I guess it will cut down on the oil leaks,........OK it fast 0-60 in 4 seconds, but it will empty your bank account faster...

 

If this becomes ubiquitous, expect straight bodied and rust free D2s to be worth a mint. I’ll be honest and I’d buy another D2 to try this, but it would be a long term project and I’d need the extra money to do it…

 

220hp would be completely fine with me. It would cut the maintenance cost significantly and improve the reliability a lot. The short range is the only drawback. Therefore I would prefer a small battery + generator making it a full hybrid. 20 miles electric range would be enough to run errands around town. On longer trips I "recharge" the old fashioned way with the benefit of getting better gas mileage through recuperative braking.

 

I actually ran across this a few days ago. Very interesting…D2 version shouldn’t be too difficult. Anyone know the cost. Don’t remember them mentioning.

 

Its quoted as a starting price of £69,000 then the sky's the limit

 

69,000 pounds strikes me as about right. It appears they will only sell to shops (ECD being their US option).

There’s nothing cheap about a decent electric conversion. I think prices will come down some for the parts, but not as much as people think. The complexity would be significantly harder for the D2 electrical systems versus Defender. I still have some significant qualms about using the Tesla motor sideways for off-roading because it appears to be basically like running an LT230 with a open center diff with traction control (albeit Tesla has better torque vectoring, but it is still reactive instead of proactive, and it is unclear how well torque vectoring actually works in a swap). Nevertheless, from what I’ve read, it will not be as good as a locked center diff.

I think the much more reasonable approach is probably the upcoming Ford or GM electric crate motors straight to the LT230. The Ford one is about the size of the transmission and makes around 300 hp. Batteries have to get better for me to consider that though, as the range is still lackluster. A plug-in hybrid would be an interesting idea as well. Regardless, at these current electric price points, I could do several LS swaps, so I doubt we see many of these for a while.

 

The most expensive parts are the batteries. When prices come down, such a solution will become cheaper. But full electric in this type of car is nonsense imho. 150 miles despite this large 100kWh don't get you far. It had to be hybrid. There are compact, efficient turbo diesel engines, probably half the size and weight of the V8. 150hp would be sufficient, since you can get additional 70hp from the battery for peak loads. The Tesla diff is open, but there are modified gears used to reduce the gear reduction, otherwise the speed would be limited to about 60mph. If they can modify the diff, then it should be possible to add a locker. The Tesla motor/diff unit is not as expensive, since they come from total loss cars. Even after 200k miles they are good and the gears are replaced anyway. To make it fit to the D2 electrical system, should not be too complicated. You mainly have to mimic a V8 to the ABS/TC/HDC with software. Emission control is the most complex electronic system in the D2, but it is deleted anyway.

 

lets not forget its now something you can no longer fix yourself with a few spanners

 

Plus, would it still be a Land Rover? Same goes for the LS swaps. Are they still Land Rovers, or are they just pretenders?