I think I just saw the new defender

**101 Ron** · 25th August 2018, 12:11 PM

Playing with Electric forklifts for a living I wish to point out a few things.
The electronics...…..ie speed controllers never give any trouble and AC motors these days are so reliable that I have yet needed to replace one.
Batteries are the things that wear out and second hand value is not of the vehicle, but of the amount of battery life left.
They are not green and more expensive to produce due to the energy it takes to produce them and the copper and other expensive metals used in manufacture without allowing where the recharging energy comes from.
It takes energy to recycle them. ( remember the emissions in smelting and refining copper ect)
Speed controller( throttle petal ) is these days hall effect type units and not the old fashion pots and therefore little to wear out.
The electronics used in the current crop of electric vehicles has been around for years in forklifts.
( ie …...transistor and FET speed controllers have been around since the early 1990s in forklifts and AC motors shortly after that.
The future will have a lot of electric vehicles in it due to
1/ the state of lithium battery development
2/ emissions is making IC engine less reliable and more expensive to produce.
Just one other thing ……….any true life span of a electric vehicle will be decided by the battery and if the manufacturer places built in soft ware or design faults to reduce life...…..the electronic parts are reliable if needed to be.
Quality of the insulation and placement of the wiring also determines life of a unit.

**gromit** · 25th August 2018, 06:37 PM

Originally Posted by bee utey

Exactly. Just because there are occasional smoke clouds issuing from fuse boxes and dash boards going crazy doesn't mean that people stop loving and using them. Fixing electrical faults is no more difficult than fixing mechanical faults, just needs a different toolbox. I spent a fair bit of time last week in the bowels of someone's elderly P38 doing elec and mech works and despite it not ending up perfect it still gets a smile when you boot it.

So as long as they take someone like yourself whenever they go four wheel driving they should be OK ?

My daily and the wife's (not Land Rover) have had spurious electrical problems.
Launch of the car delayed due to Body Control Module problems.
Analogue instruments stopped working, dealer hadn't heard of this before, fortunately a digital display showed speed & distance to empty. Removed instrument panel did some research and found the panel is coded to the car so if you try another it needs to be coded first ($$$'s). Left it and it came good a couple of weeks later !
Display on mine switched off while driving and came up with the message "Updating System". Fortunately the car kept going then the display came back.
Display died on the wife's, $1,000's to replace. Fortunately disconnecting the battery overnight fixed it.
Every service there is a software 'upgrade'.

Can't wait for even more electronics to control the electric motors, battery usage etc. As long as they don't contract Lucas for the electronics on their EV's it might be OK.

Colin

**bee utey** · 25th August 2018, 06:50 PM

Originally Posted by gromit

So as long as they take someone like yourself whenever they go four wheel driving they should be OK ?

???

Customer drove it here, drove it away a week later. None of the little gremlins actually stopped the vehicle.

**rick130** · 25th August 2018, 06:56 PM

Originally Posted by gromit

Can't wait for even more electronics to control the electric motors, battery usage etc. As long as they don't contract Lucas for the electronics on their EV's it might be OK.

Colin

The funny thing is that other than the oil capillarying down the harness, the ECU on the TD5 was/is bloody robust.
And guess who designed and built it!

**JDNSW** · 26th August 2018, 05:47 AM

About 90% of the issues with Lucas electrics are connections - so what's different?

**irondoc** · 5th September 2018, 12:09 PM

Any other sightings around Sydney?

I must admit, if I saw what I thought was the new Defender, I would turn around and chase it.....

Cheers
Lucas

**goingbush** · 5th September 2018, 01:21 PM

Originally Posted by gromit

<snip>

Can't wait for even more electronics to control the electric motors, battery usage etc. As long as they don't contract Lucas for the electronics on their EV's it might be OK.

Colin

Funny how millions of people get into elevators in hi-rise buildings every day without batting an eyelid.

All dependant on Electric Motors , electronics and wiring looms just itching to let the smoke out .

The power to weight ratio, torque, acceleration, braking and reliability is of electric motors and electric control circuitry is magnitudes better than anything with an internal combustion engine.

**cripesamighty** · 5th September 2018, 02:43 PM

I lost it in a computer crash, but I used to have I photo I took of an elevator plate in a Cairo hotel, which gave the manufacturer (Otis?) and date of build which was from the late 1890’s. Although rickety, the lift seemed to work ok!

**Phoenix** · 19th September 2018, 05:05 PM

Originally Posted by p38arover

My Gawd, two oldies come out if the woodwork for this thread - Barney and Phoenix. I haven't seen their usernames pop up in years! Welcome back Matt and Richard!

He he he, it has been a while!

Personally I think an all electric defender with a decent range would be an absolute winner!!

**barney** · 19th September 2018, 05:15 PM

Ha. Hey Ron! I've been too busy with work, the band and maintaining 2 Defenders along with not having a desktop PC anymore, it's a bit of a pain just using the phone. So yeah, hiding in woodwork watching and listening.

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