Range Rover Hybrid - & new Range Rover

Land Rover Range_e - Its diesel electric hybrid is not the way forward for Land Rover

Land Rover’s Brand Director John Edwards confirms the new Range Rover for 2013, complete with a petrol electric hybrid option.

Emissions targets get ever tighter – even if the wrong emissions are targeted – and fuel keeps on rising in price. None of which really bothers owners of Land Rover’s products, but it does bother Land Rover.

Corporate average emissions are a big deal for car makers – and costly too if not kept in check – which explains Land Rover’s passion for the smaller – and more economical/less emitting – Evoque. But cutting emissions from their bigger cars are high on the ‘Must-Do’ agenda.

Which is why Jaguar Land Rover has been beavering away with hybrid tech to find a way to give owners the performance and power they need, but with a lower energy and carbon footprint to keep the legislators quiet.

So we’ve seen Land Rover playing with the Range_e, a diesel/electric hybrid we saw at Geneva in March and which is – disingenuously – said to average 85mpg, and points the way to a more frugal Land Rover future.

But it only points the way, as Land Rover’s Brand Director John Edwards has told Inside Line. John has confirmed that the first Land Rover hybrid will launch in the 2013 Range Rover. But it will be a petrol hybrid, and not a diesel hybrid like the Range_e.

That will be followed by a range extender hybrid in 2014 – the cutest of the hybrid setups. What we won’t see – if it appears – is the diesel/electric hybrid from the Range_e hitting the roads any time soon as it’s just too expensive to produce. Even for the already expensive Range Rover.

Interestingly, it seems Land Rover are keener to get their hybrid tech up and running in their traditional, full size models first, rather than the compact – and already relatively frugal – Evoque. A strategy again explained by the Corporate Average Emissions stuff.

Of course, we’re also taking this as confirmation that the all-new Range Rover will launch in 2013. After all, would you want to put your latest tech in your oldest model?