Yacht designer builds a solar-powered Defender EV

Sunreef Yachts, one of the world-leading manufacturers of environment-friendly luxury yachts, came up with something entirely unexpected: a Land Rover Defender running on sun power.

The Poland-based company handed the finished SUV over to the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust (MWCT). Its mission now is to promote sustainable and environmentally clean tourism in Africa.

The upper body of the car was redesigned quite seriously, solar panels added to the roof and the rest of the glass dome removed. A large battery slotted in under the hood where the gasoline engine used to be.

Sunreef Yachts never mentioned power or range, but one could hardly expect the off-roader to run purely on solar energy. Photovoltaics simply isn’t advanced enough for that, so we expect the car to receive most of its power from a regular wall socket.