I drive a 110; my wife drives a Tesla. It’s not religion or politics. There are enough EVs on the road to produce hard data.

I can’t speak to the cost of charging in Norway, but in Pennsylvania where we live, charging the Tesla costs only 41% per mile of added range compared to adding gasoline to a similarly sized ICE vehicle. I did the math based on our real cost per kWh from our electric bill, and the real price per gallon to add equivalent range to a Ford Escape (pretty close to our Model Y). Happy to show my math if anyone is interested.

Here in the US, at today’s gas and electricity prices, “filling” an EV is a bargain. Add in the lack of maintenance expense, and the fact that Chevrolet sells the Bolt for less than $30k, and the EV has by far the cheapest total lifecycle cost*.

The asterisk is for towing, hauling, and off roading, where range of an EV is drastically decreased compared to an ICE. One reviewer took a Wrangler 4xe to the limit of its battery off road (a real trail, aired-down tires, etc). Battery-only range on pavement is 24 miles. On dirt he went just over 10 miles before the battery was depleted.


Which is why I bought a Defender instead of a Grand Cherokee 4xe. I love the idea of cheap electrons to run my errands around town, but the battery is heavy and doesn’t add much range in the places I want to take the Defender on weekends.

Technology is advancing rapidly in this space. The future VW Scout EV should be interesting. But it may be a while before an EV Defender can go the places the ICE ones can. For the 22” wheel crowd, though, buy the EV Defender as soon as you can. You’ll be laughing at the V8s in your clearsight rear view mirror.

 

I would never replace my V8 for an all electric defender regardless of its acceleration. Have you ever heard a blown JLR V8? Magnificent.

 

I woulda been interested in a hybrid Defender (not the MHEV that I have), but a true hybrid to give me added range around town.

That said, I can't see most Defender owners wanting full electric due to EV range when overlanding, using the Defender in what I imagine are largely very fuel inefficient ways (rock crawls, getting it stuck in the mud, climbing hills through the woods, etc.). This lays no mention to the inevitable much poorer performance in terms of range when towing (which they aren't going to disclose those figures). Plenty of good youtube videos on the engineering reasons behind why EV suffers compared to ICE in this scenario. This is why I pulled my Cybertruck pre-order earlier than most - not mentioning the whole never gonna come out thing

I think this path of full electrification makes sense for Range Rover, Discovery, Evoque, etc., who could very well spend their entire lives on pavement and in-range of a plug, but I suspect most of us Defender owners prefer to drive our ICE Defenders with a couple of gas cans strapped to it when it comes to off-roading, towing, and being a weekend warrior.

 

Here in CT most if not all the Defender drivers I have seen have been soccer moms. They might be the right demographic for an EV Defender. The Defender is a real status symbol for a lot of owners.

 

Great perspective. Just shows you can have your cake and eat it, too. Burger King said it first, ‘Have It Your Way. We all make our choices in life, and you didn’t go left or right at the fork, you took both routes. Commendable. The choice of someone’s ride should be neither political nor religious, but there will always be a few bashers out there. My only religious connection to my Defender is when I sing it’s praises to the high heavens. And worship it’s looks and drivability.

 

What I'm interested in from an electric Defender would be increased offroad capability due to 4 motors, one driving each wheel (is that what they are going to do??) -- thereby eliminating or changing the entire game on differentials, transfer cases, transmissions. These cars like our Defenders have so many pieces of technology just to put power where it needs to go, software to control mechanical things... and my incredibly uninformed layman's perspective is that... the idea of direct virtually limitless controlled torque/power at each wheel is incredibly exciting. I think it's what Rivian does ... but I haven't driven one of those offroad yet.

Right? Wouldn't that be cool?