How Jaunt Motors Uses 3D Scanning to Build Electric Off-Road Vehicles

From Classic to Clean: A New Vision for Off-Roading

Jaunt Motors, co-founded by Dave Budge, has a singular mission: to make off-road travel electric. Their approach is bold and refreshingly nostalgic—take iconic Land Rover Defenders and transform them into fully electric vehicles. These vehicles retain their classic charm but swap noisy, polluting diesel engines for quiet, powerful electric drivetrains.

The idea is not just about engineering. It’s about changing the way we engage with the environment. “If you’re going to explore some of the most beautiful and fragile landscapes on earth, you should be doing it in a way that respects that environment,” says Budge. That means reducing emissions, eliminating engine noise, and increasing reliability—especially in remote terrain where breakdowns can mean more than just inconvenience.

Meet Juniper, the first of Jaunt’s productions. (Image by Jaunt / Instagram)

“I’ve always loved exploring and hiking and four-wheel driving, and Australia is great for getting out into the bush,” said Dave Budge, CEO of Jaunt Motors. “But I felt a little guilty about burning a lot of diesel to go somewhere that has pristine air and beautiful surroundings. There’s a huge part of Australia – some of the most beautiful places there are – where there’s no way to get there other than a four-wheel drive.”

While a growing urgency on reducing carbon emissions looms, there were numerous reasons for developing a new way to explore the Australian bush. “You want to hear the birds and the wind – there’s an element you miss when you’re in a car because of the sound of a diesel engine,” Budge said. “And I just found myself wishing there was an electric four-wheel that I could buy.”

The Challenge of Conversion

While the idea sounds simple, the execution is anything but. Every vehicle they work with is unique, often decades old and in varying states of wear. Retrofitting these with modern electric motors, batteries, and control systems requires precise measurement and spatial awareness. Unlike traditional automotive assembly, which relies on uniform factory models, working with vintage vehicles involves a high level of customization.

That’s where the Artec Leo comes in. With its wireless operation, onboard processing, and real-time 3D capture, it allows the Jaunt Motors team to scan entire vehicle chassis, engine compartments, and structural components with pinpoint accuracy.

Artec Leo takes on an old Land Rover. (Image by Dave Budge / Jaunt)

Why Artec Leo?

Traditional 3D scanning methods would require stationary setups, cables, and often a power source—not ideal when working in a garage or field setting. The Artec Leo is completely self-contained, with a built-in screen for real-time feedback, and it’s capable of scanning without the need for markers or targets. This makes it perfect for scanning complex, irregular surfaces like those found on vintage Land Rovers.

Using the Leo, engineers can walk around the vehicle, scanning each section in detail. The result is a complete and highly accurate 3D model of the chassis or interior space. This model can then be imported directly into CAD software, where it becomes the basis for designing custom electric motor mounts, battery housings, and cable routing.

“The time was right, people have been converting cars for 10-15 years,” said Budge. “We were at a point where it wasn’t an engineering challenge – we knew it could be done – it was more of a design and user interface challenge.”

More than making it go, it was making sure they could fit everything in. (Image by Jaunt / Instagram)

The first step was buying a car and pulling it apart. “No two Land Rovers are the same – they’re all hand built,” said Budge. But with a ladder frame that the car is built around staying consistent, the basic dimensions have stayed the same for most of the last 70 years. These dimensions allowed the team to better understand how to fit everything in with some parts removed and some parts added – including ten large Tesla batteries selected for their energy efficiency and high density.

The plan: While tearing apart and rebuilding the car, to consider how new manufacturing techniques and modern precision could be used for improvement. “We’re not trying to redesign a car,” said Budge. “We’re trying to make this existing car drive better.”

For a task that required details down to the millimetre, 3D scanning was needed. “A 3D model of a Land Rover chassis just didn’t exist,” Budge said. “And even if it did, it wouldn’t include all the dimensions and protrusions and things that get added during the manufacturing process.”

It was at this point that 3D scanning experts in Victoria were called in.

“Our Team at Thinglab were initially approached by Jaunt to see what options were available to create a digital model of one of their Land Rover chassis,” said Ben Myers from Artec’s Gold Certified Partner Thinglab. “Of course we jumped at the chance of being involved in this project and could quickly see that the requirements were calling out for the Artec Leo to be used.”

A 3D model of a Land Rover’s chassis.

“For a project such as this, a massive amount of planning and design is required, with every line and curve considered, every arc or box section catered to,” explained Myers. “Fitting componentry, ensuring clearances and working out placement is always one of the challenges, and this requires accurate measurements and plans.”

A scanner like no other, Artec Leo allows accuracy of up to 0.1mm and has the most intuitive workflow with onboard processing and a built-in display. Used wirelessly, scanning with Artec Leo is as easy as taking a video on your mobile phone, while real-time display allows the user to quickly capture any areas they might have missed. This makes it a great solution for vehicles of all sorts and areas that are difficult to reach.

Leo’s features came in very handy. (Image by Dave Budge / Jaunt)

“There were a number of applications planned for the scan data, but the most crucial thing was to provide an accurate STL file which could be used in CAD,” Myers said. “This data could then be used to reverse engineer sections and provide a reference to design around.”

A colour mesh file was also made which allowed for renders and image creation. With Artec Studio, a high-resolution colour OBJ along with a heavily decimated file more manageable for CAD packages were easily produced.

“Scanning a chassis can be challenging as there are a lot of occlusions and in this case we needed a full model meaning scanning from multiple angles,” said Myers. “It was also quite low to the ground with not much clearance so we needed to utilize Leo’s inverted scanning and on-board display which helped, and saved a huge amount of time.”

Using the scanned chassis as a template of sorts, the Jaunt team can now work on a wide range of vehicles and expand their business further still.

“Leo let us scan this really quickly, and allowed us to have that resolution and that flexibility in the middle of our workshop,” said Budge. “We needed this to know that we could actually build our production vehicle.”

A 3D model allows the team to effectively select where the large Tesla batteries the car will run on can be placed.

With two cars successfully converted – the first was made for Mountain Ridge Winery who created a new wine in honour of their new car – more plans targeted at vacation destinations such as wineries, breweries and hotels are taking shape. “What we can do here is to create something that is inspiring and gets people excited about Electric Vehicles in a way that they never considered before,” Budge said.

And with more than 150 days of rental already booked in advance, and five more cars in the pipeline for early next year, Jaunt is just getting started with more scanning to be done yet. “While the basic platform was the same from 1958 to 2016,” Budge explained, “there are a lot of variants that we need to account for as we take up every square millimetre fitting batteries.”

“This is a great project that is exciting in the sense that it gives new life to an icon which is very well-loved,” said Myers. “It was also a great opportunity to showcase Leo and demonstrate how it can be utilized.”