Ian M in France
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I have a customer with a Tesla He has used it to come from London to Here about 700 miles, normally range about 300 miles but with bikes on the roof and full it was down to a bit over 150 miles, now you can not drive until flat then plug it in where you stop , you have to plan so you stop at the right place to charge it so it could be you only get to do a bit over 120 miles between charges,A few weeks ago I would have agreed with most of that, but when you actually look into it EV's are the future. Like it or not. There will still be diesel HGV's, tractors and plant but I think surprisingly quickly we'll all be driving electric cars.
Regarding the gear ratios I don't know the answer, on paper the electric motors deliver so much torque at such low revs, (from zero in fact) that a low box might not be required. But some conversions have kept the T Box. For towing which I do a lot of, torque is key, and for off roading which I do a fair bit of too (at work rather than in competition). The best landy engine I had previously was the 2.8TDI that Motor and Diesel used to import, that developed peak torque at 1400RPM which was awesome off road. But an EV will be way better than that so it should be really good. I think with the right diff ratios and the right motors (I'm thinking two) you could go from crawling over rocks to motorway speeds without any need to change gear. I may be wrong about this though.
You're right, it won't be cost effective. But the best things rarely are.
If you took the same set up and fitted it to a car with the aerodynamics of a defender and the extra weight of the batteries you will get under 100 miles out of it , enjoy the defender as it should be we might not have the chance for much longer would be my advice