If you're looking for a retrofit kit that can provide your favourite classic car or off-roader with battery power, look no further. Bedeo, the British-based electric vehicle supplier, has come up with a handy answer. They call it Reborn Electric and the idea is that you can keep - to use their ready-to-go example - your classic Land-Rover Defender without dispensing with your green conscience or any of the Landie's off-road ability. The gain is silent, pollution free running to please the most demanding of inner-city zones. That's a win already for the retrofit kit in our eyes, and there's more.
Key is that the retrofit kit involves no less than four electric motors, each mounted on a wheel hub, a first for classic to electric transformations, says the company. Bedeo’s Land Rover Defender, converted with their retrofit kit and pictured here, features a 75 kWh battery and a 22 kW onboard charger allowing, says Bedeo's Osman Boyner, a real-world range of 153 miles. That's more than enough for a bit of light mud-plugging after picking up the sheep from the farm and some supplies from the local store, which after all is what a Defender was designed to do.
And that's the other key. That none of the Defender's abilities are lost with this retrofit kit. Kerb weight - remarkably given the sheer heft of all that's needed for electrification generally - remains the same. "Zero tailpipe emissions, zero noise," says Boyner, ticking off the advantages of his retrofit kit, "and the preservation of the nostalgic, classic driving experience we all cherish, now brought into the 21st Century without sacrificing its essence or adding unnecessary, bulky weight."
Truth is your Reborn Electric Defender, with its retrofit kit, is likely to have a nifty advantage over a standard fossil-fuelled model. Acceleration will almost certainly be faster and off-road the instantly-there power that is an electric vehicle speciality will really pay off when that hillock turns out to be a little steeper than you might have imagined. Just remember to alert any hill sheep that you’re on the way up, because progress will be silent.
Concerned about putting your beloved classic into unlikely hands? Worry not. You might not have heard of them, but Bedeo have the track record to achieve all of this. If your groceries are delivered by electric van, for example, it's likely to be a Bedeo conversion. While there are more than a few classic to electric offerings around, there are none from a company with a pedigree like Bedeo's - and they're the first to happen on the idea of using wheel hub electric motors in a retrofit kit. As for us, we're converted to the cause of this electric conversion. Now, where's the nearest hill?
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