Aren’t we all responsible for the rapid pollution of the world? That was the question with us in 2015.
We are a based in the Netherlands and we have a long time focus on clean technologies for automotive and maritime drives. We have built since 2005 biofuel gensets (based on Fiat/Lancia) and hybrid electric drives for boats. Until today, we have the cleanest gensets in the world.
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 electric truck, because I have one”. We have studied and debated every technical possibility for one year before engineering started.
And not only for Land Rovers, but for all brands …
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. It’s as simple as that. And this converting to EV market is big and is growing every day.
With this in mind, we lumped all our technical knowledge together and started debating, drawing and calculating how we could do this job in the smartest way possible. For a lot of money, surely anyone can make something no? To just replace the fuel engine with an electric motor is stupid and expensive. Our approach is completely different.
The company e-Rovers combines innovation with environmental awareness through their self-developed universal electric axle(s), which integrates perfectly into existing powertrains of off road vehicles, not only Land Rovers.
We change an existing offroad car by designing a new electric powertrain for it.
That’s forgivable. But developing a whole new platform electrically is a very expensive idea. Tesla stuggled for 15 years. Many new companies with initiatives to build a new electric car make the common mistake that this is a nearly impossible task. We saw several companies stumble on it tremendously (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?
And no brand is going to market a strong off-road 100% electric car for the time being that can drive through a ditch, up a steep mountain, stow a dead animal in the back or tow a heavy trailer.
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, a big difference. 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 a offroad car with a purpose, a task, 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.
Is an OEM going to make these in the near future? NO. Very expensive? YES.
(OEM = original equipment manufacturer like Toyota, VW, JLR (JaguarLandRover).
When did we actually fall in love with off-road riding?
Innitiator: “1974. 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 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)
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. About us, this design is about us.
(SRM= switched reluctance motor) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switched_reluctance_motor
Our factory teams are based 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. And knowledge continues to be shared.
The initiator learned to sail at the age of 5, being at sea for a long time teaches you to interact differently with your surroundings. A great hero is Ellen: in 2005, Ellen MacArthur became the fastest solo sailor to sail around the world.
https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/about-us/ellens-story
e-MARINE
Our run-up history before starting e-rovers. The company EcoEngines (the innitiator of e-Rovers) started in 2005 with hybrid propulsion systems for ships. The bio-hybride + electric drive is designed for commercial taxiboats. To save money and at the same time 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. In this, we have extensive experience and built our own systems, so the step to offroad cars turned out to be small.
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.