Photo: Dave Budge via Indiegogo
How about taking a ride around Australia on board a decades-old Land Rover, powered by electricity? Never thought about it? Dave Budge, founder of Jaunt Electric Vehicles, has.
Budge has this plan to use electric vehicles as rental cars for tourists willing to explore the great Outback. The only thing is his cars are not new, but decades old, and converted to run on electricity.
According to his Indiegogo page, Budge needs AU$50,000 to begin work on the first prototype, a 1971 Land Rover Series 2a called Juniper.
According to Jaunt, the car spent most of its life as most Land Rovers in Australia do, in the possession of a fisherman in southern Queensland. Once retired though, new opportunities arose.
Jaunt plans to convert it into an electric vehicle so that the car can keep “creating new memories with you over the next 50 years.” Loosely translated, that means it will be used to transport tourists in “dozens of locations across the country” as part of a rental service.
"These old cars are wonderful… and terrible. They’re difficult to operate, they’re loud, the fumes get into the cabin, and they chew through oil and fuel,” says Jaunt in its Indiegogo posting.
“Conversion to an electric drivetrain transforms them. It removes all the mechanical complexity (and unreliability), increases the capability but leaves all the charm.”
The Juniper car is of course only the beginning, as the company plans to build more than one for its future business, using the countless Land Rovers sitting around and doing nothing across Australia.
To convert the cars from ICE-powered ones to electric, the company will remove the engine, fuel tank, exhaust, radiator, and cooling system. In their place, it will install an electric motor, lithium-ion batteries, a charging system, and regenerative braking.
According to official specs, the Juniper electric car will have an output of 134 hp and 235 Nm of torque. Five Tesla Model S battery packs will be used to store and supply electricity to the car.
To become a backer, one needs to deposit at least AU$25. AU$50 will get you a 15 minutes test drive on a circuit, and AU$1000 will get you a full day with the car.
So far, with 6 days left until the campaign ends, only 32 percent of the target has been funded.
Budge has this plan to use electric vehicles as rental cars for tourists willing to explore the great Outback. The only thing is his cars are not new, but decades old, and converted to run on electricity.
According to his Indiegogo page, Budge needs AU$50,000 to begin work on the first prototype, a 1971 Land Rover Series 2a called Juniper.
According to Jaunt, the car spent most of its life as most Land Rovers in Australia do, in the possession of a fisherman in southern Queensland. Once retired though, new opportunities arose.
Jaunt plans to convert it into an electric vehicle so that the car can keep “creating new memories with you over the next 50 years.” Loosely translated, that means it will be used to transport tourists in “dozens of locations across the country” as part of a rental service.
"These old cars are wonderful… and terrible. They’re difficult to operate, they’re loud, the fumes get into the cabin, and they chew through oil and fuel,” says Jaunt in its Indiegogo posting.
“Conversion to an electric drivetrain transforms them. It removes all the mechanical complexity (and unreliability), increases the capability but leaves all the charm.”
The Juniper car is of course only the beginning, as the company plans to build more than one for its future business, using the countless Land Rovers sitting around and doing nothing across Australia.
To convert the cars from ICE-powered ones to electric, the company will remove the engine, fuel tank, exhaust, radiator, and cooling system. In their place, it will install an electric motor, lithium-ion batteries, a charging system, and regenerative braking.
According to official specs, the Juniper electric car will have an output of 134 hp and 235 Nm of torque. Five Tesla Model S battery packs will be used to store and supply electricity to the car.
To become a backer, one needs to deposit at least AU$25. AU$50 will get you a 15 minutes test drive on a circuit, and AU$1000 will get you a full day with the car.
So far, with 6 days left until the campaign ends, only 32 percent of the target has been funded.
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