A Love Affair with Land Rover - Londolozi TV

A Love Affair with Land Rover - Londolozi TV  
Londolozi Game Reserve converted one of their game viewing Land Rovers to electric and developed it to the point where it got the attention of Land Rover themselves who then built their own electric Land Rover concept vehicle which they then developed further at Londolozi.

Here is the story of the electric Land Rover from the Londolozi web site. The video of how they developed the vehicle is below.

Londolozi Game Reserve is announcing the first ever Zero Emissions Safari Vehicle…Out of Africa!

Renowned for its pioneering work in conservation development and the creation of the Londolozi Conservation and People Development model, Londolozi now introduces to the Safari industry a vehicle which moves guests silently through the wilderness with a lower carbon footprint than the conventional 4×4.

The Zero Emissions Safari Vehicle is a project that Londolozi has been pioneering for the last 18 months. Starting with 6 months of planning and testing, a test vehicle was imported to complete phase one of the project.

Phase two involved converting an existing Londolozi Land Rover into a prototype electric vehicle with more environmentally friendly batteries. This is currently where Londolozi is at present. We have a fully functional prototype electric Land Rover that is charged by connecting it to a wall plug socket.

The third phase of the project is about further progression towards lighter, longer lasting, eco friendly batteries. This step of the project is also about moving away from the earth’s resources and moving towards solar energy. We are exploring the possibilities of putting up solar panels on the roof of the garages to charge the electric vehicle. This is part of the long term goal of lowering Londolozi’s carbon footprint without affecting the current luxury safari experience.

We are also fortunate to be testing the first Electric Land Rover produced by Land Rover UK and Barkers Performance Products.

Londolozi prides itself on being a constant innovator in the safari industry – always wishing to provide our guests with a fresh experience filled with a warm spirit of hospitality and a deeper purpose to life. You are invited to join us as one of the first safari adventurers to enter the African wilderness in silent observation, enabling a greater connection with sound and silence.

Chobe game reserve in Botswana are also using electric Land Rovers for game viewing. Their vehicles have been converted to electric, I believe without any official involvement from Land Rover.

Unfortunately I can't find any indication that the electric Land Rover is even close to full production. Hopefully this will change soon. I wrote here of the huge benefits of electric game viewing vehicles.

The new electric vehicle at Chobe Game Lodge

The new electric vehicle at Chobe Game Lodge 
On 4th March I posted an article about how Chobe Game Reserve in Botswana are now using electric vehicles for game drives and electric boats for river cruises. I've now discovered this short video showing these electric game viewing vehicles in action as well as the game rangers reaction to the new vehicles.

Power rangers: Botswana's all-electric safari

Power rangers: Botswana's all-electric safari
After yesterday featuring an article about how Shamwari Game Reserve in South Africa was using electric vehicles for it's game drives, I did a little bit more searching and came across this 2014 article from CNN. They report on how Chobe national park in Botswana are now using converted electric Land Rovers for their game drives.

Chobe Game Lodge, located inside the national park on Botswana's northern border with Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe, launched what it describes as the world's first electric safari fleet in late November. The lodge is rolling out both electric game drive vehicles -- retrofitted Land Rovers -- and electric boats, for game-viewing cruises along the Chobe River.

Antony English, co-owner of Freedom Won, the South African company that converts the Land Rovers, echoes the sentiments I expressed in yesterdays blog post.

The converted Land Rovers are rugged and perform well on Chobe's sandy trails. The first vehicle put into operation -- our ride for the day -- has been dubbed "Freedom 3." "Most of you will have been on a game drive, and you would have had to put up with the diesel motor and the noise, and the vibration and smoke," English says.  

Not only is Chobe converting it's Land Rover fleet to electricity, EV parking bays have been put in place at Kasane International Airport, as the lodge intends using electric Land Rovers to ferry guests the 15 kms to and from the airport.

The lodge are also running electric boats on the Chobe river.

On a late-afternoon river cruise, we experience the sounds of silence again. As our electric boat turns a bend, we spot a herd of elephants tentatively coming down to the river for a drink of water. An African fish eagle sits motionless as we glide by. A crocodile basking on the shore's edge doesn't move either, until a grumpy elephant decides to chase it away. We sit watching and listening to the elephants as dusk settles over the Chobe River. 

Unfortunately the authors final game drive of their visit to Chobe was in a yet to be converted diesel vehicle.

But the next morning is a rude awakening: back to a bumpy old diesel-fueled Land Rover for our final game drive through the park. Our guide catches sight of a Jacobin Cuckoo and we pull up to get a better look, our diesel motor roaring. The bird flees. My seatmate puts down his camera, grumbling: "It would still be there if we were in the electric vehicle."

Shamwari unveils its first electric safari vehicle

Shamwari unveils its first electric safari vehicleThank you to News24 for this article from two years ago.

 Shamwari Private Game Reserve in the Eastern Cape has revealed a completely off-grid ‘green’ game reserve experience. Shamwari Game Reserve in conjunction with key partners have unveiled their first electric safari vehicle, which is hoped to help make the safari experience greener and more sustainable.

I have been thinking for a while that electric vehicles would be ideal for safari/game reserves. They are quieter than diesel and petrol engines so they are less likely to startle the wildlife and tourists can enjoy the sounds of nature instead of the sounds of an internal combustion engine. Also there are no emissions, so again tourists and animals can enjoy fume free air.

Shamwari also said the deployment of a dedicated car port housing a solar array at Shamwari will provide the ideal renewable source of energy for charging the vehicles.

This is something I've touched on before in articles here and here. Electric vehicles and solar charging make so much sense in remote areas. There's no need to go to the expense of transporting and storing petrol or diesel and with solar charging there's also no need to be on the electricity grid. You can literally operate an electric vehicle anywhere that gets a reasonable amount of sunlight, without the need to bring in any sort of energy source.

Most game viewing vehicles usually do relatively short distances so range shouldn't be an issue. Game drives happen mostly in the cool of the early morning and then in the late afternoon when the wildlife is most active. During the middle of the day when the vehicle is not active and the sun is at it's strongest, it can recharge via the solar carport.

It'd be interesting to find out what other game reserves, if any, have also gone the EV route.