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The new Defender is now pointless


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How about an "offroad-first" vehicle that:

  • does 0-60 in 3 seconds
  • can tow 5 tons
  • has steep approach/departure angles
  • has 1000mm wading depth
  • has 360mm ground clearance
  • does 400 miles range
  • come as a pickup or station wagon
  • available in 2020-2021

Does that interest anyone?

(I will reveal a bit later)

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I too have an imaginary electric vehicle that will be 50% better than that one in every way and available in a few years time, honest.

https://jalopnik.com/comment-of-the-day-electric-truck-startup-edition-1831593898

Batteries still suck, I park on the street so can't charge anything at home, and the emperor's willy is showing.

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I'm clearly not the only one watching what's happening with electric vehicles 😉

The video below is what I watched. EV's have been advancing so much that they're close to a tipping point where it's win-win-win-win over ICE cars. This thing made me sit up and take note as it's essentially competing with the new Defender, and I thought "why would you buy the new Defender when there's this?".

I know it's all on paper, but so is the new Defender. Reliability, build quality, etc all have to be proven, but we know LR could get these aspects wrong too. They're also launching in the same year. For a lifestyle vehicle, it has produced some intriguing specs that will probably match the new Defender, yet it's full electric and has all that extra space that lifestyle buyers want (and the flip down seat!)

I watched this, not knowing it was coming and immediately thought of how out of touch LR seem to be. Couple that with all the recent jobs news....

 

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2 hours ago, FridgeFreezer said:

Hang on, from the other thread... if the new Defender is anything but a 200TDi and costs more than a Ford Fiesta people are going to be outraged and deride it as a flimsy lifestyle bauble, , yet a 70k all-electric thing is now cool?

Yeah, not at all biased on here is it :)

 

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4 hours ago, dailysleaze said:

The video below is what I watched. EV's have been advancing so much that they're close to a tipping point where it's win-win-win-win over ICE cars. This thing made me sit up and take note as it's essentially competing with the new Defender, and I thought "why would you buy the new Defender when there's this?".

The hype has advanced well beyond the reality unfortunately. If you can park it on your driveway to charge every night and don't do many long journeys then they're becoming viable - perhaps as city cars or for the school run.

As it is, they need a breakthrough on batteries which either increases the capacity 10x or reduces the charging time 10x to make them viable. All they're doing these days is getting gradually better at stuffing thousands of laptop batteries into the floor without the whole lot catching fire.

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I still won't buy one, or the new Defender, as won't most other luddites on here. Yet I would buy an EV right now if I didn't have a Defender.

It was interesting to me that it's come at a time when LR are still in the business of selling diesels and the eventual 4 year wait for the Defender has meant genuine competitors have come in from left field.

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4 hours ago, FridgeFreezer said:

The hype has advanced well beyond the reality unfortunately. If you can park it on your driveway to charge every night and don't do many long journeys then they're becoming viable - perhaps as city cars or for the school run.

As it is, they need a breakthrough on batteries which either increases the capacity 10x or reduces the charging time 10x to make them viable. All they're doing these days is getting gradually better at stuffing thousands of laptop batteries into the floor without the whole lot catching fire.

I couldn't agree more based on recent experience. I changed my company car to a Mitsubish Outlander PHEV (okay, it also has a petrol engine in it) purely to lower my tax code. The claims about this car were amazing, reality is exactly as described by FridgeFreezer. You hardly get any real range on all electric, it costs quite a bit to plug it in for just 25 miles range, takes ages to charge up but no time at all to drain. I would not buy one untill battery technology significantly improves.

Edited by monkie
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To be a viable replacement for petrol/diesel to me they need to have a ~400 mile range (with lights/wipers heaters etc. on), be fully rechargeable from empty in the time it takes to fill a normal car, be supported by a network of charging facilities as common as fuel stations are today, and have the same range at 10 years old that they do when new.

Theyre moving very quickly, but still a long way to go. I’ve just specced three electric cars for work, but only for inter-office travel. They’ll only be doing ~50 mile journeys but I’ve had to go for “400 mile range” models because of the need to allow for chargers nor working plus the reality of roads in highlands being hilly means the range is halved. Add in rain, wind, cold and the sales figures are soon nonsense.

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