In 2020, Vanderhall teased a new electric 4×4 called the Navarro. In July of this year, another tease revealed a few specs and a new name, the Brawley. The Utah-based electric autocycle maker is finally ready to take reservations on the model that will push it into new segments, which means opening up a little more of the data sheet and pricing. The Brawley that can be reserved now is the GTS trim we’ve read a bit about before, which should be one of a trim range. The four-seat, two-door UTV packs its e-motors, inverter, geartrain, brakes, and cooling system into a single inboard unit, Vanderhall saying that component won’t need maintenance for up to 10 years.
The battery pack runs longitudinally down the Brawley’s spine between the motor units, in either 40- or 60-kWh flavors. A 300-kW architecture and a 6-kW onboard charger permit DC fast-charging that can restore 80% of battery juice in about an hour. We’re told the bigger pack can get up to 200 miles of range, but we’ll wager that’s only after sedate driving. The thing isn’t road legal, so drivers who want to go tear-assing over the sand better keep an eye on the range readout.
With a motor to turn each wheel, the Brawley’s been designed with close-quarters off-road technologies eCrab, which turns all four wheels in the same direction; eSteer, which is four-wheel steering; eTank, for turning in place by rotating the wheels on opposite sides in opposite directions; and eCrawl, for letting the Brawley inch its way over steep inclines and declines. For a rig just 147.1 inches long — 10 inches shorter and two inches wider than a four-seat Polaris RZR Turbo, and 20 inches shorter than a two-door Jeep Wrangler Sport — it should have unrivaled agility.
More traditional dirt-eating capability comes with internal bypass shocks, 22 inches of travel, and 18-inch wheels on 35-inch tires providing 18 inches of ground clearance. Now that Vanderhall is into four-wheeled vehicles, though, we’re still waiting to find out where the fifth wheel will go; none of the images provided so far show where a spare wheel would fit.
Because the Brawley fits an enclosed body, the interior feature set includes heating and air conditioning blown through cabin filters, a leather-wrapped steering wheel, and Bluetooth-enabled audio. Options will include a clear sky roof section above the front occupants, a removable roof section, heated seats, and in the future, a ViDAR optical radar.
Reserving a Brawley GTS requires just $100. Buying one will cost $34,950 before destination and options. Vanderhall hasn’t provided a delivery date, the reservation page saying the $100 pre-order payment “is non-refundable unless Vanderhall fails to start production of the Brawley model within one year.”
Source: www.autoblog.com