Agricultural Land Rovers which have been converted to 100 per cent electric using a ‘drop-in’ kit developed at Cardiff University with clean transport specialist Electrogenic, were a fascinating attraction at the Low Carbon Agriculture show recently.

Electrogenic specialises in converting vehicles to 100 per cent electric and has developed a drop-in kit to convert an agricultural Land Rover to all-electric drive.

The kit is designed so it can be installed by a local garage. The vehicle retains all its gears and high/low selection, so it has all its original functionality but with instant torque.

Land Rovers with the kits installed have been trialled on Worthy Farm, Glastonbury, since November 2020. They perform all the daily farm tasks quickly and efficiently, and then simply plug in to be recharged overnight.

The Worthy Farm manager is enthusiastic: the farm vehicles can now contribute to the farm’s sustainability goals, the electric drive is better than the original diesel, there is no need to drive off to a petrol station to refuel, all these short trips where the diesel is so inefficient now use much less energy and the heater is instant!

He estimates savings of £6,000 per year in fuel, servicing and road tax.

The kits are intended to retail at £25,000, which means clean transport at under a five-year payback. The motor is good for 50 years and the batteries for 200,000 miles – so the conversion to electric represents a strong cash saving over its lifetime.