Electric Motors Beat ICE Off-Road
We’re getting to the point where electric trucks and true SUVs (on actual truck platforms) are nothing new. We still haven’t seen a single customer-owned Cybertruck after years of anticipation, but Rivian and Ford both have normal electric truck offerings in customer’s hands and there’s a Hummer EV (in both pickup and on the road in limited numbers). There’s also the Lordstown Endurance, but its future is pretty uncertain right now. There’s also the plugin hybrid Jeep Wrangler 4xe.
But, all of these trucks (not including the Wrangler) have something in common: they’re not the kind of truck you usually see in serious off-road situations. They have an electrified transaxle for each pair of wheels (front and rear), or do something even less conventional, such as the hub motors in Lordstown’s offerings.
These vehicles have proven to be fairly capable, so I don’t intend to knock them, but they’re just not a very fair comparison. It’s still possible to argue that these trucks don’t have solid axles and have other efficiency advantages over a serious off-roading or rock crawling rig. Without some more serious modifications, like lowering the differential in an ICE or the whole drive unit in an EV, there’s often a capability gap, too. So, the whole comparison breaks down and leaves everybody arguing apples and oranges.
But, some recent data from a company my family recently started shows us that even on a completely level playing field, an EV eats ICE for lunch, even on some of the most challenging trails Moab has to offer.
How We Built A Truly Level Playing Field
In another article, I told readers about a company my family recently started. I won’t get into all of the details on that, as you can learn more here. Suffice it to say, family with decades of ICE experience decided to get into EVs, and when they saw how great they are, they decided to start a conversion business to keep classic off-roaders going long into the future.
Our first build was a Ford Bronco. For the motor, we used a NetGain HyPer9HV motor, which is fairly similar to the stock V8 classic that Ford Broncos came with (at least in terms of power). But, instead of trying to build a dual-motor transaxle setup, we put the HyPer9 in place of the stock Bronco motor, bolting it to a manual transmission, which puts power into a stock transfer case, and then into the solid front and rear axles. We then put the 37 kWh battery pack above the electric motor, placing its weight onto the motor mounts.
The end result was not just an EV conversion, but one that preserved as much of the ICE as possible. Most original components were reused, and even the weight of the vehicle remained very close to original. Even weight distribution is about the same, with the battery pack replacing the weight of the ICE to within 20 pounds!
In other words, this is a vehicle that’s a very fair apples-to-apples comparison, with everything the same except that the swap uses electric power instead of an ICE powerplant.