The Range Rover Evoque - no hybrid version planned
Land Rover has revealed that they no longer plan to offer a Range Rover Evoque hybrid although a hybrid platform will be offered on bigger Land Rovers.
Regular readers will know that we’re not huge fans of the hybrid system. At best it seems an interim solution in the quest to reduce our dependency on oil, and at worst a cynical exploitation of buyers’ deluded concern that CO2 needs to be cut to save the planet.
But with Toyota grabbing such a big chunk of the ‘Green’ market with the Prius and makers of big, powerful cars managing to deliver headline economy figure that belie their power and performance by installing hybrid running gear, we can see why there is an urge for car makers to go the hybrid route.
So the outbreak of common sense from Land Rover – with Land Rover’s global brand director, John Edwards, telling Auto Express that the Range Rover Evoque Hybrid won’t be built – comes as a breath of fresh air.
When hybrid systems can be incorporated in to big, powerful, expensive cars as a way of reducing headline consumptions we can almost see the sense. But in smaller, lighter and cheaper cars they just present a huge cost and weight penalty for gains that can be better – and more cost-effectively – achieved with high-efficiency turbo diesels.
The fact that the original Evoque concept – the Land Rover LRX – had a hybrid system with an electric motor driving the back axle has raised the expectation that Land Rover will opt for a hybrid drivetrain for its smallest product.
Thankfully they’re resisting, although they are still pushing on with a hybrid option for bigger Land Rovers, with the Land Rover Range_e – a hybrid Range Rover Sport – trialing the hybrid platform for bigger LR products.
Common sense, instead of pandering to a vocal, misguided, ‘Green’ minority. How refreshing.
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