Denton Reserve Case Study

Denton Reserve is an idyllic rural destination, where guests can experience fine food, luxurious stays and get closer to the natural Yorkshire countryside. The guest experience revolves around sustainability, the reserve actively enhances biodiversity, rears animals and produces its own food.

For this, as well as to transport guests around the estate, a rugged, off-road capable vehicle was required.

It needed to be able to put up with a working life, wet muddy tracks, animals, dogs, guests – you name it. It sounded like the job for a Land Rover!

The problem is, Land Rovers aren’t particularly known for their eco-credentials, environmentally friendliness or lack of emissions. 

So Electric Land Rovers became an interesting option. This solved two problems: sustainability and ruggedness.

So our team of engineers at Electric Car Converts got to work. We built two vehicles, the first one for the farm and staff – a four seat, 110 Defender with a tow hitch, load area. This was designed to move the animals, run the behind the scenes operations and not pollute the estate at the same time. 

The second was a 110 Defender truck cab, designed to carry guests around the grounds on the rear bench seats, perhaps to see some of the re-wilding projects, meet the local wildlife or go between their accommodation and eateries. 

Both were powered with our 55kWh Tesla motor system. This system was crucial because, clearly, both vehicles needed to be powerful. The first to pull trailers, and the second to transport up to 10 passengers. The torquey, powerful motor wasn’t designed to break the estates 0-60mph record, but more to be able to cope with the heavy use intended on the vehicles, something which other motors on the market aren’t as reliable for.

Further to this, the battery pack, at 55kWh or circa 140 miles of range was perfectly adequate to keep up with range demands, in fact there are days when the vehicles are solely used on the property itself, it’s not like the vehicles go up and down the motorway everyday! 

Now with a perfect matching pair of Electric Land Rovers, Denton Reserve promotes sustainability with our converted defenders, yet still uses tough, agricultural vehicles – something which isn’t yet available in the UK market from OEM manufacturers. 

 “As a team we love Land Rovers, but they really didn’t fit our business ethics in sustainability, something that we’re really proud of. So when Electric Car Converts came up with EV Defenders, we jumped at the opportunity and have ended up with two vehicles which bring a smile to all of our faces, and our guests faces, everyday!”