Land Rover announced the launch of a new version of the Range Rover in the Chinese market at the 2014 Beijing Auto Show. It’s a long wheelbase model powered for the first time by a diesel-electric hybrid powertrain, mixing the car’s renowned luxury and all-terrain capabilities with astonishingly good fuel economy.

The Range Rover Hybrid Long Wheelbase, along with the Sport Hybrid, will be the first hybrid cars from LR, and the first diesel hybrid model from any manufacturer in China. They are powered by a system consisting of a 3.0-litre SDV6 diesel engine with a 35kW electric motor, integrated with an eight-speed ZF automatic transmission.

Total output of this system is 340PS and a sizable 700Nm of torque, with average fuel consumption of 6.4 l/100 km (44.1mpg), equating to CO2 emissions of 169g/km. It also offers 1.6 km of pure electric driving up to 50 km/h or 30 mph.

Range Rover Hybrid Long Wheelbase boasts 180mm of additional legroom in the back and an increase in the rear seat angle of recline to 17 degrees. Despite the extra length none of the cars legendary off-road capabilities have been lost. If anything, the bigger size will help the onboard systems like Terrain Response to deal with rough ground more easily.

Range Rover Hybrids have already proven themselves on a gruelling 16,000km rally from the Land Rover factory in Solihull, across central Asia to the Mumbai headquarters of Tata, Land Rover’s parent company.