Jaguar Land Rover has promised to reinvent itself for the upcoming green revolution. The Jaguar brand will feature zero-emission nameplates across the range from 2025, while the first-ever Land Rover EV will arrive even sooner, in 2024. As it turns out, other companies are also thinking about classic models from the JLR stable, with an equally alluring sustainable twist.
While Land Rover Classic is all about giving us factory-backed restomods based on the Defender in V8 form, a renowned aftermarket specialist from America is planning for the moment when everything will be powered by electricity.
E.C.D. Automotive Design has become world-renowned thanks to its appetite for old Defenders with new internals and lots of luxury touches inside. This time around, they set out on a different quest, namely to come up with the first-ever restoration of a Tesla-powered Range Rover Classic.
Now, as the first customer example is finally complete, it’s also time for some scenic footage of the silent heritage off-roader. The journey was made possible in the first place thanks to E.C.D.’s association with a renowned classic car electric vehicle conversion specialist, UK’s Electric Classic Cars (ECC), which provided the Tesla motor for this street-legal restomod.
As always when Tesla powertrains are involved, this unit isn’t shabby at all, delivering no less than 450 horsepower to the Range Rover Classic, which is reportedly capable of reaching 60 mph (97 kph) in just 5.2 seconds. Even more importantly, it won't run out of juice anytime soon given the 100-kWh battery pack, which is said to last for 220 miles (354 km) on a full charge (which should take around five hours).
Given the old school Range Rover technology and the particularities of a full EV conversion, one can imagine it wasn’t exactly a walk in the park to arrive at the current zero-emissions conclusion. After all, the company itself notes it had to embark on a “2,200-hour luxury design experience, (...) creating a state-of-the-art 3D rendering and completely stripping down, transforming and modernizing the client’s Range Rover Classic while staying true to its original look and heritage.”
The result, well, is both elegant and breath-taking, especially if you sift through the footage available below to check out the Range Rover as it silently takes advantage of its newly sustainable powertrain credentials.
Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution. Full profile
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