The home of Glastonbury is looking to reduce its carbon footprint by electrifying its Land Rover vehicles.
And while the UK’s largest music festival might not have happened at Worthy Farm this year, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Somerset site is looking to do its bit for the environment by electrifying some of its fleet of 4x4s.
Four of its classic Land Rover Defenders are being converted from diesel to electric, with Cardiff University teaming up with Electrogenic – a firm specialising in making classic cars into EVs – on the project, which is costing nearly £350,000. The vehicles will then be monitored to assess performance, cost and environmental impact during the project.
Professor Carol Featherston, from Cardiff University’s School of Engineering, said: “We’re really excited to be able to work alongside Worthy Farm and Electrogenic to develop these electric vehicles and to support the brilliant green initiatives that are already taking place on the farm.
“Most farms have a number of vehicles undertaking different tasks at any one time, and so being able to gather data on actual vehicle usage patterns, energy usage and charging requirements on a working farm as part of this project will enable us to develop a blueprint for how four-wheel drive vehicles can be converted to electric in a cost-effective way with as little environmental impact as possible.”
As part of the project, the team are looking to invite farmers across the UK to the home of Glastonbury to experience the vehicles in the hope that more similar vehicles can be converted into EVs.
Currently there are no true electric 4×4 models on the market in the UK. Though Jeep and Land Rover both offer plug-in hybrids, no fully-electric models are available from the two firms yet.
