1973 Series 3 Land Rover Electric Conversion

1973 Series 3 Land Rover Electric Conversion

This 1973 SWB Series 3 Land Rover came to Traction EV running, road-worthy and registered with a 2.25L Petrol engine. The body and chassis were in fair condition having been quickly restored on a budget by the previous owner. Perfect vehicle for an electric conversion!

The SWB was weighed prior to removal of any original parts and tipped the scales at 1550kg with a very surprising 50/50 weight bias front to rear. We removed and weighted the engine and wow, what a hefty engine for only 2.25L. Britain had tax brackets related to engine capacity, so many engines designed around this time had long lazy stroke to give maximum torque from minimal capacity. So this engine weighed over 200kg giving us lots of weight to work with when adding the electric motor and some battery pack into the engine bay.

Two more battery boxes were fitted into the factory fuel tank locations under both front seats. The new battery boxes fit nicely and give maximum ground clearance while keeping the centre of gravity central to the vehicle.

The final weight of the converted SWB came in at exactly 1500kg with its original 50/50 weight bias maintained.

Our electric Land Rover conversion also got a nice electric power-steering upgrade which makes turning the 31” tyres while parking or manoeuvring over tight terrain a breeze. An electric vacuum pump with an accumulator tank was added to the factory brake servo-booster to maintain factory braking performance, on top of the the regen-braking from the electric motor.

Off-Throttle Regen-Braking is adjustable via a repurposed factory Land Rover dash switch which allows the driver to set either free coasting, low regen or high regen.

The NetGain HyPer 9 motor is mated to the original transmission which has High/Low range 4WD. The smooth torquey power delivery from zero RPM makes this 4WD a very capable machine in the rough terrain. It’s so nice to play off-road and not have to rev the engine and slip the clutch to climb over obstacles. Just press the throttle and the perfect amount of torque is available to smoothly climb with-out spinning the tyres or cooking the clutch.

Charging is done via a standard Type 2 charge port which fits exactly into the factory fuel filler location without any cutting required whatsoever. Discovering this made our day! Charging this electric Land Rover conversion can be done anywhere – at home, a friend’s house or from public chargers.