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Drove a 4x4 EV based on the Force Gurkha: My off-roading experience

27th February 2024, 14:08 by Ananth Iyer

The range is about 150 miles (about 240 Kilometers) on a single charge with fast charging option. That is not too bad considering the shape and weight of the vehicle.

BHPian BlackPearl recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

A bit of a background to start with

Nowadays we get to hear a lot that social media is bad for so many reasons like lack of concentration, mindless scrolling, trolling.. it is a very long list. But in this case I must say that without social media, I would have missed an important event, well an "important to me" event! Facebook surely knows my predilection about 4x4s and my feed is full of them. One evening last week while scrolling through them I stopped twice to look at one particular post because of two things, it was from Surrey 4x4 with whom I do a lot of greenlaning and it was about a 4x4 that was not a Land Rover but looked very familiar! Went through the photos and realised why it was so familiar. The post mentioned that a company is coming up with a new generation fully electric 4x4 and that the mailing customers have been informed about a public demo coming up. I started pondering over the post and said to myself, well hang on.. I should be on the mailing list of Surrey 4x4 but I cannot remember any mention about this vehicle. For a second I thought that they have forgotten to send me the email. Moment of panic, started frantically looking for the email from Gareth (Surrey 4x4 owner) and to my relief found it after a couple of minutes. It was an email sent in December and it mentioned that the slots were limited. Panic continues. Immediately emailed Gareth that I really wanted to be part of the demo mainly because I have driven the ICE version of the previous generation of this vehicle. In my desperation I mentioned that any slot will do as long as I get to drive the car. Got a reply that there was a place in the last slot and it was booked in my name. Relief!

The Spartan EV 2.0 from their website. It says pre-preduction name

As usual I was excited about the demo of the 4WD vehicle named Spartan EV 2.0. I read up a bit online before the event. On the day of the demo I reached the place almost half an hour prior to allocated time slot. This is the same place where Surrey 4x4 does all the training and I had done my LANTRA certification here. While entering the woods I could see the demo vehicle from a distance and I thought that this is not a good sign. It is usually a common sight after greenlaning events where a 4x4 will be standing with its bonnet open and quite few people jostling for space to get a good look at what has gone wrong. The demo vehicle had its bonnet open and a few people were there checking something. I thought, oh no, something has gone wrong with the vehicle since it has been doing the course through out that day and that I would not get a chance to drive it. In a few minutes after parking my car I got to know that my concern was unfounded and it was just the people checking the huge battery pack that replaces the conventional engine.

Screen grab from the dash cam showing the people looking at the car with the bonnet up!

The Vehicle and the Offroad course

MW Motors agreed to bring along their their new pre-production EV 2.0 (they haven’t confirmed the name of the vehicle yet!). This new 4x4 EV is based on the Indian manufactured ‘Gurkha’ . The previous version was based on a Russian utilitarian vehicle. For the new one, they wanted to go with something that is manufactured on a larger scale, is more capable, is more modern and safer. The offroad course was the same track that Surrey 4x4 uses for their training and it is quite difficult at places to say the least. It had been raining for the last couple of days and that made the ground even more tricky. What makes the course even more interesting is that there are slopes that look quite benign but the tree roots make it very slippery and the cars start sliding towards the trees. It takes great concentration to avoid hitting the trees. A bit of trivia, if you hit a tree, it will be named after you!

The first Spartan EV based on a Russian UV

The Drive

As I said before, the course is tricky and this was the first time I was driving an EV. It takes a bit of time to get used to. I have driven on this course innumerable number of times with my Series 3 and the ex-Defender 110 as I had done my LANTRA 4x4 training here as well as attended several offroading sessions. But this was the first time I was driving a vehicle with road biased tyres. It was very different as I was not used to the lack of grip and so much slipping and sliding. But full marks to the vehicle for being able to do the track with those tyres. I have seen Range Rovers and Discoveries on this track with road tyres and have seen them struggle at a few places. But they are backed by state of the art offroad electronics, the Spartan on the other hand is purely mechanical underneath and I was simply amazed. The front and rear differential locks worked perfectly. It was a bit different while going down a slope compared to conventional ICE vehicles because there is no engine braking in the EV to hold you back. So I had to brake on the slopes which I am not at all used to. But the sales manager told us that the production vehicle will come with Hill Descent Control. The first drive through the course was challenging for me because I was not used to the vehicle and driving an offroad vehicle through narrow places with so much mud needs precise throttle and brake inputs. However, once everyone else had completed their driving, I requested for another drive and it was much better the second time. I have no doubt that the production version of the vehicle will be extremely capable.

Here is a video of the drive

More details about the Spartan EV 2.0 can be found on their website

Specifications from the website -

The range is about 150 miles (about 240 Kilometers) on a single charge with fast charging option. That is not too bad considering the shape and weight of the vehicle. Moreover, the target customers are forestry department and construction companies that need reliable and capable 4x4s on the site and don't need to travel significant distances on a daily basis. I was talking to a few people and they were saying that those vehicles only drive about 30 to 40 miles max within the sites and that is perfectly doable with this one. It will help in meeting their green targets and there is no electric utility vehicle in the market as of now.

There is another set of target customer like the people who currently put their offroader on a trailer and drive to pay and play sites and enjoy a mud bashing day. They can easily do it with this vehicle.

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