EV in Jeeps Future?

I personally think in some years, maybe 20 or 30, most car companies will switch to EV and EV kits will be available to convert gas cars. Fuel, as an oil derivate, wont last forever.
 
Was watching Motor Trend yesterday and they were pulling all the guts out of a Tesla and putting it in a 67 Pontiac. $$$$$$$ That’s somebody with some money.
 
EV Is perfect for Jeeps... tons and tons of low-end torque. Heavy batteries also make for great, low COG on lifts. Much less moving parts to break.
 
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limitz said:
EV Is perfect for Jeeps... tons and tons of low-end torque. Heavy batteries also make for great, low COG on lifts. Much less moving parts to break.
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I agree with the torque and the less parts, but I wouldn't say perfect. There are a lot of problems to solve to make a Wrangler a good electric vehicle. First of all, the packaging sucks for an electric vehicle. Notice all electric trucks are independent suspension. For efficiency, they want to drive the wheels directly from the electric drive unit. So you may see an independent suspension Wrangler in the future kind of like the Rivian. You also have to free up all of the area between the frame rails for a skateboard type battery pack in order to have enough kWh, and it would still be fairly small.

The biggest problem with the Wrangler is that it is a brick. Drag goes up by the square of the speed and the Wrangler does not have a good coefficient of drag. Highway driving would eat through the battery fairly quickly.

I'm guessing in order to make a good EV Jeep, it would be so different from the Jeeps of the past, that we wouldn't even recognize it. It could be wrong though.
 
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UND_Sioux said:
I'm guessing in order to make a good EV Jeep, it would be so different from the Jeeps of the past, that we wouldn't even recognize it. It could be wrong though.
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I agree. I think if (when) the Wrangler is a full blown EV, it will look nothing like the wranglers of today. Won’t need that seven slot grille anymore.
 
SSTJ said:
FYI, maybe there will be some lessons learned from this attempt.

https://electrifiedveronika.com/jeep-electrification/
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Yes, the lesson will end up being it cost many tens of thousands of dollars to get under 100 miles of range. Unless you absolutely want to do this just to do it, it makes zero financial sense. The Mustang Mach-E gets 270 miles of range. That's with a huge skateboard battery and direct to the wheels drive units.

There was a dude who did an electric YJ conversion not too long ago. He spent $11,000 and got 30-50 miles of range. Imagine 30 miles, charge 8 hours. 30 miles, charge 8 hours.
 
My biggest concern would be weight. A Tesla model S weighs over 4600 pounds, and that's a plastic car with no real frame or axles. A Wrangler with batteries would be heavy, even if you lost the engine and drivetrain weight. Another concern would be the charge time, and distance available when off road. I would guess that you may only get a few hours of wheeling between charges. Also I think special precautions would have to be taken to protect the batteries from damage. Lithium ion batteries don't like to be punctured or crushed.
 
I think vehicles like Jeeps that are "aerodynamically challenged" would be good candidates for the plug in hybrid systems. That way you get the benefits of an electric vehicle but the range of a gas powered motor. It adds some complexity though.
 
Yep, and the 4XE has an all electric range of 20-25 miles...
 
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The only plug in suv that Toyota offers is the Rav4 as far as I know of. Not really comparable to a Wrangler in my opinion.
 
robertgreen79 said:
How so? They’re similar size and weight
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Wrangler has live axles, a full frame, larger ground clearance and is shaped like a brick. If you don't see the obvious differences I think we can end the conversation there.
 
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