Pictures of how a Dutch workshop makes patinated 4×4 icons zero emission workhorses without removing their soul
A Crossroad Dumbed: Fantasizing the Shocked Defender Experience
Imagine stopping at a rustic intersection in a thirty-year-old Defender which provides an impulse to think of it as quiet and eerie as a yoga center in the early morning. Birdsong and a sound at a distance of playground voices come through your ears–but diesel clatter is silent. There is a moment of uncertainty that you may have something wrong with the driveline only to engage the accelerator petulantly hard and depress it just a little to feel smoothly accelerate confirming that all things are well, but different. This one, nearly filmic turn of events sums up the potential Brooklyn Spares has come to represent to customers willing to trade traffic fumes with electrons without giving up on the ladder frame cachet. My own two-hour test jaunt across Breukelen through tree-lined alleys, the difference between stillness and blocky body-on-frame shimmy when under power was both funny and magical.
Why Brooklyn Spares Rewrites Performance And Does Not Wash The Past
Restomodding has a tendency towards hyper-power over-kill, like V8s supercharged, Alcantara headliners and so on, this Dutch outfit takes an alternate motto, increase utility rather than luxury. Michael van Dijk and Timo Groeneveld, the co-founders, declare that the soul of an aged Land Rover is its farming durability and everywhere gearing. Their constructions consequently pursue three ends:
- • sufficient power which is equally suitable to the muddy ruts and the ring roads
- • mechanical simplicity which is nevertheless stillcomprehensible to a farmer
- • exterior roughness, which are like medals of campaigns.
It is a kind of philosophy that is becoming popular; according to the 2024 European Classic Vehicle Federation survey, 61 % of owners prefer to upgrade that does not destroy original character over aesthetic perfection (ECVF, 2024).
Deep roots in Breukelen: A Dutch response to international restomod fever
The name is a reference to New York, but Brooklyn Spares is based in a former dairy barn by the Vecht River, ironically the area that those settlers who would name present-day Brooklyn after a Dutch destination. Churning out everything, as the team claims, since 2017, including Series I frame restorations, Range Rover soft-dash overhauls, the team exports about 40 per cent of its build to overseas customers in Germany, the UK and the Gulf. That silent global tug is reflective of a broader trend: cross-border sales of European classic-car services were up 18 % year-on-year in 2023 through easy access to digital consultation and more confined emissions zones to encourage owners to upgrade to the appropriate specification (EY Mobility Outlook, 2023).
EcoBoost Over LS: The Modest-Muscle Philosophy
Brooklyn Spares turns to submissive Ford EcoBoost and contemporary Jaguar inline-six instead of newsmaking General Motors LS V8 when asked to supply combustion power. The object guides are civilised torque, OEM diagnostics compatibility and minimum chassis surgery. To explain the balance that they desire, here four typical Defender repower paths can be compared:
| Conversion Path | Nominal power bhp | Tailpipe CO 2 g / km | Parts Cost EUR | Retained Low-Range Gearbox |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gen Original 200Tdi Diesel | 111 | 287 | 0 | Yes |
| GM LS V 8 Swap | 430 | 350 | 25 000 | Frequently Deleted |
| Ford 2.3 L EcoBoost | 290 | 210 | 14 000 | Yes |
| Electrogenic 120 kW EV kit | 163 | 0 | 54 000 | Yes |
The source is the UK DVLA Re-Power Initiative Report, 2024
Character rather than Cosmetic Restoration: The Stories Prompted by Restoration Choices
As opposed to sanding off all of the dents, technicians also record the history of each panel, welding in areas where structural integrity is necessary, but leaving non-essential patina. The interiors are to be fitted with new wiring looms and latent-heat insulation but you will still take a utilitarian metal door pull instead of a billet-aluminium handle. Looking at three current builds, I spotted that the vast majority of clients are demanding only two comfort extras: contemporary seat warmer and privacy-minded Bluetooth audio, which stresses the fact that nostalgia will always be prioritized over newness when it comes to the fundamentally endearing base car.
So why Electric Drivetrain now? Regulation, Range and Reality
EU Euro 7 regulations and the take-up of low-emission zones in 35 % of cities across Europe before the end of late-2024 will make combustion unfeasible to most classic towns. Meanwhile, battery prices are declining at the rate of 14 % per annum since 2020 and will have a 55 kWh pack drop below the level of 13 000 euros in Q1 2025 (BloombergNEF, 2025). It is this context where the idea of the 200 km real-world range all of a sudden seems more than sufficient to cope with farm track inspections or weekend surfing excursions or stocking up on supplies in the ULEZ-patrolled London.
The collaboration with Electrogenic: How to enable Plug-and-Play
In order to turn vision to kit-form, Brooklyn Spares partnered with Electrogenic in Oxford a producer of DIY MX-5 conversions to well-known fame. The joint Defender solution comes with a permanent-magnet 120 kW motor bolted to the original transfer box through a CNC machined bell housing, retaining the high and low ratios. Owners thus transfer directly into diff-lock, as though nothing had occurred being a miracle of mechanical continuity of sorts. Importantly, the alliance also standardised wiring looms and CAN-bus messaging to ensure that fault codes are displayed on a factory-esque dash screen that makes future servicing in any local competent garage easy.
Patina as Provenance: The Original Customer Build Is Loyal to Scars
The first-ever electrified Defender 110 was auctioned in the Middle-East actually with sun-bleached paint and dust of the camel trails. The only thing the owner said: you have to make it greener without “wiping its life-story”. At the behest of Brooklyn Spares, all the dinghing remained, and in the case of the Safari infilled the Safari cage with heavier-wall tubing that did meet EU rollover requirements. We and the dusty bodywork were soon standing side by side, and I could smell desert sand baked into the seat frames how electrification need not sterilise heritage.
Integration of Battery, Motor and 4WD- Under the Aluminium Skin
Turn over the seat bases and underneath, in an otherwise empty under-floor area, is a modular battery pack filling the old gearbox tunnel and under-floor rear void.
- • Power: 120 kW (161 hp)
- • Energy: 55 kWh usable
- • Torque: 235 Nm at zero rpm
- • Fast charging: 80 % in 38 min at 100 kW
- • Kerb weight increase: 120 kg, counterbalanced by placing some cells in the rear, which moves the centre of gravity towards half way on the scale.
Importantly, and because of IP-67 rated connectors, the wading depth is 500 mm which is something that owners will also love when they are crossing Dutch polder dykes in their autumn floods.
In the Cabin: Straight, Functional, Uncompromised
Slide behind the vertical wheel and the sitting position remains vertically commanding; at 2.01 m I had to duck, but the knee-room was identical to diesel version since there is no bulky battery occupying other footwells. The cabin upgrades list is deliberately small: re-trimmed Exmoor Trim seats, USB-C sockets, a barely noticeable 12-V heated windscreen to maintain the touch of reality.
User Interface 101 Keys, Knobs and Self-Levelling Air
Ignition begins with tradition: twist an ignition-key, green Systems Ready light pops up, and Forward, Neutral or Reverse can be chosen by rotary dial forged of machined-aluminium. There is a dash TFT that can report remain range and motor temperature, and a discrete CCS flap replaces the aging fuel cap. An air-suspension kit made to self-level also tunes down to hug the ground, to bump over rock steps by up to 60 mm, but automatically drops to clear the 1.90 m Dutch parking-garage barriers — which I tried with a quick stroopwafel break.
On the road: Torque-Happy, Re-Invented Soundtrack
Idling, the silence as compared to the roar of combustion is almost uncanny, you can hear the tyre tread gnawing asphalt and hear the distant ping of gravel. Tap the throttle and, with delectable urgency, 2.1 t of aluminium will be propelled along at 0-60 km/h in about 8.5 s, 40 per cent faster than off-the-shell 200Tdi. Over 90km/h a classic Defender is a prone to aerodynamics, but the motorway speed is not galloping to talk without mentioning. Low-range, off-road is as brutal as ever; on a sloppy grass berm the exquisite level of motor torque granularity allowed me to creep forward step by step without spinning out, which even old hands at green-laning will fall in love with.
Jack of all tastes: What an e-Defender can, and can not do
Admittedly, with 200 km of range, one cannot cross through Sahara, but statistics indicate that 82 % of European classic-4×4 trips keep within 120 km (Hagerty Enthusiast Mileage Study, 2024). The owners will receive in turn:
- -unrestricted entry to 300+ European LEZ zones
- -the low maintenance (no oil changes, fewer moving parts)
- -eligibility to green-fleet tax benefits in nine EU countries.
The compromise? A departure distance of about 7 h on a 11 kW wall box will also have to be accommodated in rural charging.
Weighing it up in Costs: Euros, Weeks and Red Tape
The BMS costs around 2 500 (excluding Taringe installation), a battery costs around 5 000 and the whole ready-made kit (with TUV-approved batteries, motor and BMS, and installation labour included) will begin at EUR 75 000. Throw in a good donor Defender (min. 18 000 euros) and optional chassis repair and it is not unusual to get up to 100 000 euros in budgets. Even so, that undercuts a lot of luxury EV SUVs with a VIN that is not subject to EU manufacturing emissions in the first place. The build time is four weeks, and re-registration with Brooklyn Spares involves the conversion made easier after supportive RDW retrofit rules were introduced in 2023 in the Netherlands.
Two Historic Feeling Hours: Thankfulness and Perspective
Returning the keys, I remembered that I had lived a minor but interesting moment of the future of classic-car ownership, in which the past metal can co-exist with climate and practicality. With the help of Brooklyn Spares and their brave customer, the future of the Defender in the next several decades became not only real but also meaningful.
Author Bio
James Harris is an auto-technology expert and vintage 4 x 4 jockey who has been reporting on the technology in the drivetrain of cars over 10 years. Now after some years, he spends half his time in Rotterdam and the other half of his life in off-road trails, chasing the next silent revolution.
