Land Rover has done all the development work and testing of new hybrid Range Rover models, and will be taking orders from September 10. Range Rover Hybrid and Range Rover Sport Hybrid – powered by the same hybrid system – will deliver up to 44 mpg (with 169 g/km CO2).
That is a remarkable achievement for Range Rover, which until a few years ago was famous for eating up the world’s oil resources and emitting CO2 in spades. For the new generation though, LR engineers sent the car to a fat camp and made it lose over 400 kg. And now with the introduction of the hybrid models, the Range Rover becomes one of the world’s most fuel efficient utility vehicles, and the first to get a diesel-hybrid powertrain.
The hybrid Range Rover is powered by a 3.0 SDV6 diesel engine mated to an electric motor. Combined output is a healthy 340PS@4000rpm and 700 between 1500 to 3000 rpm. There is a slight difference in performance between the Vogue and the Sport, as they have a 0 to 60 time of 6.9 and 6.7 seconds respectively. Top speed is 135 mph for the Vogue and 140 for the Sport.
In driver-selectable EV mode the Range Rover Hybrid can travel at speeds of up to 30mph (48km/h) for a range of up to one mile (1.6km) before the diesel engine. They say the off-road capability and the refinement of these hybrid Range Rovers are the same as normal models, but that remains to be seen in unbiased tests.
In the meantime, and as a demonstration of those capabilities, three Range Rover Hybrids will embark (Thursday, August 22) on an epic trip, from the home of the Range Rover brand in Solihull to the home of the parent company Tata, in Mumbai, India. Order books in the UK will open from September 10 with first deliveries in early 2014.
