Raglan Motors Landrover Defender - Jay Leno's Garage

**The Electric Evolution: A Veteran-Led Journey to Revitalize Classic Vehicles**

In a world where technology and tradition often clash, one group of individuals has found a way to merge the two seamlessly. This is the story of Raglin, a company born from the passion of veterans who have taken it upon themselves to breathe new life into classic vehicles—specifically, the iconic Land Rover Defender.

### The Lack of Maintenance in Electric Vehicles

One of the most striking differences between electric vehicles (EVs) and traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) cars is the reduction in maintenance. Unlike ICE vehicles, which require regular oil changes, transmission fluid replacements, and exhaust system upkeep, EVs like the Tesla model mentioned in the conversation barely need any attention. The driver recalls driving their Tesla hard for seven years with the original brake pads still intact because they were always off-throttle, meaning they rarely used the brakes heavily. This longevity of components is a testament to the efficiency and simplicity of electric powertrains.

For the Raglin team, this lack of maintenance was a key insight when building their custom electric Defender. They knew that by using an EV motor, they could eliminate many of the mechanical complexities and associated costs of maintaining a traditional vehicle. This approach not only makes the car more reliable but also aligns with their goal of creating a seamless driving experience.

### The Design and Build Process

The Raglin team didn’t just stop at replicating the classic Defender; they took it a step further by modernizing it without losing its heritage. They chose to use a Tesla motor for their build because, as one member explained, it offered the best "bang for the buck" in terms of power and reliability. The decision was strategic—Tesla motors are known for their durability and performance, making them an excellent choice for a high-mileage vehicle like the Defender.

The team also opted to use crate electric motors from Chevy and Ford when possible, ensuring that customers could benefit from brand-new, never-before-used components. This attention to detail highlights their commitment to quality and sustainability. By sourcing parts this way, they not only reduce waste but also provide their clients with a sense of security knowing that the vehicle’s core components are as reliable as possible.

### The Challenges of Development

Building an electric vehicle from scratch comes with its own set of challenges. One of the most significant hurdles was developing custom software for the motor controller. Unlike off-the-shelf solutions, which are rare and often not designed for specific applications, the Raglin team had to build their own software from the ground up. This process took nearly two years, but it paid off in the form of a unique, highly customizable system that could be tailored to the Defender’s needs.

Another challenge was integrating advanced cooling systems into the vehicle. The team knew they needed to keep both the motor and battery pack at optimal temperatures to ensure reliability, especially during extreme weather conditions. They achieved this by designing a dual-loop water-cooling system—one for the batteries and another for the motor, inverter, and DC-DC converter. This setup allows them to precisely control the temperature of each component, ensuring peak performance.

### The Importance of Weight Distribution

Weight distribution is critical in any vehicle, but it becomes even more important in an electric car because of the instant torque from the motor. The Raglin team went to great lengths to maintain or improve the Defender’s weight balance compared to its ICE counterpart. They achieved this by strategically placing the batteries and other components throughout the vehicle.

The result is a well-balanced vehicle that handles as smoothly as it did when it was new. This attention to detail not only enhances the driving experience but also ensures that the car retains its classic feel while offering modern performance benefits.

### The Use of Water-Cooling Systems

When discussing the cooling system, one member mentioned how they drew inspiration from the 1914 Detroit Electric car, which used a water-cooled system despite being an early electric vehicle. This historical reference highlights the team’s dedication to learning from the past while innovating for the future.

The Raglin Defender’s cooling system is nothing short of impressive. It features variable-speed pumps and fans that only activate when necessary, conserving energy and reducing wear and tear on components. This level of sophistication ensures that the vehicle can handle demanding off-road conditions without compromising performance or reliability.

### The Balance Between Classic Aesthetics and Modern Technology

One of the most remarkable aspects of the Raglin Defender is its ability to blend classic aesthetics with modern technology seamlessly. The team avoided the pitfalls of many custom builds by not overwhelming the car with digital dashboards or overly complicated interfaces. Instead, they kept the interior clean and true to the original design while integrating subtle modern touches like heated seats, air conditioning, and a premium sound system.

The attention to detail is evident in every aspect of the build. From the custom soft top made from Connolly leather—the same material used by Land Rover originally—to the meticulously recreated dashboard, nothing was overlooked. The team’s commitment to preserving the car’s heritage while adding contemporary features ensures that it appeals to both classic car enthusiasts and modern motorists.

### The Ethos Behind Raglin

At its core, Raglin is more than just a business; it’s a labor of love. Started by veterans who wanted to channel their experiences into something productive, the company represents resilience, innovation, and a deep respect for craftsmanship. As one member mentioned, they take pride in seeing other veterans join their team and bring the same dedication to the project.

The Raglin ethos is also reflected in their commitment to sustainability. By converting classic vehicles to electric power, they’re not only preserving these iconic cars but also reducing their environmental footprint. This approach aligns with a growing movement toward sustainable transportation without sacrificing performance or practicality.

### The Future of Electric Vehicle Conversion

Looking ahead, the Raglin team is excited about the future of electric vehicle conversion. With advancements in battery technology, motor efficiency, and cooling systems, they see endless possibilities for improving their builds. They’re also exploring opportunities to collaborate with other industries, including defense and aerospace, where their expertise in weight distribution and powertrain systems could be valuable.

For potential customers, the team emphasizes the importance of starting with a solid foundation when converting a classic vehicle. Using wrecks or vehicles with compromised structural integrity is not advisable, as it can lead to costly repairs down the line. Instead, they encourage buyers to invest in well-maintained shells and focus on sourcing high-quality components.

### Conclusion

The Raglin Defender is more than just a converted electric vehicle; it’s a symbol of what happens when passion meets purpose. Started by veterans who wanted to give back through their skills and experiences, the project has become a testament to innovation, craftsmanship, and sustainability.

As the team continues to refine their craft, they’re proving that classic cars don’t have to be left behind in the age of electric vehicles. With careful planning, dedication, and a respect for both tradition and modern technology, Raglin is paving the way for a new era of sustainable motoring—one that honors the past while looking firmly toward the future.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enit's a Defender but it drives very nicely and it's way faster than any of these ever were well the episode of Jay lon's garage the car were featuring today 1996 Land Rover Defender okay so if it's a Defender why did say Raglin on it okay why is it nicer than any Defender I've ever seen in my life why is the interior so beautiful okay it's a whole interesting story let's bring Joe kamsky in Joe come on in you're the founder of this company right the the company is Raglin Ragin okay and you're a veteran yes sir and the whole company is Veterans isn't it so tell us how you got started you rebuild these and you're a real veter you have you serve time in Afghanistan right that's right well thanks for your service man we really appreciate it I'm glad you all got back safely so you guys decide to form your own company a couple years ago we decided we wanted to rebuild the Land Rover Defender and bring it back modernize it right and build it with electric powertrain okay so this has an all electric power TR all electric battery electric okay and you guys did all the coating and all the computer wrote all the software from from scratch by ourselves is that what you did in the military no we were engineers in the military Ryan uh my co-founder was a submarine officer and my brother will was marso operator and what is that marine Special Operations okay oh that's great you have the engineering background and the training to do this kind of work cuz it's it's complicated it is it's not that easy it is we and we don't have all the skills but we we built the first prototype by ourselves and that was enough to to bring in a team of experts to really beef up the software do the fabrication that we needed to do and now how does it work do I come to you with my Defender do you find Defenders you build them then sell them or a combination of that it's a combination of both we do have a stock of vehicles if you don't have your own Land Rover Defender we can source that for you if you do have a a family Defender that you'd like to get converted we do that as well now why these as opposed to army jeeps or any other vehicle we do love the army jeep but this this car was such an icon of Adventure and exploration and I think for us it was just you know it was the vehicle that needed to be done as I remember back in the 90s I mean these are fine vehicles but they had some there were some problems with them they were yeah yeah I think what makes the electric powertrain for this such a good fit was the sort of lack of reliability that these vehicles had right I think they were loud they were noisy sometimes underpowered so with this vehicle it actually has three times the power three times the horsepower and twice the torque remember he said loud unreliable not me okay there you go CU all the defend gu hey Leno what are you doing I'm just just tell me what I hear okay there you go just what I hear but there's certain amount of Truth to that obviously but it is a great look it's the classic English vehicle and it's one of the great logos I always love this this always looks like the beginning of a Tarzan movie you know they always have that kind of kind of thing the original engine was what a four cylinder that's right this had a 200 TDI or a 300 TDI usually in this in this variant and gas mileage was not that great not great no and not that much power you've got way more power so this started with about 110 to0 right horsepower now it has over 600 horsepower it had about 250 uh foot pounds of torque now it has about 450 and all-wheel drive just the original all-wheel drive all the time okay and you've updated the interior and it's was there a big market for these did you build these originally for yourselves and then people said Hey how do I get one of those or did you always start out as this is the business three veterans and this is what we want to do that's how it started it was sort of a a passion project we wanted to build in we wanted a Defender for ourselves we wanted to build an electric and as we started building it we started to see maybe there was a market for it back in 2020 when we started it the world started shifting to Electric all the OEM started doubling down on building every Future car is going to be electric and so it it kind of just happened that this was the right time to start electrifying classic cars you try to hire veterans in the company when you can as well we do yep our first couple wiring guys were veterans some of our Fabricators were vet veterans early days well I mean that's what's good because you got people you know you can rely on you've been you've been tested Under Fire that's a you for working a in a job that's that's about the best skill you can get well it looks beautiful I have to admit so it has no transmission or transfer case or any of that right it has a gear reduction on the motor and a direct drive to the front and rear axles okay but single speed correct single speed okay but operates just like an automatic yeah you just just got enough torque to pull you through and lithium ion battery lithium ion batteries 85 Kow battery pack in here okay so that's about the same as a Tesla right the first as a single motor Tesla is that okay and these are single motor correct this is a single motor okay do you do a dual motor as well we don't do a dual motor at the moment so you still got a good way more horsepower than you ever had way more horsepower way more torque and you're looking at what about 228 miles something like that somewhere between 150 and 200 depending on the drive oh okay tell me about the motor these are from used Teslas they are they're from previously enjoyed Teslas we uh we've done a lot of work to the motor so because of the drive that we have we needed to change the gear ratio inside the motor right nobody makes extra gears for these Teslas so we had to engineer our own gear set for that okay so we engineered our own Gears we reprogrammed the inverter that's made it to the to the Drive Unit um and we and then we've done all the software to to make that work well I just like the phrase previously enjoyed that's my favorite as opposed to used car previously enjoyed that's see that that's the salesman that's very good and Electric engines are not L electric motors are not like gasoline engines in the sense that they don't wear out at the same rate I mean these motors will run a million miles of the well I've got a 1909 Baker Electric over there all I've done is change batteries it just runs and runs and runs and runs electric seems to last forever that's right you know so that's pretty interesting so getting a used Tesla is not like buying an old 440 Chrysler where you got to do the whole thing over again that's right all right and we do replace all the bearings all the Steal in the gaskets now do you have any problems with Tesla with that or is it since you're getting them secondhand it's not a problem NOP no issues with Tesla at the moment previously enjoy we may after this yeah okay okay um so take me around the vehicle here what are we obviously this is a full convertible this all comes off all that comes off it's a custom soft top right we use Connelly leather on the interior which is the original Land Rover leather supplier did the original Land Rover have leather because it seems would that be as durable as a heavy vinyl or something else no it definitely started with cloth and a more durable material but we decided we wanted to wrap it up we wanted to to make things a little bit more modern so this when people go off the road it's by accident you you know you see this in La see people driving these things and if they get one wheel in the dirt oh my gosh you know it's the end of the world but I mean the quality seems really very nice and how many can you carry well you can carry eight people on this thing if you want to I suppose I think this is a 10seater a 10seater okay the classic tire in the back very nice I mean you do you guys paint it and everything at your shop we don't have a paint booth in our shop we do Outsource the paint work okay can we open the hood and see what's under there I don't imagine there much to look at but let's see what we got uh a beautiful work gentlemen thank you icely done we've got a world class fabricator in house Bobby who's done all the all this work you're looking at about 75% of the batteries right here okay and the other 25% are more in the midsection of the car to keep the weight and balance of the car as more close to what it was originally and the name Raglin tell me what what what does that mean what does it stand for Raglin comes from a a a beautiful surf beach in New Zealand very uh corduroy perfect waves yeah it's also a the name of a a famed Army British soldier Okay have you been to the beach we haven't okay as soon as you sell enough cars you go to the beach okay okay let's shut the hood again see what we got uh what what have we upgraded what kind of brakes we using disc all the way around disc brakes all the way around they're upgraded are they are they Land Rover uh brakes or the front are Land Rover brakes the rear are more modern Range Rover varar brakes that have an integrated um electric parking brake and has anybody from Land Rover seen this are they impressed no one from Land Rover seen this yet okay all right well it's nicely done I mean I I just like the fact that you guys are all veterans and you've started a business with other veterans you know it's just it's it's nice to see the camaraderie you know after the war is over comes home and you know sit around and tell stories and and start a company you know very good very nicely done okay anything else we need to know what's different about the interior there's no transmission so you just have what park neutral Drive reverse is that it we put a a a wooden center console in here before the center console and the interior was more of just a an afterthought with Land Rover right so we tried to make it a little bit more functional we put in some cup holders a cell phone cell phone holder is this Dash the same Dash that was in it in terms of the gauges or these aftermarket gauges so this is the original dash one thing that was really important to us is that we kept the heritage of this car and tried not to make this like a space shuttle with all screens everywhere so we you know buil building period correct analog gauges was really important to us so we so we mimick the original land roover gauges but they're can based was it really hard to the Tesla coding and whatnot to break it down to transfer it was that tricky to do that was probably the hardest challenge of building this vehicle there was no off-the-shelf software program that we could just install in the car there was no motor controller that you could just make work with any motor that you put in there so that was uh that took us almost two years to to build that software from scratch okay so tell me why it's better to have Veterans building this than some yahoo out on the street everything is on time and under budget right oh yeah yeah I mean I think the the amount of love that we have for this car we don't do any other vehicles we do also do some work for the Department of Defense some of the technology that we built in the software controller we're actually using for the Air Force for some electrification of uh Airfield equipment right and of course being veterans you have the dedication to get the job done and see it through well I'm I'm proud of you guys I think it's great I think it's you know a lot of veterans come home man it's just it's such a tough road you know with PTSD and all the things that happened to guys and and women too you know and and the fact you guys have really got it together that's not a put down I don't mean it that way I mean the fact that you get other veterans you don't step outside you know use people you've used before to build something that's American makes people proud and you make it better than it was can we take off a ride and see how good it is love to let's give it a shot uh pretty much standard turn the key what do I press put on the brake Drive oh very linear pedal doesn't jump when you you know yeah spent a lot of time trying to to keep the uh the pedal feeling a little bit more right why do you not keep it in regen it's really just a personal preference I I think I'm just used to driving without regen so coasting on the road we just save brakes and you might pick up what 5 miles 6 miles get about 20% range back in City Driving okay with with regen so it's not a lot but it does save all the brakes oh yeah yeah I'm so used to I got Teslas and other stuff and it's great cuz I had my other my my 2012 Tesla I had seven years and still had the original pads it was fine and I drove it hard but I was always off throttle and I just just when you come to a light then you touch the brake to hold it but exactly brakes last forever I think that's one of the biggest changes for this vehicle is the lack of Maintenance yeah you know did did have a lot of um you know necessary upkeep on the on the old Defenders and now you know almost n so you really have to buy a wrecked Tesla buying a used Tesla doesn't do any good cuz you're paying for all the other parts of the car that you'll never use yep you know y I suppose you can sell those good you have air conditioning as well does have air conditioning it's got heat heated seats all all the modern right is that all out the Tesla as well nope that's that's just highend aftermarket right you know a lot of times when I've been in vehicles that have been converted you touch electric you go down a quarter inch nothing and then you jerk you know it feels very much like a gas pedal should we spent a we spent a lot of time with the throttle throttle mapping and making sure that the accelerator P accelerator pedal felt smooth and natural a lot of times sitting in the passenger seat with a laptop and a driver driving are you always Tesla only running gear I mean if you run across a a Kia or a Nissan that's electric would you use that or you just since we've began there's a lot more motor manufacturers that were were able to use off the shelf Tesla was just the best bang for the buck early days it has the an incredible amount of power and for the size that it was and the architecture of how we wanted this car to be built all-wheel drive all the time it made a lot of sense for the defender well both Chevy and I think Ford now sell a crate electric motor and that way the customer gets the advantage of at least a brand new motor that's never been used before exactly I imagine at this point there's so much R&D that your profit margin per car is probably pretty small it's pretty it's pretty small right now yes cuz you're paying retail for everything yep we don't have a whole lot of purchasing power as a small company right right the software that we built for this car and the R&D that we did for this car that enabled the government contracts that we got does give us more purchasing power we will start to use brand new Motors brand new batteries the world's changing so fast with electric there's so many more every day there's 10 different new motor manufacturers inverter controller battery manufacturers batteries are the thing that's changing the most absolutely just more efficient smaller more efficient smaller different chemistries right different cooling techniques for each each different type and you're always water cooled batteries no no these are water cooled batteries like in my 1914 Detroit electric we're running air cool because you know I'm not going to using it under high you know in the freeway and things like that with this vehicle because we had so much space which you don't normally have an electric vehicle we were able to put an excessive amount of cooling capacity for the motor for different weather conditions so you know we've got twice the radiator that Tesla has we've got variable speed pumps and fans that are working for you know when you're do to take this vehicle and a places that it was originally intended to go you still have that capability is your cooling thermal siphon or is is it a a electric pump we have an electric variable speed pump okay and we have two different this car has two different Loops so it has the batteries on an isolated Loop and it has the motor the AC charger and the dcdc converter which are all water cooled on a separate on a separate line and no Herky jerkiness in the ride in the drive train when I'm on and off that I don't feel it you know engaging and disengaging you know it's nice does it still feel like an old car to you or does it feel I mean to me a lot of it is sort of what you see to me I I always hate it when someone takes an old car makes electric and puts into a digital dashboard with a you know some kind of fancy modern digital stereo so what about this is an old car I mean to me it's like the dashboard is it's like you want to marry a pretty girl you're going to be looking at that face over The Breakfast Table the rest of your life you know so you want to go okay you know what I mean I like looking at and seeing a classic gauge and a classic look but having the modern power I mean if you rebuilt this thing and it had the exact same feel and power of the original Defender I just buy the original Defender you know so so to me yeah I like the look of it I like the dashboard nicely laid out there's no kit car feel to it that's my problem with a lot of electric conversions as a kit car thing you know the radio doesn't sit quite straight you know it it's in the dash at an angle a little bit or you know there's always something that's a little off whereas this seems to have Precision to it which is very nice tried to spend a lot of time with the fit and finish of the car to make make things go together and seem and here amazing the horn actually works you know how many people build cars come here and I go where's it oh yeah well you haven't hooked up the horn why people get so excited to finish a car they just don't hook up the horn I would say out of 10 Vehicles three at least the horn doesn't work because CU they're just oh yeah yeah we forgot about it your top speed is what about 105 something like that mathematically it's well past that like right now you're at 8,000 R 7,000 RPMs it goes to 18,000 right okay we got the aerodynamics of a Defender boy you just feel how aerodynamic modern cars are you know you take your foot off that gas that windshield's an air braak it's almost straight up so but it drives very nicely and these are kind of a allpurpose tire on here isn't it sort of kind of a dirt street Tire exactly yeah it's sort of an allterrain that's I mean I I I mean I can feel it it's got a little grip when you need it but it's it's trying to be not so loud on City street yeah it's like driving the snow tires in the summer you know exactly I think the defender requires a little bit of an aggressive stance but nothing that's too much right yeah I don't know if you do feel the cramp of The Upfront seating capacity but I'm not a big guy I'm 5'11 but I've got the seat all the way back and I could go back a bit more but it looks like there's plenty of room to do that if you wanted to so Land Rover back in the day when they built this car they moved the seats intentionally 3 in forward to maximize payload capacity right I think as we built this this car with an electric motor it felt like kind of a natural progression for where the defender was people started putting V8s Corvette motors and if you look back in the history books the first Land Rover was built off Willie Parts yeah all of the the chassis and the axles were all Willie Parts yeah you do get a vintage feel to it but it's more visceral you you're looking at it looking around the ride feels obviously as it would have been back day we intentionally didn't put too many markings on the car that let anybody know that it's electric right so it is it is fun to pull up at light sometimes yeah give it a little extra juice well that's sort of a '90s thing when the hybrids first came out remember some called hybrid written on the side it would have all the things pointing at it's front-wheel drive I mean I like the fact that if you don't know don't worry about it yeah if you know you know and you're a pilot as well I am I got my pilot's license in Alaska after the Marine Corps oh after so you were not a pilot in the uh I wasn't a pilot in the Marine Corps I was a combat engineer in the Marine Corps oh okay I think part of that Aviation training in Alaska really shown through in some of the engineering and how we work the weight and balance of this vehicle and the moment it was super important to us to have the same dis weight distribution in the vehicle as it was originally and if we could improve that at all we did now combat engineer what does that mean are you are you fixing Weaponry what what does that mean so we built Bridges and Roads we were sort of the engine of the Marine Corps to allow the Infantry guys to do whatever they needed to do so if we needed to build a bridge build a base clear a road with explosives if there's a bomb in the road we'll we'll blow up that bomb and then we'll rebuild that road so that the Marines can get in where they need to get in at the end of the day just this car it just feels like a car you can just plug in put the key in and drive now your your motor temperature is about not quite 50 so that's sits somewhere around 45 to 55 are the fans thermostatic or are they on all the time no they're variable speed and they're they only come on when the temperature hits a certain point and it needs to cool the motor or the batteries down so most of the time the fans don't run just because the the way that these lithium iion batteries are built yeah they don't get they don't generate a lot of heat most of the heat is actually generated motor and the inverter side when we went back to to redo the cooling system and the heating system on the this car originally it used the coolant from the motor to heat a block to then heat the cabin right but because our motor and inverter don't get hot enough you have to use an electric car ceramic PTC heaters right I see you forget what a high Center gravity these I know well this is pretty surreal to have you driving our car we're pretty excited well it's great it's an honor to do it I mean it's a lot of fun and I like the whole ethos of the company I mean to a lot of customers I I think the military aspect are important it shows you have a commitment you can finish a job when you start it you know you work with other men and women will feel the same way you know everybody has a purpose you know it's a funny time any other time in American history when you at War the whole country is involved you know you can't get plywood you have to have a victory guard we live in an era now where you can have guns and butter you can have war or and you can live as if there's no war at all so consequently you got men and women like you guys that are fighting and the rest of us sitting there living Our Lives it doesn't really cost us anything you know so when you get home you should be rewarded and I I think you know having people take an interest in a company like this Going's never going to get rougher than it was under those circumstances you know it is true it puts things in P in perspective you know it's like yeah yeah it really does you always have more time than you think you do and no one's dying so yeah see it was me I would drive with the regen all all the time put it on yeah where is it hit the mode button in the middle so there's not a ton of regen at high speeds but once you get down towards a light or a stop sign you'll start feeling it kick in I've got a car in the garage called the Owens magnetic 1916 oh yeah it's a gas engine drives an electric motor oh wow and when you drop below like 18 mph the regen kicks in and puts more energy back in the battery so you don't waste the brakes now being an electrical vehicle how about when you try to forage your stream or go through water is all the electrical componentry down below like that we built this car to be as capable as the original Defender so all of our wiring low voltage and high voltage is beyond Motorsport spec and able to be submerged that's and since you don't have a carburetor it's not like you'd be sucking in water so it's all sealed it's all sealed the limit is really just the door seals right right well Joe thanks for bringing it by we really appreciate it I think you and the guys are doing terrific work thanks and once again everybody we all appreciate your service and your dedication if you can bring that same thing to these cars I think you'll do just fine so thanks Jack really appreciate it hey you got a chance to buy from the veteran please do it see you guys next week bye-byeit's a Defender but it drives very nicely and it's way faster than any of these ever were well the episode of Jay lon's garage the car were featuring today 1996 Land Rover Defender okay so if it's a Defender why did say Raglin on it okay why is it nicer than any Defender I've ever seen in my life why is the interior so beautiful okay it's a whole interesting story let's bring Joe kamsky in Joe come on in you're the founder of this company right the the company is Raglin Ragin okay and you're a veteran yes sir and the whole company is Veterans isn't it so tell us how you got started you rebuild these and you're a real veter you have you serve time in Afghanistan right that's right well thanks for your service man we really appreciate it I'm glad you all got back safely so you guys decide to form your own company a couple years ago we decided we wanted to rebuild the Land Rover Defender and bring it back modernize it right and build it with electric powertrain okay so this has an all electric power TR all electric battery electric okay and you guys did all the coating and all the computer wrote all the software from from scratch by ourselves is that what you did in the military no we were engineers in the military Ryan uh my co-founder was a submarine officer and my brother will was marso operator and what is that marine Special Operations okay oh that's great you have the engineering background and the training to do this kind of work cuz it's it's complicated it is it's not that easy it is we and we don't have all the skills but we we built the first prototype by ourselves and that was enough to to bring in a team of experts to really beef up the software do the fabrication that we needed to do and now how does it work do I come to you with my Defender do you find Defenders you build them then sell them or a combination of that it's a combination of both we do have a stock of vehicles if you don't have your own Land Rover Defender we can source that for you if you do have a a family Defender that you'd like to get converted we do that as well now why these as opposed to army jeeps or any other vehicle we do love the army jeep but this this car was such an icon of Adventure and exploration and I think for us it was just you know it was the vehicle that needed to be done as I remember back in the 90s I mean these are fine vehicles but they had some there were some problems with them they were yeah yeah I think what makes the electric powertrain for this such a good fit was the sort of lack of reliability that these vehicles had right I think they were loud they were noisy sometimes underpowered so with this vehicle it actually has three times the power three times the horsepower and twice the torque remember he said loud unreliable not me okay there you go CU all the defend gu hey Leno what are you doing I'm just just tell me what I hear okay there you go just what I hear but there's certain amount of Truth to that obviously but it is a great look it's the classic English vehicle and it's one of the great logos I always love this this always looks like the beginning of a Tarzan movie you know they always have that kind of kind of thing the original engine was what a four cylinder that's right this had a 200 TDI or a 300 TDI usually in this in this variant and gas mileage was not that great not great no and not that much power you've got way more power so this started with about 110 to0 right horsepower now it has over 600 horsepower it had about 250 uh foot pounds of torque now it has about 450 and all-wheel drive just the original all-wheel drive all the time okay and you've updated the interior and it's was there a big market for these did you build these originally for yourselves and then people said Hey how do I get one of those or did you always start out as this is the business three veterans and this is what we want to do that's how it started it was sort of a a passion project we wanted to build in we wanted a Defender for ourselves we wanted to build an electric and as we started building it we started to see maybe there was a market for it back in 2020 when we started it the world started shifting to Electric all the OEM started doubling down on building every Future car is going to be electric and so it it kind of just happened that this was the right time to start electrifying classic cars you try to hire veterans in the company when you can as well we do yep our first couple wiring guys were veterans some of our Fabricators were vet veterans early days well I mean that's what's good because you got people you know you can rely on you've been you've been tested Under Fire that's a you for working a in a job that's that's about the best skill you can get well it looks beautiful I have to admit so it has no transmission or transfer case or any of that right it has a gear reduction on the motor and a direct drive to the front and rear axles okay but single speed correct single speed okay but operates just like an automatic yeah you just just got enough torque to pull you through and lithium ion battery lithium ion batteries 85 Kow battery pack in here okay so that's about the same as a Tesla right the first as a single motor Tesla is that okay and these are single motor correct this is a single motor okay do you do a dual motor as well we don't do a dual motor at the moment so you still got a good way more horsepower than you ever had way more horsepower way more torque and you're looking at what about 228 miles something like that somewhere between 150 and 200 depending on the drive oh okay tell me about the motor these are from used Teslas they are they're from previously enjoyed Teslas we uh we've done a lot of work to the motor so because of the drive that we have we needed to change the gear ratio inside the motor right nobody makes extra gears for these Teslas so we had to engineer our own gear set for that okay so we engineered our own Gears we reprogrammed the inverter that's made it to the to the Drive Unit um and we and then we've done all the software to to make that work well I just like the phrase previously enjoyed that's my favorite as opposed to used car previously enjoyed that's see that that's the salesman that's very good and Electric engines are not L electric motors are not like gasoline engines in the sense that they don't wear out at the same rate I mean these motors will run a million miles of the well I've got a 1909 Baker Electric over there all I've done is change batteries it just runs and runs and runs and runs electric seems to last forever that's right you know so that's pretty interesting so getting a used Tesla is not like buying an old 440 Chrysler where you got to do the whole thing over again that's right all right and we do replace all the bearings all the Steal in the gaskets now do you have any problems with Tesla with that or is it since you're getting them secondhand it's not a problem NOP no issues with Tesla at the moment previously enjoy we may after this yeah okay okay um so take me around the vehicle here what are we obviously this is a full convertible this all comes off all that comes off it's a custom soft top right we use Connelly leather on the interior which is the original Land Rover leather supplier did the original Land Rover have leather because it seems would that be as durable as a heavy vinyl or something else no it definitely started with cloth and a more durable material but we decided we wanted to wrap it up we wanted to to make things a little bit more modern so this when people go off the road it's by accident you you know you see this in La see people driving these things and if they get one wheel in the dirt oh my gosh you know it's the end of the world but I mean the quality seems really very nice and how many can you carry well you can carry eight people on this thing if you want to I suppose I think this is a 10seater a 10seater okay the classic tire in the back very nice I mean you do you guys paint it and everything at your shop we don't have a paint booth in our shop we do Outsource the paint work okay can we open the hood and see what's under there I don't imagine there much to look at but let's see what we got uh a beautiful work gentlemen thank you icely done we've got a world class fabricator in house Bobby who's done all the all this work you're looking at about 75% of the batteries right here okay and the other 25% are more in the midsection of the car to keep the weight and balance of the car as more close to what it was originally and the name Raglin tell me what what what does that mean what does it stand for Raglin comes from a a a beautiful surf beach in New Zealand very uh corduroy perfect waves yeah it's also a the name of a a famed Army British soldier Okay have you been to the beach we haven't okay as soon as you sell enough cars you go to the beach okay okay let's shut the hood again see what we got uh what what have we upgraded what kind of brakes we using disc all the way around disc brakes all the way around they're upgraded are they are they Land Rover uh brakes or the front are Land Rover brakes the rear are more modern Range Rover varar brakes that have an integrated um electric parking brake and has anybody from Land Rover seen this are they impressed no one from Land Rover seen this yet okay all right well it's nicely done I mean I I just like the fact that you guys are all veterans and you've started a business with other veterans you know it's just it's it's nice to see the camaraderie you know after the war is over comes home and you know sit around and tell stories and and start a company you know very good very nicely done okay anything else we need to know what's different about the interior there's no transmission so you just have what park neutral Drive reverse is that it we put a a a wooden center console in here before the center console and the interior was more of just a an afterthought with Land Rover right so we tried to make it a little bit more functional we put in some cup holders a cell phone cell phone holder is this Dash the same Dash that was in it in terms of the gauges or these aftermarket gauges so this is the original dash one thing that was really important to us is that we kept the heritage of this car and tried not to make this like a space shuttle with all screens everywhere so we you know buil building period correct analog gauges was really important to us so we so we mimick the original land roover gauges but they're can based was it really hard to the Tesla coding and whatnot to break it down to transfer it was that tricky to do that was probably the hardest challenge of building this vehicle there was no off-the-shelf software program that we could just install in the car there was no motor controller that you could just make work with any motor that you put in there so that was uh that took us almost two years to to build that software from scratch okay so tell me why it's better to have Veterans building this than some yahoo out on the street everything is on time and under budget right oh yeah yeah I mean I think the the amount of love that we have for this car we don't do any other vehicles we do also do some work for the Department of Defense some of the technology that we built in the software controller we're actually using for the Air Force for some electrification of uh Airfield equipment right and of course being veterans you have the dedication to get the job done and see it through well I'm I'm proud of you guys I think it's great I think it's you know a lot of veterans come home man it's just it's such a tough road you know with PTSD and all the things that happened to guys and and women too you know and and the fact you guys have really got it together that's not a put down I don't mean it that way I mean the fact that you get other veterans you don't step outside you know use people you've used before to build something that's American makes people proud and you make it better than it was can we take off a ride and see how good it is love to let's give it a shot uh pretty much standard turn the key what do I press put on the brake Drive oh very linear pedal doesn't jump when you you know yeah spent a lot of time trying to to keep the uh the pedal feeling a little bit more right why do you not keep it in regen it's really just a personal preference I I think I'm just used to driving without regen so coasting on the road we just save brakes and you might pick up what 5 miles 6 miles get about 20% range back in City Driving okay with with regen so it's not a lot but it does save all the brakes oh yeah yeah I'm so used to I got Teslas and other stuff and it's great cuz I had my other my my 2012 Tesla I had seven years and still had the original pads it was fine and I drove it hard but I was always off throttle and I just just when you come to a light then you touch the brake to hold it but exactly brakes last forever I think that's one of the biggest changes for this vehicle is the lack of Maintenance yeah you know did did have a lot of um you know necessary upkeep on the on the old Defenders and now you know almost n so you really have to buy a wrecked Tesla buying a used Tesla doesn't do any good cuz you're paying for all the other parts of the car that you'll never use yep you know y I suppose you can sell those good you have air conditioning as well does have air conditioning it's got heat heated seats all all the modern right is that all out the Tesla as well nope that's that's just highend aftermarket right you know a lot of times when I've been in vehicles that have been converted you touch electric you go down a quarter inch nothing and then you jerk you know it feels very much like a gas pedal should we spent a we spent a lot of time with the throttle throttle mapping and making sure that the accelerator P accelerator pedal felt smooth and natural a lot of times sitting in the passenger seat with a laptop and a driver driving are you always Tesla only running gear I mean if you run across a a Kia or a Nissan that's electric would you use that or you just since we've began there's a lot more motor manufacturers that were were able to use off the shelf Tesla was just the best bang for the buck early days it has the an incredible amount of power and for the size that it was and the architecture of how we wanted this car to be built all-wheel drive all the time it made a lot of sense for the defender well both Chevy and I think Ford now sell a crate electric motor and that way the customer gets the advantage of at least a brand new motor that's never been used before exactly I imagine at this point there's so much R&D that your profit margin per car is probably pretty small it's pretty it's pretty small right now yes cuz you're paying retail for everything yep we don't have a whole lot of purchasing power as a small company right right the software that we built for this car and the R&D that we did for this car that enabled the government contracts that we got does give us more purchasing power we will start to use brand new Motors brand new batteries the world's changing so fast with electric there's so many more every day there's 10 different new motor manufacturers inverter controller battery manufacturers batteries are the thing that's changing the most absolutely just more efficient smaller more efficient smaller different chemistries right different cooling techniques for each each different type and you're always water cooled batteries no no these are water cooled batteries like in my 1914 Detroit electric we're running air cool because you know I'm not going to using it under high you know in the freeway and things like that with this vehicle because we had so much space which you don't normally have an electric vehicle we were able to put an excessive amount of cooling capacity for the motor for different weather conditions so you know we've got twice the radiator that Tesla has we've got variable speed pumps and fans that are working for you know when you're do to take this vehicle and a places that it was originally intended to go you still have that capability is your cooling thermal siphon or is is it a a electric pump we have an electric variable speed pump okay and we have two different this car has two different Loops so it has the batteries on an isolated Loop and it has the motor the AC charger and the dcdc converter which are all water cooled on a separate on a separate line and no Herky jerkiness in the ride in the drive train when I'm on and off that I don't feel it you know engaging and disengaging you know it's nice does it still feel like an old car to you or does it feel I mean to me a lot of it is sort of what you see to me I I always hate it when someone takes an old car makes electric and puts into a digital dashboard with a you know some kind of fancy modern digital stereo so what about this is an old car I mean to me it's like the dashboard is it's like you want to marry a pretty girl you're going to be looking at that face over The Breakfast Table the rest of your life you know so you want to go okay you know what I mean I like looking at and seeing a classic gauge and a classic look but having the modern power I mean if you rebuilt this thing and it had the exact same feel and power of the original Defender I just buy the original Defender you know so so to me yeah I like the look of it I like the dashboard nicely laid out there's no kit car feel to it that's my problem with a lot of electric conversions as a kit car thing you know the radio doesn't sit quite straight you know it it's in the dash at an angle a little bit or you know there's always something that's a little off whereas this seems to have Precision to it which is very nice tried to spend a lot of time with the fit and finish of the car to make make things go together and seem and here amazing the horn actually works you know how many people build cars come here and I go where's it oh yeah well you haven't hooked up the horn why people get so excited to finish a car they just don't hook up the horn I would say out of 10 Vehicles three at least the horn doesn't work because CU they're just oh yeah yeah we forgot about it your top speed is what about 105 something like that mathematically it's well past that like right now you're at 8,000 R 7,000 RPMs it goes to 18,000 right okay we got the aerodynamics of a Defender boy you just feel how aerodynamic modern cars are you know you take your foot off that gas that windshield's an air braak it's almost straight up so but it drives very nicely and these are kind of a allpurpose tire on here isn't it sort of kind of a dirt street Tire exactly yeah it's sort of an allterrain that's I mean I I I mean I can feel it it's got a little grip when you need it but it's it's trying to be not so loud on City street yeah it's like driving the snow tires in the summer you know exactly I think the defender requires a little bit of an aggressive stance but nothing that's too much right yeah I don't know if you do feel the cramp of The Upfront seating capacity but I'm not a big guy I'm 5'11 but I've got the seat all the way back and I could go back a bit more but it looks like there's plenty of room to do that if you wanted to so Land Rover back in the day when they built this car they moved the seats intentionally 3 in forward to maximize payload capacity right I think as we built this this car with an electric motor it felt like kind of a natural progression for where the defender was people started putting V8s Corvette motors and if you look back in the history books the first Land Rover was built off Willie Parts yeah all of the the chassis and the axles were all Willie Parts yeah you do get a vintage feel to it but it's more visceral you you're looking at it looking around the ride feels obviously as it would have been back day we intentionally didn't put too many markings on the car that let anybody know that it's electric right so it is it is fun to pull up at light sometimes yeah give it a little extra juice well that's sort of a '90s thing when the hybrids first came out remember some called hybrid written on the side it would have all the things pointing at it's front-wheel drive I mean I like the fact that if you don't know don't worry about it yeah if you know you know and you're a pilot as well I am I got my pilot's license in Alaska after the Marine Corps oh after so you were not a pilot in the uh I wasn't a pilot in the Marine Corps I was a combat engineer in the Marine Corps oh okay I think part of that Aviation training in Alaska really shown through in some of the engineering and how we work the weight and balance of this vehicle and the moment it was super important to us to have the same dis weight distribution in the vehicle as it was originally and if we could improve that at all we did now combat engineer what does that mean are you are you fixing Weaponry what what does that mean so we built Bridges and Roads we were sort of the engine of the Marine Corps to allow the Infantry guys to do whatever they needed to do so if we needed to build a bridge build a base clear a road with explosives if there's a bomb in the road we'll we'll blow up that bomb and then we'll rebuild that road so that the Marines can get in where they need to get in at the end of the day just this car it just feels like a car you can just plug in put the key in and drive now your your motor temperature is about not quite 50 so that's sits somewhere around 45 to 55 are the fans thermostatic or are they on all the time no they're variable speed and they're they only come on when the temperature hits a certain point and it needs to cool the motor or the batteries down so most of the time the fans don't run just because the the way that these lithium iion batteries are built yeah they don't get they don't generate a lot of heat most of the heat is actually generated motor and the inverter side when we went back to to redo the cooling system and the heating system on the this car originally it used the coolant from the motor to heat a block to then heat the cabin right but because our motor and inverter don't get hot enough you have to use an electric car ceramic PTC heaters right I see you forget what a high Center gravity these I know well this is pretty surreal to have you driving our car we're pretty excited well it's great it's an honor to do it I mean it's a lot of fun and I like the whole ethos of the company I mean to a lot of customers I I think the military aspect are important it shows you have a commitment you can finish a job when you start it you know you work with other men and women will feel the same way you know everybody has a purpose you know it's a funny time any other time in American history when you at War the whole country is involved you know you can't get plywood you have to have a victory guard we live in an era now where you can have guns and butter you can have war or and you can live as if there's no war at all so consequently you got men and women like you guys that are fighting and the rest of us sitting there living Our Lives it doesn't really cost us anything you know so when you get home you should be rewarded and I I think you know having people take an interest in a company like this Going's never going to get rougher than it was under those circumstances you know it is true it puts things in P in perspective you know it's like yeah yeah it really does you always have more time than you think you do and no one's dying so yeah see it was me I would drive with the regen all all the time put it on yeah where is it hit the mode button in the middle so there's not a ton of regen at high speeds but once you get down towards a light or a stop sign you'll start feeling it kick in I've got a car in the garage called the Owens magnetic 1916 oh yeah it's a gas engine drives an electric motor oh wow and when you drop below like 18 mph the regen kicks in and puts more energy back in the battery so you don't waste the brakes now being an electrical vehicle how about when you try to forage your stream or go through water is all the electrical componentry down below like that we built this car to be as capable as the original Defender so all of our wiring low voltage and high voltage is beyond Motorsport spec and able to be submerged that's and since you don't have a carburetor it's not like you'd be sucking in water so it's all sealed it's all sealed the limit is really just the door seals right right well Joe thanks for bringing it by we really appreciate it I think you and the guys are doing terrific work thanks and once again everybody we all appreciate your service and your dedication if you can bring that same thing to these cars I think you'll do just fine so thanks Jack really appreciate it hey you got a chance to buy from the veteran please do it see you guys next week bye-bye\n"