Rich Rebuilds Team Wheels Their Electric UTV

We already showed you the incredible effort that the Rich Rebuilds team put into their one-off EV UTV for SEMA, but if you missed it, here’s the background: They bought a thrashed Polaris RZR off eBay Motors and wholly rebuilt and redesigned it. Then they put in an EV powertrain and headed to the SEMA show in Las Vegas.

After a minor fire at SEMA that went viral (people still love to pick out every instance of an EV failing as a reason to disregard the whole segment), Rich and crew sorted the rig out and headed to the eBay Motors Modathon at Calico Canyon, near Barstow, California. As you’d expect, with a full charge, the EV is an absolute beast, ripping off some very impressive, nearly silent donuts. That is, until a drive chain lets go, stranding the crew in the desert for hours with no cell reception. Every custom build is going to have its hiccups.

Eventually, they get the chain replaced and the real rock crawling begins. As you’d expect, the rig absolutely dominates the rocky screes of Calico Canyon, even after immediately shredding its front drive shaft, then bending a steering rack, and eventually snapping a rear axle.

With a little beefing up, this thing will be an even sharper off-road tool. And, before you ask, the rig only used about 35 percent of a full charge over the whole weekend in the desert and a couple of testing days beforehand. No word on how long the trek was, but there’s plenty of action in the video, so we expect the machine is good for a few solid trips to the trails before it needs to jump on the charger.

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