Range Rover (& Range Rover Sport) Hybrid revealed – on sale September

Land Rover has revealed the Hybrid Range Rover and Range Rover Sport with a 3.0 TDV6 and 35kW electric motor. On sale September.

We revealed back in May that Land Rover would be revealing hybrid versions of both the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport at Frankfurt, and ahead of that debut Land Rover has revealed specs for their first hybrid, which are pretty much as expected.

The plan for the hybrid powertrain for the Rangies was always to offer the power and torque of the 4.4 litre V8 diesel, but with economy better than the 3.0 litre V6. And Land Rover seem to have achieved that.

They’ve mated the 3.0 litre SDV6 diesel with a 35kW electric motor to produce a total of 335bhp on tap (although how they’ve worked that out we’re not sure – our calculator says 305bhp) together with a very useful 515lb/ft of torque available from 1500rpm.

That translates in to V8-like performance for both the Range Rover and Sport, with 62mph coming up in 6.9 seconds (6.7s in the Sport) and official economy numbers at 44.1mpg and emissions of 169g/km, figures that will make the hybrid Range Rovers a much more appealing business buy.

Both the Hybrid Range Rover and Sport will debut at Frankfurt next month, but in the meantime a trio of hybrid Range Rovers are setting off tomorrow on a trip along the Silk Road to India – from Land Rover’s home in Solihull to its (Tata’s) home in Mumbai.

The new hybrids will go on sale in the UK on 10th September with first customer hybrids arriving early in 2014. How much will they cost? Probably as much as the Supercharged V8 petrol.