Full EV Landy.... Its the future!

Tesla Tom said:

A few weeks ago I would have agreed with most of that, but when you actually look into it EV's are the future. Like it or not. There will still be diesel HGV's, tractors and plant but I think surprisingly quickly we'll all be driving electric cars.
Regarding the gear ratios I don't know the answer, on paper the electric motors deliver so much torque at such low revs, (from zero in fact) that a low box might not be required. But some conversions have kept the T Box. For towing which I do a lot of, torque is key, and for off roading which I do a fair bit of too (at work rather than in competition). The best landy engine I had previously was the 2.8TDI that Motor and Diesel used to import, that developed peak torque at 1400RPM which was awesome off road. But an EV will be way better than that so it should be really good. I think with the right diff ratios and the right motors (I'm thinking two) you could go from crawling over rocks to motorway speeds without any need to change gear. I may be wrong about this though.
You're right, it won't be cost effective. But the best things rarely are.

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I have a customer with a Tesla He has used it to come from London to Here about 700 miles, normally range about 300 miles but with bikes on the roof and full it was down to a bit over 150 miles, now you can not drive until flat then plug it in where you stop , you have to plan so you stop at the right place to charge it so it could be you only get to do a bit over 120 miles between charges,
If you took the same set up and fitted it to a car with the aerodynamics of a defender and the extra weight of the batteries you will get under 100 miles out of it , enjoy the defender as it should be we might not have the chance for much longer would be my advice

Is this a project thread or a debate? If it’s a debate/ conversation move it to another section if it’s a project start putting pics up of you ripping a piston engine out and fitting an electric motor

haza88 said:

Is this a project thread or a debate? If it’s a debate/ conversation move it to another section if it’s a project start putting pics up of you ripping a piston engine out and fitting an electric motor

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He can’t until we all chip in. That’s what the original post was about. Us funding and supplying the know how for his project.
And no. I’m not crazy enough

Bobsticle said:

He can’t until we all chip in. That’s what the original post was about. Us funding and supplying the know how for his project.
And no. I’m not crazy enough

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I think he is just blowing smoke up his arse...as we say here in Darkest Africa

wilfranco said:

I think he is just blowing smoke up his arse...as we say here in Darkest Africa

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One of the many reasons we in the UK say there is no such thing as a nice South African.

Isnt Elon Musk South African? Isnt he the God of EV and universal intergalactic savior .. Oh, and a billionaire many times over . He needs all you electrified fellas to use his product so he can offset the carbon balance as he blasts off with space X with ridiculous aims of colonising Mars .. Meanwhile we cant sort the drains on planet earth ..

auld duffer said:

Isnt Elon Musk South African? Isnt he the God of EV and universal intergalactic savior .. Oh, and a billionaire many times over . He needs all you electrified fellas to use his product so he can offset the carbon balance as he blasts off with space X with ridiculous aims of colonising Mars .. Meanwhile we cant sort the drains on planet earth ..

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Elon Musk is South African, he is also extremely dislikeable. But we can maybe overlook that in view of his contribution to popularising electric vehicle, and raising awareness of environmental issues. I don't have any problem with his being a billionaire, but I do think his talk of colonising Mars is ridiculous. Probably a bad idea, caused by his being under extreme stress trying to get Tesla up and running.
Drains here are working OK. And will continue to do so as long as people observe the 2 sheet 4 sheet rule.

I am tempted to add that there is no such thing as a nice Scotsman either, but in fact there are a few I quite like.
Dinosaurs, of any ethnicity, however, can shuffle off into extinction anytime they like, as far as I am concerned.

Feel free to hit the ignore button.. Saves having to read peoples opinions, no need to hide behind the smiley .. and no need to reply, the ignore button will already be set ..

auld duffer said:

Feel free to hit the ignore button.. Saves having to read peoples opinions, no need to hide behind the smiley .. and no need to reply, the ignore button will already be set ..

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I don't do ignore, the idiots are the most part of the fun!

badfluffy said:

do any of theses costings take into account the life of the battery's, if usable life is 5 years that's a big outlay

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EV batteries last more than 5 years. The worst life EV battery was fitted to the Nissan Leaf, and at 10 years old, it still retains around 70% of its new capacity.
Better battery life is expected from modern cooled battery packs.

Turboman said:

Elon Musk is South African, he is also extremely dislikeable. But we can maybe overlook that in view of his contribution to popularising electric vehicle, and raising awareness of environmental issues. I don't have any problem with his being a billionaire, but I do think his talk of colonising Mars is ridiculous. Probably a bad idea, caused by his being under extreme stress trying to get Tesla up and running.
Drains here are working OK. And will continue to do so as long as people observe the 2 sheet 4 sheet rule.

I am tempted to add that there is no such thing as a nice Scotsman either, but in fact there are a few I quite like.
Dinosaurs, of any ethnicity, however, can shuffle off into extinction anytime they like, as far as I am concerned.

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I'm not a Musk fan at all, and actually don't watch YT stuff that is always bleating on about him.
However I do think he is very good at reinventing the wheel. Electric cars aren't new, in fact electric cars existed before IC engine vehicles.
Elon had a dream to make being green cool, and sells cars to help the buyer do so.

All this nonsense about getting to Mars is just that, nonsense.

It doesn't change the fact that he has managed to force a change in the way people move about, so for that alone, he deserves some respect.

Nothing to do with making a few quid then

thus thread will probably last longer than lecky cars. You enjoy them while you can then we can all get on with the next solution.

I’m not bothering till I get my hover board I was promised by TomorrowsWorld in 1978

A very interesting view of the future from a very knowledgeable guy.

I have enjoyed reading this thread, at the risk again of annoying members, there is a company in Newtown that converts vehicles to full EV, the real problem is that Landrover unless parked in Chelsea are used to tow,carry ,off road etc, if I was planning an expedition to the Sahara, where the hell would I charge it ??? I do have a lot of time for EV performance vehicles here is the issue with EV if in 20 years we ban IC then the country is going to provide power to charge these cars, our creaky old electricity network will just fall over ?
Anyone thinking that buying an EV is saving the planet they have not taken into account the carbon footprint created by mining Lithium, building EV, recycling old Packs, another problem is that if you are talking about millions and millions of EV, where is the Lithium going to be found, it is a finite resource that is not as abundant as our fossil fuels have been.
I think there is a market place for EV but it is not going to replace IC engines completely, the government are just going along with the green element that also do have a strong argument for EV. But regardless of what wins over IC or EV none of them are green, you don't get out for nout in this world.

DRW

Ill wait for the nano diamond battery. 30000 years between charges should get me to the shops.

There are a few methods of Defender conversions that have been done commercially so far.
Method one: Electric Classic Cars. Tesla motor in place of the transfer box. 450HP+, plus all the extra work to upgrade running gear, brakes, hand brake etc.
Method two: Plower. A new motor into the transfer box, not as powerful as the Tesla but capable enough.
Method three: London Electric cars. Leaf motor into the original gearbox. Similar performance to a 300TDI but with a better torque curve.

I personally prefer method three. I expect I'll be doing that to either my own or a close family members in the near future. By just swapping the engine out for a similar performance motor you don't need to worry about having to upgrade the running gear or getting into heavy modification territory.
The material cost is getting lower as well. I would expect to spend no more than £3,000 on motor, inverter and auxiliary items. Batteries are the main cost, but you can tailor them to suit your needs. You'll probably get around 2 miles per kWh from a battery in a Defender if you are careful.

I did personally toy with the idea of a hybrid, for no other reason than it hasn't been done before and it would be interesting to do. The idea I had was to attach a motor to the PTO output on the transfer box, then you can engage this, put the gearbox in neutral and run on the motor. You could run it as a mild hybrid or a plug in one. The British Army experimented with hybrid Defenders in the early 90s, made a few prototypes but didn't take it very far.
I doubt I will go down this route as it has no advantages really other than it's something pretty unique.

Ive been a Landy owner for over 30 years. Ive been driving electric for my daily for 6. Interesting to read the comments. Ive seen other conversions and loads of different ways of doing it. The best one to me is using a nissan leaf motor which has slightly better power listed than a 200tdi (and is capable of way more) The leaf carries 300kg of batteries so pulling out the engine and gearbox to fit a reduction box with the leaf motor direct to the transfer box looks like a good option. No brake upgrades required because of regenerative braking and as there is now space in the engine bay etc the batteries should be fairly easy to distribute evenly with no needs for massive upgrades or chassis cuts anywhere - it will just look like a normal landy! With some careful construction the wading depth would no longer be an issue too! Control to crawl at low speed and use engine braking that can be adjusted would be amazing. Also brake wear would actually be reduced.