Engineered by Dutch electronics specialists Plower, the Twisted EV Defender conversion effectively swaps out the standard car’s gearbox (upstream of the old-school four-wheel drive system) for a 268bhp electric motor, and fills the space where its engine and fuel tank would have otherwise been with liquid-cooled lithium ion batteries and power electronics.
If you have a T90 short-wheelbase car, you get 61kWh of battery capacity and an advertised 140 miles of range (and end up with a Defender that weighs about 300kg more than a combustion-engined 90). Go for a T110 instead and the battery pack rises to 81kWh, for more like 180 miles on a charge. However, neither version yet offers DC rapid charging. A 22kW three-phase AC charge is the fastest charging possible.
The rest of the car’s body, chassis, suspension and interior are upgraded to Twisted’s familiar and alluringly high standard – and in the T90 truck cab that we tested, the result was very smart indeed. Climbing up and getting comfortable in any Defender remains a bit of an undertaking. Even after Twisted’s cabin modifications and with its sports seats, you sit with limited room at the controls, squeezed in close to the driver’s door. It’s nothing Defender devotees won’t be used to, but it’s also your first clue that an electric drivetrain doesn’t turn this updated old-stager into something that’s much like any other EV you might have driven, whether around town, out of town, or anywhere else that it’s capable of going.
Driving the EV Defender is less physically taxing, in some respects, than a traditional Landy might be. However, the steering is still heavy and slow geared (despite working through a smaller rim than most Defenders have); the turning circle, even in a short-wheelbase version, remains poor when manoeuvring; the low-speed ride is often rough and clunky; and at higher speeds, in spite of Twisted’s best efforts at improved cabin sealing, the car is a feast of wind noise and road roar. Instead of really making for a more refined car, taking the combustion engine out of Defender actually just makes you realise how many other sources of noise and commotion there have always been in one. Not that, if you like these cars, you’ll likely mind much.
Is it fast? Honestly, not nearly as quick as you might expect of something with a motor of a claimed 885lb ft (which, in any case, I can’t believe you can put through the drivetrain of a classic Defender without it becoming an inadvertent exponent of the automotive pole vault). In Eco driving mode, torque is meted out and managed for a smooth, pleasant step-off. Use Sport mode instead and the car can dart into motion more keenly, and up to the national speed limit about as quickly as a lower-order hot hatchback. But in Sport mode, you have to put up with a bit of driveline shunt, and a slightly sensitive accelerator pedal (a bigger bugbear than you may realise in a car that’s always busy on its springs). When you do get up a head of steam, handling is typically animated and approximate; always involving if you like to earn your keep at the wheel, but not like you’ll find in any modern off-roader or SUV. Faster cornering is best considered with plenty of circumspection, but no more than you’d reserve for any other Defender.