Land Rover begins public trials of electric Defender
Land Rover's Electric Defender has started work at the Eden Project near St Austell in Cornwall in an inaugural real-world trial of its capabilities. Unveiled at this year's Geneva Motor Show, the Land Rover Electric Defender is a pioneering research project into the electrification of an all-terrain vehicle.
The Electric Defender is in line with Land Rover's experimentation of sustainability technologies, just like the move to aluminum platforms in the latest all-new Range Rover and Range Rover Sport as well as the forthcoming Range Rover hybrid products. The vehicle is a laboratory-on-wheels to develop new ideas, and investigate 4x4 electrification in a real-world environment.
The Defender 110 Pick Up, dubbed the 'All terrain Electric Research Vehicle,' has full all-terrain capability, permanent 4WD and a top speed of 70 mph. The electric SUV is being used to transport visitors at the Eden Project by towing a four-carriage12-tonne road train that carries up to 60 passengers up a 6 percent incline. The vehicle has been designed to perform its duties through 8 hours before being recharged over night.
"We're very pleased to be working with Land Rover on this exciting project. It will be a great talking point for our visitors and proves that electric vehicles can be every bit as tough and rugged as their fossil fuel counterparts, while being much quieter, cheaper to run and with zero emissions at the point of use," said Gus Grand, Climate Change Lead at the Eden Project.