A UK-based consortium has been perfecting the in-wheel motors that could represent a step-change in EV packaging and production. Mark Tisshaw drives a modified Defender and finds out more
E lectromods are not to everyone’s taste, it would be fair to say. Take this Land Rover Defender: shorn of all its traditional drivetrain hardware – driveshafts, transfer cases, engine, differential locks – is it even a Defender at all any more?
Yet this is an electromod with a difference, because it previews some very real and very relevant technology that could transform electric cars in particular and vehicle design more generally.
The Defender 110 conversion is the work of the Farnham-based Bedeo Group, which comprises battery maker and electric vehicle integration specialist Bedeo and electric motor maker Protean Electric. But it’s the Protean part of this story that’s most intriguing, as four of the firm’s in-wheel motors are fitted to this Defender-based rolling technological showcase.
The perceived primary benefit of such motors is the far more precise control of each wheel they offer, and that’s true of them here in this Defender. Yet those benefits are secondary in the long run, as in-wheel motors pave the way for a revolution in architecture design. They would allow car makers to do away with axles, driveshafts and subframes, in turn reducing overall mass and therefore cost because smaller batteries can be fitted and packaged in such a way that needn’t make the EV so tall. Put simply, in-wheel motors help cars get lighter, smaller and cheaper.
The only telltale sign of the revolution here is behind the 18in wheels of this Defender. What looks like a fancy wheel design is actually the motor, which houses the inverter in the same unit.
Each motor produces 80bhp and 479lb ft, but software limits power and torque to below 50% of those outputs, lest the Defender becomes undrivable. Still, the 0-62mph time is a very respectable 10.0sec and the top speed is 80mph.
The 75kWh battery is fitted between the chassis rails where some of the original running gear was stripped out. The quoted range is 153 miles, and a standard 22kW charger is fitted with a 50kW fast charger optional. Due to how much running gear has been stripped out, the weight gain is said to be nominal even accounting for the large battery pack.
It’s been a while since I drove an old Defender, and what I remember of it most is the noise.
