Electric Land Rover Defender Shows How To Age A Classic Car Gracefully

Despite the Tesla

TSLA
powertrain hiding inside, you’ll never mistake this converted Range Rover Classic for one of Elon Musk’s 21st century rides. And that’s part of the charm for the team behind the build, ECD Automotive Design. Based in Kissimmee, Florida but with roots in the UK, ECD imports classic Land Rover models and then refurbishes them with new engines and, well, pretty much anything else. ECD recently expanded its powertrain options to include a zero-emission electric powertrain. Meet Project Ski.

Each vehicle ECD works on gets its own name when it’s finished, but the 50 or so employees refer to the vehicles by the future owner’s names as they go through the year-plus build process. This is one example of the intimate relationship the small company forms with its customers and why people are more than happy to plunk down at least $190,000 for a “new” classic Land Rover. That’s just the starting point, though, as the average vehicle ECD builds is outfitted with around $54,000 in upgrades, and prices can climb to over $360,000, if you load it up with almost every possible option. Going electric adds $45,000 to the price. Since ECD only builds around 60 refurbished vehicles each year, each one has to be done right and make the company money. It’s been working so far. The feeling I got during a visit to ECD was that it’s a company that figures things out as it goes along, and that’s just how the co-founders – Scott Wallace and brothers Tom and Elliot Humble – like it.

Close attention to customer wishes has allowed ECD to make a name for itself as it imports Land Rover chassis that are at least 25 years old (which qualify as classic vehicles in the U.S. and thus have fewer regulations, including safety rules, they must comply with) and then refurbishes them by hand at its Florida location.

The three men started ECD in 2012 kind of on a lark. They wanted to do bespoke, one-of-a-kind vehicles and have spent years now figuring out the best way to do that. It’s not easy, with Elliot sometimes needing to call on family members back home in the UK to pick up components he’s purchased on local Facebook groups and other times working with distributors to source official Land Rover parts. Since almost every vehicle is unique (ECD does build a “Signature” model for buyers who don’t want any customization), ECD releases hours of videos on YouTube showing how it builds these vehicles, along with short videos of each vehicle when it’s done. Wallace said even if you learn how ECD builds their conversions, you won’t be able to recreate it.

While most of ECD’s vehicles use gas-powered engines (they buy lots of LS3, LT4 and LT5 GM crate engines) ECD sources the powertrain components for its electric models not from Tesla directly but from Electric Classic Cars (ECC), another UK-based company with a love for keeping old-school cars on the road. Project Ski uses a 100-kW Tesla pack that offers around 220 miles of range. And a 450 horsepower motor for a 0-60 miles-per-hour time of 5.2 seconds.

Visually, the revamped Project Ski looks like it’s been kept in a climate-controlled garage since early in its original life, except when you notice all of the modern upgrades ECD added, like a back-up camera, bluetooth and Sirius XM

SIRI
connectivity for the JL Audio Alpine Halo 9 audio system. The exterior has been painted in glossy Alpine white with 18-inch Land Rover Boost 5-spoke wheels. Upgraded LED headlights add to the modern-yet-classic vibe. The seats are covered in Spinneybeck Pueblito tan leather and the gauges feature ECD’s own cluster designs.

Behind the Wheel

During my visit to ECD, I was able to take a short test drive in Project Ski, which proved that one of the challenges ECD has with these EV conversions is to make sure buyers enter the process with the right mindset. Anyone who’s driven gotten behind the wheel of a modern electric vehicle knows they’re silent and smooth. The Project Sky Land Rover is none of these things. This is still a 1995 vehicle, after all, and ECD intentionally kept the bulky “farm vehicle” character even as it converted the powertrain. The noise and clunky vibrations prove you’re not driving a Tesla, but there is still a thrill in powering this much old metal using a futuristic drivetrain. It doesn’t handle like a breeze, but just like ECD’s business model, sometimes things are more enjoyable when they present a bit of a challenge.

ECD has another ten or so electric conversions on its build schedule. Every month, more and more customers say they are interested in an electric Land Rover. One of the upcoming EVs is a Series 2 that will have two forward facing seats in front and four benches in the back in order to seat 8 people. Elliot Humble said the challenge will be to reconfigure how the battery pack fits in this vehicle given those seating requirements.

“Tom’s really good at selling before we’ve quite figured out the details,” Elliot told me. If the last decade has proven anything, it’s that ECD will make it happen, somehow.