e-Rovers is a small innovative Dutch company, operating at the intersection of sustainable mobility, smart engineering and big supporter of the circular economy. The result is our own design 3-in-1 electric powerhouse. We develope and manufacture this in the Netherlands. Such a powerhouse was not available anywhere in the world. We are a factory and undependent. We think Funding is not an end in itself. First, make sure you have the basics in place. Product first. We do. But always bear in mind that, at a later stage, you will need to convince investors of your vision to grow faster.
Since 2015, we have been searching for an available electric motor that we could mount in the axle. But there wasn’t: too big, too heavy, too little or too much power, so we had to gave up or … we had to design one ourselves. So we did.
An impossible reflection
A difficult dilemma for every off-road driver. In 20 years’ time, we’ll have to scrap all our 4x4s; they’re simply too polluting. The world is burning up, there is no planet-B. We love the sound of a V8 engine or a powerful turbo diesel. We enjoyed since 1975.
Or can we keep our off-road vehicles, but convert them to electric? No sounds...
As a team, we have a third perspective: “why should we throw away good cars? Surely that’s a massive waste”.
Think carefully about these claims. What would you do if combustion engines were simply banned in the years to come? Our impact mission is to save as many of these sturdy cars from the scrapyard as possible, so to speak.
“Don’t confuse your mission with your value proposition. This is perhaps the most difficult concept for mission-driven companies to grasp. To scale successfully, you have to be competitive. That means, first and foremost, creating a very good product or an excellent service”. That is your value proposition, says Fairphone-ceo Raymond van Eck. (Change.inc june 2026).
We fully agree that combustion engines are simply no longer viable for all generations after us. We have a responsibility to nature, but also to the generations that follow us. That’s why we started designing a silent revolution back in 2015. We’ve created a very good product and an excellent service worldwide and the cost is affordable for everyone.
Is there a world wide market? We think so. As we mentioned on the first page: fuel offroad vehicles are no longer sustainable in the countryside. Check out Africa:
https://www.thelongrun.org/our-members More parcs around the world want electric driving. But how to fund? Can we find a group of people who are willing to contribute? Please get in touch.
The main issue is in Africa that those 4×4 cars, with 600,000 km/375,000 miles on the clock, are reaching the end of its useful & technical life. An engine, gearbox and two axles overhaul can be done for 20K, but that would mean another 30 years of burning fuel in the middle of nature reserves. How can we prevent this? Who?
A sturdy, reliable 4×4 EV isn’t available to buy. We’ve heard the story of a new hybrid Defender that broke down four times whilst out among lions and hippos… lovely. The Defender was sent back: unusable.
Start
In 2005, we launched EcoEnGines – as the name suggests, our aim was to develop eco-friendly solutions. The company was founded as a small, dedicated R&D team by the initiator. Originated from off-road drivers who started mud driving as a hobby back in 1982 using Land Rovers 88, Defenders and Range Rovers V8 later on. Going to trial competitions.
We changed our views after the ugly truths about the oil industry came to light. The Club of Rome also released alarming figures. We decided to focus on a larger global market: that of high-emission off-road vehicles. Driving environmental offences, so to speak.
After thorough research and market analysis during 2015, we were looking for a quick and easy way to convert all 4×4 fuels to electric power. We looked to find a powerful electric motor for inside the axle(s). That seemed to us the smartest design to create. The rest of the powertrain could be discarded (removed) and sent for re-use elsewhere (or melted). We mention this on page one.
Our core business changed into the development of a modular “retrofit” electric drive. For rugged offroad cars only, known as offroad workhorses (in USA called: trucks). Actually for ourselves, but now also available for purchase by anyone.
Company today
The business focus on easy electric conversion sets for everyone and stimulate circular economies. So help the carbon reduction together. And integrating some re-used batteries. We feel responsible for the next generations.
“If I truly believe that the fight to preserve nature is a matter of survival, but all I do is say this out loud, how far does that realisation actually go? Our team put more value on what people actually do than on what they claim to do, talk only. That penny dropped here in 2015” says the innitiator. e-Rovers was born. Please keep the scrap yards free of 4x4s.
History
We have been working in green industry developments for a long time. We have a strong focus on clean technologies, starting the company EcoEnGines bv. (Ltd) in 2005.
“I am doing this because this is my story, this is my need, this is my Europe. I want to be offroad mobile and not kill the planet, goals I think a lot of people share, and I want to show you can do it, buy our set, but that it could all be a whole lot better” the Innitiator.
We have designed and build biofuel gensets (based on Fiat/Lancia/Iveco/FPT), developed hybrid-electric drives (for small cargo ships, waste collection service) for the canals in Amsterdam, hybrid water taxis in Venice, run on solar power and are 2/3rds cheaper than the diesel-powered ones in terms of TCO (total cost of ownership, costs per mile) as for Berlin, EV-hybrid-citybusses in the UK and also experimented with flywheel technology (to store energy without a battery). And the use of bio polyester and hemp reinforcements instead of glass and plastic back in 2007. Designing tiny houses using only organic waste materials. Pressed into a thick, strong wall that you can quickly build like Lego blocks. We stopped doing this because governments continued to build the old way. Not giving us the space to set up projects to show what is possible. Not what was possible… The old polluting way.
We started this Project Electric with one question: “How would I convert my own V8 petrol/gpl Range Rover to a 100% electric one, without spending a lot of money?” To immediately head the joke about those Dutch people (we hate spending money).
So the project name e-Rovers was found immediately, while driving on the beach in the falling evening: we must protect nature now. We soon found like-minded people to get this project started in 2015.
The photograph was taken on Terschelling, an island in the north of the Netherlands bordering the North Sea in Europe. It is an UNESCO World Heritage Site and known for its tides, with a large part of it drying out twice a day. Ragning 500km/300miles from Den Helder Netherlands to Skagen northern Denmark.
Team
The team has experience in technical development processes and product validation. Our youngest academic is 28, our youngster in the team (mechatronics engineering). We are ambitious, collaborative, service-oriented and innovative and we think most of the time “outside the box”.
All team members have experiences gained offroads, enduro, in yachting, hydraulics, general metal constructions, classic (racing) cars and developing hybride drives. And hybrids that uses a combination of different technologies for propulsion or drivelines. We have roughly added up 135 years knowledge and all team members completing many different projects and studies. At the same time we continued driving 4×4 off road and racing cars, towing boat-trailers, horse trailers and smelling mud driving around offroad.
Our team was therefore ideally suited to invent something like this.
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.
Oops and shock
We are often asked this question: “when was the moment you realised that things were going wrong?” How we’ve shifted from relying on fossil fuels (petrolhead) to trying to be self-sufficient: drastically reducing your carbon footprint. Dirtydancing:
The first reports came as early as 1982: Shell knew, BP knew, they all knew ? (Bilderberg conferences have been addressing major global issues since 1954, started in the Netherlands and this year in Stockholm)
Drill baby Drill says USA today, but around 2005, the first media came out that there had been reports (by Shell) since 1982 about how bad the pollution actually is. A scandal.
How will Shell and BP earn their money in the future? “New oil and gas fields will never be profitable”. After years of climate resolutions, shareholder collective Follow This is changing tack. Let Shell and BP explain how they will remain profitable in a world with less oil and gas, says founder Mark van Baal. The question is whether oil companies share these concerns.
“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” (Frederieke Otto, climate scientist, april 2024).
“The climate problem is well known; stop burning fossil fuels now it’s time for solutions” says Bernice Notenboom, who has crossed deserts, reached the South Pole on skis, climbed Mount Everest, and worked for NASA and ESA. (Dutch newspaper Trouw, 11 October 2025).
The book
The book Abundance – subtitled The future is better than you think – first brought Van Son and his (then) fledgling denim label MUD-jeans to the public’s attention over ten years ago. “That book is about how the technology that has taken humanity so far can also help us move forward in the future. It got people thinking. The denim industry isn’t exactly the cleanest: can I help change the sector, and where do I need to be?”
Diesel offroad cars aren’t the cleanest; how can e-Rovers help change the sector?
e-MARINE
Drastically reducing your carbon footprint. We started designing and manufacturing cleaner drive systems back in 2005. Designing a hybrid propulsion systems, primarily for ships. Our biofuel-hybride-electric e-drive is designed for commercial taxiboats (Venice, Berlin, Amsterdam etc).
Saves the user money: three-quarters of their annual fuel costs. The investment pays for itself within two years. We can still supply this hybride, please enquire.
A good example is that in Venice, the local government pays for the fuel, not the taxi company. Strange, isn’t it? So millions of litres of diesel are burned every year in that beautiful stretch of sea. The world is often a strange place. This italian government could therefore save thousands of euros and achieve a 75% reduction in emissions. Calculate this over 15 years please.
So the step to electric conversion for strong offroad cars is not that big. The 4×4 market is very large, much larger than for ships. So we switched to offroad rugged cars.
e-Rovers innitiator
Why does this e-axel idea come from the Netherlands? Now a About-Us extra. Probably because we are a small country, with a large population, many polluting animals, too many tulips and a dirty industrial sector; we feel a strong need to protect the environment from the mindset of ‘making money at the expense of destroying nature’. Now, this will be a tough nut to crack, particularly for all the generations after us…
By cutting back and changing your mindset, we can quickly build up a strong resistance to this. Circular economy, the polluter pays, price increases for polluting activities. Trias-Economica. And together we can converting thousands of 4x4s that already exist (!) to electric and clean, making them free for the future. That is the reason behind the creation of e-Rovers. Will you join us?
Here you can see the initiator standing at the edge of the mudflat area; this is a (Unesco) stretch of natural sea-landscape that runs from Den Helder to Skagen. Twice a day, this area falls dry, making it the largest active tidal flat world-wide. This area is threatened by rising sea levels, caused by global warming. If you know half of the Netherlands lies below sea level (dikes). A real necessity, to act now. To many pigs, cows, chickens, goats, too much fuel, cars, glyphosate, roundup etc.) for a small country. (Dutch Total size 300x200km/190x125miles and 18 milion people)
This has turned us into activists. We are supporting all those nature lovers around the World: https://www.thelongrun.org/our-members
The Long Run society clearly shows that equipping all those parks with e-Rovers technology is a massive undertaking for an investor. The impact we were able to calculate is equivalent to eliminating the pollution levels of 22 cities the size of New York…
And it pays for itself because there’s no need to buy fuel or pay for maintenance. Isn’t that brilliant? Email us today with a financial proposal.
Petrolheads
Our team’s belief itself has changed over the past 20 years. We are demonstrating here that we have always been technically minded, certainly in the past as well. About us!
We used to be petrolheads too. The whole team. We dip into our own pockets. Here are some examples from the past. It is only fair to admit that we have also been huge polluters.
Rob Slotemaker racing his 550Hp Camaro V8 at the Zandvoort race track. The Dutch most famous racing driver, far ahead of Max Verstappen. I was racing myself and having fun in Alfa Romeo’s, FF1600, Oldsmobile V8 and Husqvarna enduro bikes during the 90ties. Speeding up wooden Hacker crafts V8 on lakes.
We loved 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:
Watching Racing Wooden & Classic boats with exotic names such as Pardon Me, Thunderbird, El Lagarto, Bootlegger, Peerless, Dolphin, Kitty Hawk, Belle Isle Bear Cats, My Sweetie, among others. In the 1930’s, the celebrated boats were named “The Steinway of Runabouts”. After the war this continued:
“As the Scriptures said in the past, carry on until it lasts…” quote Guido Moroni, friend of Bruno Bonini and Achille Castoldi (check wikipedia). Just put a V12 Ferrari petrol engine in it and off you go!
Our team changed in 2005, we “killed” the petrolhead in our brain.
Read about our EcoEnGines solar electric NoNoX boat we designed and built in 2006 on the last page.
To reflect
Food for thoughst: if a car was made in 1985, that car has saved 8 new cars from being made…. After all, almost everyone buys a new car every 5 years, don’t they? But the one from 1985 is still on the road. That’s 8,800 kilograms of new material (on average, a car weighs 1,100 kg).
But a car from 1985 uses 1 litre of petrol every 9 km. One from 2026 uses 1 litre every 16 km. Would that have been worth the 8,800 kg of new materials?
One more point that’s often overlooked: Land Rovers, Range Rovers and Toyota Land Cruisers tend to be kept on the road for much longer. After all, there’s always someone keen to restore them and put them back on the road. That’s why there are far more of them left than, say, a standard Opel or an average car. Those tend to disappear.
If e-rovers were to make just one exception…
An extreme example is the 1933 Rolls-Royce 20/25. Only 3,800 were ever made, but 80% of them are still on the road today…….. Some cars always find a new happy owner.
