Electric Range Rovers for Icy Scandinavia

Picked up by Liberty Electric Cars as the perfect platform for a new electric vehicle, the Range Rover EV is getting ready to test its resilience skills, and the technology used by Liberty as well, on the more or less icy roads in Scandinavia, Iceland and the Faroe Islands.

Liberty, the company which took the Rovers and converted them into EVs, says it has signed its biggest contract yet with Northern Lights Energy (NLE), an energy and transportation company that apparently needs 150 of these vehicles.

At the core of the “world's first pure electric 4x4,” as Liberty calls it, lies a group of four electric motors, one mounted on each of the wheels of the vehicles. Drawing power from a battery pack, the motors have enough juice in them to spin the wheels 60 mph worth of rotations in 7 seconds, while pulling and pushing the body of the SUV to a top speed of 100 mph (160 km/h).

The battery can retain enough energy after a full charge to allow the Rover to reach a distance of 200 miles 321 km before going completely dark. Those figures will be put to the test in the following four years in the harsh environment in which the SUVs will be deployed.

“The Scandinavian countries are the ideal market for Liberty Electric Cars as the general policy on import duty is for this to be zero on electric vehicles, which puts the price of the Liberty E Range at the same level as an ordinary petrol or diesel luxury 4x4. The agreement with Northern Lights Energy is excellent news and indicates the enormous potential for us in these countries,“ said Ian Hobday, Liberty managing director.