An Electric Defender.

Land Rover are developing 7 prototypes of an electric Defender.
Check out the article at Wired:
Land Rover Electrifies the Classic Defender | Autopia | Wired.com

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mike_ie

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

Not sure I agree.

Firstly LR have said the 7 vehicles are only engineering development platforms.

---

Yep, but according to the article, "
<snip>
I don't believe that electric vehicles are the way to go in general, but that's another story. But hybrid/alternative energy vehicles certainly do have their place in this world, at the moment in well populated areas where it's easy to refuel or recharge. But for the most part, I don't see a Defender falling under that umbrella.

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

...
An electric Defender would likely be ideal for underground mines.

Diana

---

Mike

What would you say now with the change of classification of diesel fumes to be a WHO Class 1 carcinogen? Dangerous diesel health effects in mines (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) Electric Vehicles must have a place in underground situations where any exhaust emissions are a danger to underground workers.

Diana

over population is another factor altogether, which is being driven by the least intelligent forces of the human psyche. It is on the other end of the spectrum to the intelligence driving electric vehicle development.

electric vehicles will not save the world, because the problem is not the technology in our hands, but rather the 2 bit instinctual 'tech' in our 'hearts'

Regardless of whether the murky depths of human instinctual blindness get sorted out, electric vehicles remain damn cool and if the same level of smarts was brought to bear on the 'untouchable' and highly regarded instincts, we would not have the duality of fossil fuel power stations charging up 'green' cars.

hydrogen tech is very cool too, infact the whole thermodynamic/ chemical cycle of water has only been exploited in very basic ways so far.

You can't fuel cars with water alone, but you can use it to make them fantastically efficient.

Jaguar have a hydrogen concept car
Why not make a hydrogen Land Rover?! That is the real way of the future
Battery power is crap!!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by AndrewGJones

<snip>we would not have the duality of fossil fuel power stations charging up 'green' cars.

hydrogen tech is very cool too, infact the whole thermodynamic/ chemical cycle of water has only been exploited in very basic ways so far.

You can't fuel cars with water alone, but you can use it to make them fantastically efficient.

---

However we can have electric vehicles charged by wind, solar, geothermal or wave energy without the risk of taking flammable/explosive gasses into confined spaces.

For our global needs we need a variety of solutions, fuel cell technology for hydrogen powered engines may be one but electric vehicles powered by green energy must be another.

so far that has been the the all or nothing 'solution', the way forward to me is to go ultra hybrid and use existing tech to scavenge the entire thermodynamic/chemical cycle of water/hydrogen.

of course it would take a fair bit of plumbing, so i think LR would manage to have it leak continually...:p

BMW where heading in the right direction with their steam scavenger..

BMW unveils the turbosteamer concept

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

Mike

What would you say now with the change of classification of diesel fumes to be a WHO Class 1 carcinogen? Dangerous diesel health effects in mines (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) Electric Vehicles must have a place in underground situations where any exhaust emissions are a danger to underground workers.

Diana

---

I would say that we have very different definitions of the term "in general" then. Mining is a very specialised environment for a vehicle if you take the percentage of all vehicles on the planet that operate in an underground mining environment. We're talking somewhere in the range of 0.00001% I would imagine. Not exactly the benchmark by which we should be measuring what the best all round source of energy for a vehicle should be.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mike_ie

80km range - will they be installing a line of power points along the Birdsville track too??
...<snip>

---

Mike

What I am arguing is your initial comment about the 80KM range, and the discounting of the concept off hand. There are numerous uses for vehicles like Defenders where various power plants are valid.

What I would like to see is the option for the Defender buyer to make the purchase option that suits their own personal or industry's need.

• Diesel is not the ideal power choice of people in the USA.
• Likewise petrol is too expensive to be a viable choice for the UK and Europe.
• There is a case for hybrid power and also for fuel cell hydrogen or even steam.
• 100% electric remains an option in some limited situations and should not so easily be denigrated.

After all Land Rover was only ever designed as a stop gap post war measure that almost by accident developed into what it has become.