As promised when they announced the cars, Range Rover has sent its new hybrid models on a 9,950 mile (16,000km) endurance drive from UK to India. This ‘Silk Trail 2013’ expedition serves as both a publicity stunt for the Range Rover Hybrid by showing its capabilities to the public, and also as a final engineering sign-off drive.
During this 53-day journey the development team and their hybrid Range Rovers will cross 12 countries and over 16,000km of road, and not much of it on smooth tarmac. The team is deliberately looking for rough ground to put the off-road capabilities of the cars to test and make sure the hybrid conversion does not take away from what Range Rover stands for as a proper luxury mud-plugger.
The Silk Trail expedition is divided into 10 stages and is scheduled to visit France, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Nepal and India. So far 1,885 miles (3,034km) is done without ay major setback, which means the convoy will be leaving European territory over the next few days and enter the harder part of the epic voyage.
Range Rover Hybrid and Range Rover Sport Hybrid are powered by a 3.0 SDV6 diesel engine mated to an electric motor. They have 240 PS and 700 Nm of torque, and are expected to return up to 44 mpg.
Note: The Silk Trail is a historical network of interlinking trade routes which connected East, South and Western Asia with the Mediterranean and European world. Extending 4,000 miles (6,437km), the Silk Trail gets its name from the lucrative Chinese silk trade which was carried out along its length and became a significant factor in the development of the civilisations in Asia & Europe from 206BC until the late 14th Century.
