Photo: East Coast Defender
The biggest problem with owning and driving a classic vehicle is always going to be the engine. That's especially true for an old Land Rover in America, and for many years, East Coast Defender resolved the issue by fitting American V8s or even V10s into the boxy 4x4.
However, as a wave of environmental awareness is sweeping over the overland community, the company has now decided to do a Tesla swap.
You're probably immune to this type of conversion, after seeing every car imaginable being Tesla-swapped. But consider the fact that the Defender went into production back in 1983 while the Tesla Model S arrived roughly 30 years later. That's like teaching grandma how to use a smartphone.
Don't get us wrong; we think it's a wonderful idea. But it's awfully hard to pull off, and those usually cost a lot of money. East Coast Defender, now know as E.C.D. Automotive Design, has released images that include renders of the powertrain, which tells us they haven't pulled it off yet.
We believe the Florida-based company can do everything it promises. But Land Rover had no idea what EVs were when it made the Defender. It's supposed to be super-basic and reliable.
The solution E.C.D. came up with is pretty interesting. They show an electric motor in the middle of the frame with the transfer case to its side. By contrast, almost all EVs have motors between the wheels, but that's not suited to the axle design of a ladder-on-frame truck.
The puzzling bits are the batteries, located at the ends of the car under the floor. They're supposed to hold 100 kWh of power but seem rather small for the job. Regardless, the Electric Defender is supposed to have a range of up to 220 miles and a 0 to 60mph time of 5.5 seconds. Nobody is going to complain about that, though we suspect one of these will cost more than $200,000.
You're probably immune to this type of conversion, after seeing every car imaginable being Tesla-swapped. But consider the fact that the Defender went into production back in 1983 while the Tesla Model S arrived roughly 30 years later. That's like teaching grandma how to use a smartphone.
Don't get us wrong; we think it's a wonderful idea. But it's awfully hard to pull off, and those usually cost a lot of money. East Coast Defender, now know as E.C.D. Automotive Design, has released images that include renders of the powertrain, which tells us they haven't pulled it off yet.
We believe the Florida-based company can do everything it promises. But Land Rover had no idea what EVs were when it made the Defender. It's supposed to be super-basic and reliable.
The solution E.C.D. came up with is pretty interesting. They show an electric motor in the middle of the frame with the transfer case to its side. By contrast, almost all EVs have motors between the wheels, but that's not suited to the axle design of a ladder-on-frame truck.
The puzzling bits are the batteries, located at the ends of the car under the floor. They're supposed to hold 100 kWh of power but seem rather small for the job. Regardless, the Electric Defender is supposed to have a range of up to 220 miles and a 0 to 60mph time of 5.5 seconds. Nobody is going to complain about that, though we suspect one of these will cost more than $200,000.
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