Thread: An Electric Defender.

Originally Posted by ramblingboy42

why do they want to improve the defenders on road driving? It will only be to detriment of its off road capability. If you dont like driving a defender on the bitumen, dont buy one!

I love Defenders but what is the proportion of your off road Vs your on road driving.

I also have a D4 and have been on tracks with a Defender 110 xtreme (Maxi-drive diff) slipping and sliding are negotiated by my stock standard D4 SDV6 eDiff with ease as if it were on the bitumen.

If the Defender replacement can be both worthy of the Defender heritage and as able as the D4 I think we'll all be pleased.

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, "the seven cars are part of the company’s long-term plans for hybrid and electrification" so while they might not be production models, it's certainly the direction in which the vehicle is going.

Secondly, I am pretty sure there are many farmers or quarrymen who have the need for the 4WD capability on their property but would never travel for more than 80Km or more than 8 hours low range work around the property without returning to the farm house or site office. Not much drama plugging in the car for a top up when you have lunch. The same would be said for a trip into the local village or the next town and return.

Which is why I said it'll suit the soccer moms who need a Defender because there's leaves on the road between home, and the kids private school. There are situations, sure, where you could use an electric Defender, sure, and not be impacted too much, but that's a small percentage of situations that the Defender is supposed to perform in. Regarding mines, etc, there are far more suitable (and usually custom) vehicles than a Defender, electric or otherwise.

Take the statement by Land Rover's global PR manager, Dave Roynon, when he talks about the next generation Defender:

"The capability is almost a given," he says. "It has to be as capable, it has to be as robust, it has to go everywhere the existing Defender goes, it has to be as practical as the existing Defender."

I'm curious as to how they are going to manage that with an electric vehicle. Electronic engine management is a nightmare for a lot of people, never mind an entire electric vehicle. It also completely removes the ability of a capable driver to get out of tricky situations - try carrying a jerry can of electrickery on a long range trip.

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.

just came across this article and video about LR electric Defender project..

see here :

Drive - New Land Rover Defender | Electric Land Rover

http://www.aulro.com/afvb/showthread...81#post1866681

Yep, leccy Defer. 80 of them to be exact.


I think it has the potential to be excellent. All that low down instant torque, constant power band etc etc. they just need to get the hard bit sorted... That is battery longevity, weight and charge rate sorted. Which I guess is where the R&D comes in.

I note that LR are not going to produce these and that they are for there R&D dept.

J

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Hub mounted traction motors aren't necessarily as good as it seems. Assuming each of those 4 motors is mechanically independant of the others, as wheels slip, the load is taken by the other motors. It'd be like not having the centre diff open but with traction control or LSDs. A mechanical link between all four hubs will still give better traction than four independant traction motors.
Hub motors are likely to each be smaller than a single transfer or gearbox mounted motor, so when only one wheel has traction it might not have enough oomph to turn that one wheel with the whole vehicle's adhesive weight on it. But one big motor driving all four through a transfer case will have the same torque whether one or all four wheels have traction.

A small efficient turbo diesel under the bonnet driving a big alternator locomotive style into a battery bank distributed around the vehicle, and a transfer case mounted motor would be my set-up of choice

And by the time these are here they will have the stop/start technology fitted as standard also just like the new RR.
Some of the benefits of the electric powered vehicles are great but it is always about RANGE as this is the thing that stops them all. If they ever sort this out no one will get a choice as every new vehicle will be powered this way to stop noise and air pollution in cities. JMHO.

Originally Posted by SLOWBOAT

If they ever sort this out no one will get a choice as every new vehicle will be powered this way to stop noise and air pollution in cities. JMHO.

I've been to the province in China, where they manufacture the batteries used in the Prius. You can stand on a hill and not see a single plant or animal around the factory as far as the eye can see, because of all of the poisonous elements that have leeched into the soil and water table. And considering that many cities have rolling blackouts in summer months when everyone turns on their air conditioning, there's going to be a huge increase in fuel burning power stations that will be required to power all of the homes that plug in a vehicle every night, all year round. We're not reducing air pollution, just moving it around a bit, is all.

Electric cars are a fallacy at the moment, and this is an flag waving exercise by Land Rover to shout out "Look at us! We're going green things too!!!". Hydrogen, on the other hand.....