Land Rover’s superb looking compact Range Rover, currently known as the LRX concept, will be made available in 2WD as well as the 4WD version.
The 2WD Range Rover will emit less than 130 g/km of CO2 when it goes on sale in 2011, making it the lightest and greenest vehicle in the company’s sixty-year history of building the most capable off road vehicles on the planet.
Land Rover’s strategy is best summed up by Phil Popham, Land Rover’s managing director who said: “…a 2WD option is just one way in which we are developing our vehicles efficiency whilst adding to the Land Rover range…
We will continue to make the world’s finest all-terrain vehicles for those customers who require 4WD but will now offer an alternative for those that don’t.”
The larger vehicles in the Land Rover range will also get a taste of the green stick with the introduction of diesel hybrid technology in 2012.
Later this year, Land Rover will begin testing their diesel hybrid prototype called the ‘range_e’ in a Range Rover Sport platform using the already efficient 3.0 litre TDV6 diesel powertrain, which will be mated to a ZF 8-speed automatic transmission.
The target for this vehicle is to achieve a range of 20 miles (32 kilometres) under electric power only and emitting less than 100 g/km of CO2 with a top speed of 120 mph (193 km/h).
There is absolutely no question that Land Rover is moving in the right direction and we look forward to some exciting new product, which will no doubt open up an entirely new customer base for the company.
