Promising to worsen the fuel efficiency problem, Land Rover is set to unveil the Range_e, a diesel-electric plug-in hybrid version of the Range Rover Sport, at the Geneva auto show in early March.
Details on the truck are in short supply, but Land Rover says that the Range_e features the company’s 3.0-liter diesel V-6, paired with a plug-in parallel hybrid system. Although the company is promising that the Range_e includes four-wheel drive, it’s unclear whether both the electric and diesel motors route power through the ZF-supplied automatic transmission, or whether the system is more like Volvo’s diesel-electric plug-in hybrid concept also coming to Geneva, where the diesel powers two wheels and the electric motor is responsible for the other two. The Range_e will offer an electric-only range of 20 miles, and will pack a top speed—presumably using both powerplants—of roughly 120 mph.
Even if the Range_e does enter production, U.S. sales are unlikely, as the federalization costs would be dwarfed by low sales volume. That’s fine with us; we’ll be able to conserve hyphens.
This entry was posted on Thursday, February 17th, 2011 at 10:17 pm and is filed under Land Rover, SUV. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
tags : land rover hybrid ,automotive , hybrid car;