We are a based in the Netherlands and we have a long time focus on clean technologies. We have built since 2005 biofuel gensets (based on Fiat/Lancia) and hybrid drives for bigger boats.
We started this Project Electric in 2015 with one question: “How would I convert my own offroader to electric without spending a lot of money? Not buying a new one electric, because I have one“.
We have studied and debated every technical possibility for one year before engineering started in 2016. We went the hard way, for the smartest solution with the highest return (or efficiency) battery to the road: range to used kWu. And by far the most difficult thing to design. The strong e-motor we need was not for sale. Neither was an axle that the e-motor could be mounted in. All the shafts and diffs broke because of the force of the e-motor. But designing a universal electric axle for all 4×4 cars, would that be possible? That idea kept us going.
All 4 team members has experiences gained in yachting, hydraulics, general constructions, classic (racing) cars and developing hybride drives. A hybrid that uses a combination of different technologies for propulsion. We have roughly added up 165 years knowledge and all team members completing many different projects. At the same time we all continued driving 4×4 off road and racing cars, towing trailers and smelling mud.
To convert a fuel offroad car to electric is the closest thing to clean and a highly circular way. 4/5th of the car remains. It’s as simple as that. And the converting market is worldwide and growing every day. Is a Tesla or VW id3/4 or a Volvo EV go off road? No. (even an electric Volvo 4×4 Estate is not a car usuable for the real off road work) and expensive.
With this in mind, we lumped all our technical knowledge together and started debating, drawing and calculating how we could do this job. For a lot of money, surely anyone can make something no? To just replace the fuel engine with an electric motor is halfway and expensive too. Each car then needs separate development, because no one is the same. We don’t have that. Our approach is completely different. We explained that on the 1st page.
“But in the quest of the past decade, we did test all the components and made relevant showcases out of them” says innitiator.
At the factory we only adjust the track width and type of brakes and the attachment of the shock absorbers and (air-) springs. Tailor made. You only need to mount the set and make room for it. (fuel engine and gearboxes out etc). No costly development needed. That has already been done solidly.
We change an existing offroad car by designing a new electric powertrain for it.
Developing a whole new platform (electric) is a very expensive and financially risky. Tesla stuggled for 15 years for a simple 2 wheel drive platform. Many new companies with initiatives to build a new electric car make the common mistake. We saw several companies stumble. (2x Fisker, Lightyear, Canoo, Lordstown, Electric Brands, Arrival etc). And only Rivian and Lucid are still (a sort off) alive, with severely diminished value. All Chinese e-cars are heavily subsidized, do they make profit? Not on a commercial way.
And no brand is going to produce a strong off-road 100% electric car that can drive through a ditch, up a steep mountain, stow a dead animal in the back or tow a heavy trailer. This market is simply too small for costly development.
But: municipalities are introducing zero-emission zones to improve air quality in those areas and reduce CO2 emissions. If you ever visit a municipality that is going to introduce a zero-emission zone, you will encounter these zones. And be stopped.
e-Rovers philosophy
We at e-Rovers, do not make an offroad car at all and are also far from here. We only make a smart electric axle set that can be bolted under any 4×4 car. Old or new, or even built in the future. We are in a different part of making. We want to give thousands offroad cars (or 4×4 trucks called in USA) a second life and run clean on electricity only. To just start scrapping all those 4×4 trucks is also not a smart thing to do. They are still in excellent condition. Use this offroad car to re-use with the appearance of the original version.
You (owners) bought such an offroad car/truck with a purpose, a task, sometimes a way of life. That reason remains. Governments have no choice but to have a strong 4×4 trucks to easily perform their government task well. How many cars do they own? Plenty. (all dirty diesels!)
Is an OEM going to make these clean in the near future? This can take 15 years ore more. Change now to EV, do not wait. Spending 15 years on buying fuel, leaking oil, maintenance. Our EV re-pays within 6 years or quicker.
(OEM = original equipment manufacturer like Toyota, VW, JLR (JaguarLandRover).
“New, innovative techniques are destroying the old. On sustainable finance. The financial sector must raise the bar when it comes to greening our economy”. (Barbara Baarsma, Change.Inc 2024)
Green investing has the wind against it
In the Netherlands and Europe we do promote the start-up climate, but leave companies in the crucial scale-up phase to their own devices. No money, no inprovements. The Ministries of Climate everywhere, now supposedly committed to “green growth,” has a minimal or no vision for a future-proof economy. It is bizarre that companies that contribute to a sustainable economy do not get the support they need. Do talk all day and leave the moneybag closed. You in governments, pull this together, think of your grandchildren. Step forward.
Convert your existing fuel 4×4 vehicles to clean electric now this year. Order from e-Rovers or others. You can also lease with us with 100.000km warranty, You don’t need your OEM for that anymore, adjust your rules. Today. From small green businesses like us, comes the greatest growth.
This angry and confrontational piece is deliberately put down, we already notice since 2018 the free thinking is no longer there: “I’m not allowed to think foreward, so it doesn’t happen”. While all of us in the world do see it happening. Nature has been hitting back hard and unrelentingly for a few years now: floods, fires, poison on the land, methane you name it. It’s not going well with the world. Think like a 12 year old child: “that’s stupid daddy, we’re going to do something about it immediately”. That child pays the bill for what we fail to do today. This is about us. We have made our contribution.
Our team invested 400K privately without outside help since 2016. Now we are looking for money to produce on a large scale.
When did we actually fall in love with off-road riding?
Innitiator: “1977, a First Love in 4×4 driving was a petrol Land Rover 88inch, Series 3. During those early days, horsepower and comfort needed upgrades to our Defenders and soon petrol/gpl V8 Range Rovers came up. The 4×4 trial sport challenges on difficult terrain also began to take shape. A large army training ground nearby made testing & fun easier. Improving our Land Rovers every day, because offroad driving gives more freedom and you are closer to nature. And fun to do”.
Than this popped out: the rapid deterioration of the air and nature. The first reports came as early as 1982: Shell knew, BP knew, they all knew ?
Around 2010, the first media came out that there had been reports (by Shell) since 1982 about how bad the pollution actually is. A scandal.
“Until we stop burning fossil fuels, the climate will continue to warm and heat waves will become more frequent and intense. It’s as simple as that” (Quote Frederieke Otto, climate scientist, april 2024)
This causes the temperature to rise, not in 1 million years, that has happened before, but in 125 years. There is the point that petrolheads just don’t want to understand.
Our future plans were changing rapidly because of this. Our plans shifted and because we were already in the R&D of clean gensets and hybrid drives for boats, the step to electrify our own Land Rover was easy.
Modus Operandi e-Rovers convertion
The electrical axel we designed consists of a number of parts that cannot be bought, such as the basic electric SRM motor. So we develop & make them ourselves. For this, we use existing techniques that can be made in special factories in the Netherlands. We designed new lightweight aluminium axles that replace your old axles with differentials. Hidden in the middle is our electric drive unit. We explained on page one.
(SRM= switched reluctance motor) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switched_reluctance_motor
Our factory teams are based in the Netherlands, in the automotive area Eindhoven (south) and on the shores of the sea area Den Helder and Breezand (north). Were fishermen, the slowly declining off-shore industry and the increasing Dutch Navy has its roots. Many specialised construction companies around. The only part we developed specifically for the axle is the SRM electric motor. The new axle itself and all its accessories are actually a copy of existing methods. The American team is based near New York (the Hamptons) selling our sets for USA & Canada and collecting the dealers network.
From the final testing and assembly point (Den Helder) we are sending the sets all over the world. The original team of 4 is now divided into hydrogen electric construction for cranes and the e-Rovers project electric. Knowledge continues to be shared in the teams.
The initiator learned to sail at the age of 5, being sailing at sea teaches you to interact differently with your surroundings. A great hero is Ellen MacArthur: in 2005 Ellen became the fastest single-handed sailor to sail around the world. And female, won from the guys. Read her story and thoughts about the envirement:
https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/about-us/ellens-story
e-MARINE
The history before starting e-Rovers: the company EcoEngines started in 2005 designs for hybrid propulsion systems, primarily for ships. Our bio-fuel-hybride-electric drive is designed for commercial taxiboats. To save money (4/5th less refueling) and producing less pollution in crowded cities (such as Venice, Amsterdam, Berlin). Cruising slowly on batteries is easy, anyone can do it. We speed at 28 knots for 30 minutes (including 8 people and luggage). Only 15% comes from our bio-fuel generator, 85% is electricity (solar/wind). We have extensive experience and built our own systems, the step to offroad cars turned out to be very small. More about our projects, page contact & dealers.
In the next few years it is forbidden to burn fuel in city’s
What we liked befor 2005
Baby Bootlegger, originally used a 1.000 cubic-inch V-12 Lycoming aircraft WW1 engine, replaced by a water-cooled Hispano-Suiza V-8 aircraft converted to a marine engine, producing 300Hp. Designed by George Crouch in 1924, built by Henri Nevins. Won the Gold Cup in 1924 and 1925.
Read about our solar electric boat in 2006 on the last page.
Ownership
We believe in taking full ownership and responsibility in every aspect of our work. Our most remarkable achievements come from teams that embrace this mindset. The idea is to empower our people with the right conditions to own their projects and ultimately, drive success.
Change the drive, not the car. There is no planet B.
Nobel Prize laureate in 1903 (we knew it 125 years ago)
We are already experiencing the effects of global warming that scientists predicted, from the loss of sea ice to more intense heat waves. But the idea that Earth’s ground temperature is influenced by heat-absorbing gases in the atmosphere was first calculated by a Nobel Prize laureate.
Svante Arrhenius was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1903 for proposing that salt splits into positive and negative ions that can conduct electricity when dissolved in water. However he also made a lasting impact on climate science. More than 100 years ago, he was the first to investigate the effect that doubling atmospheric carbon dioxide would have on global climate, which remains a focus for scientists today. Learn more about Svante Arrhenius https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1903/arrhenius/facts/
