Test Drive: ECD’s All-Electric Land Rover Defender, Project Britton

Despite the near-endless customization possibilities when you order a bespoke, restored Land Rover Defender from ECD Automotive Design, some things are unchangeable. Recently, I was able to get behind the wheel of the company’s new all-electric conversion, a Cool Grey Khaki Defender 110 powered by a Tesla

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motor and battery called Project Britton, and discovered again the inescapable truth that these are heavy, old-school models that never imagined they’d be able to move without burning fuel.

This is actually a good thing, because if you want a lightweight, modern electric vehicle, you’re not shopping at ECD. But if you like the chunky, clunky style of these old farm vehicles – and plenty of people do, based on the company’s filled order books for the $250,000-and-up restorations – then the combination of smooth electric power and classic looks is hard to pass up.

Because, really, the fun of ECD’s electric defenders is in the quirkiness. Fusing today’s technology with decades-old vehicle bodies means some level of disconnect between what components were designed for and how they’re being used. A 25-year-old Land Rover, even one that was recently restored, will be a bit loud and clanky. But that’s part of the charm. Performance-wise, no one who buys an electric Defender from ECD will be disappointed, as long as they know what they’re getting into. Because project Britton is a hoot. On the roads around ECD’s Florida headquarters, Project Britton was easily able to show off the instant torque of its electric motor at stoplights or when passing other vehicles. An electric Defender isn’t as quiet as, say, the new Ford F-150 Lightning, but the an Land Rover retrofitted to operate with a Tesla powertrain is an experience unto itself: strong, powerful and fun.

Before getting to drive an electric Defender in the real world, ECD invited me to digitally build my own dream model. I played around and added pretty much every possible option to my digital electric Defender, something that’s easy to do when you know you’re not actually going to have to pay for all of these options. I ended up with a bright beast covered in metallic McLaren Azores Orange exterior paint and Santorini Black on the roof and wheel spats that would theoretically work out well on overlanding adventures thanks to a roof rack, a Baja Designs light bar and a 10,000-pound winch. I choose the electric powertrain instead of one of ECD’s gasoline engine options, of course, and added air suspension and Brembo brakes.

ECD is relentless in its documentation efforts, which fits perfectly with the company’s attention to customer communication. Every vehicle the company builds gets it own photo and video series. Nowadays, the visualization process starts before any single part is built. ECD has a new digital rendering service powered by the Unreal video game engine that will let buyers see their vehicle as soon as they spec it out. You can see mine above. ECD hopes to turn this service, which currently needs to be done one-on-one with a specialist, into an online configurator that customers can play with, similar to what major automakers offer on their websites.

ECD doesn’t simply try to place the Tesla powertrain into a Defender chassis with the pieces in the same places as they are in the original EV. In a Tesla, the motors are in line with the axles, but in the Defenders, the motor is placed in the middle of the vehicle, rotated 90 degrees, which allows one unit to power the front and rear wheels.

Another recently completed customer vehicle is Project Morpheus, a Defender 110 in Aries Blue with seating for eight and 18-inch Kahn wheels. It’s the latest in a string of 15 electric Defenders ECD hopes to complete by the end of the year.

ECD is expanding to accept more customer orders. The company’s current location in Kissimmee, Florida used to make about four cars a month, but demand has pushed that to an average of 4.8 and the location has become too small to grow the number of vehicles ECD wants to build in the years ahead. To that end, a new, larger production facility is being constructed around a mile away from the current space that will allow the vehicles to be run through in one continuous line (instead of the constant in and out that the teams have to do now with the bay system that ECD uses. The new facility will also have a showroom and a place to host ECD drivers for events. Extra space for warranty service and buy-back vehicles and electric vehicle fast chargers are also in the works. ECD’s 60-plus employees will start moving their workstations to the new location in April 2022, a process the company expects to take two months.