals and vast amounts of space available for batteries, (the engine bay and fuel tank spaces alone would probably suffice). The simple ladder chassis makes attaching motors very straight forward too.
So are any of you crazy enough to want to try and convert a defender? I would love to do this as a group, pooling resources, expertise and buying power. The end result could be an EV kit that could be sold as a bolt on to other landy owners.
The setup I am looking at right now ditches the Transfer box and puts an electric motor on each prop shaft, located where the T Box was, on paper it delivers 320Hp and 370Lb of torque. All the torque is available at 0RPM, so it should be pretty good...
