News: Land Rover to Sell Hybrid Range Rover Sport in 2012

 Autocar reports a new hybrid Range Rover Sport is coming in 2012:

Land Rover is engineering a Range Rover Sport hybrid that it claims will emit just 100g/km of CO2 and could offer an electric-only range of as much as 20 miles.

The vehicle will be driveable next year when a small fleet of up to five prototypes start shakedown tests ahead of a 2012 sales launch.

If it can be achieved, the low CO2 figure will be a significant breakthrough for the luxury brand, and it will move the Range Rover Sport’s carbon emissions onto an equal footing with those of smaller, lighter vehicles like the Citroën C1 and Ford Focus Econetic. It would also considerably undercut the market’s sole hybrid SUV, the Lexus RX450h, which emits 148g/km of CO2.

The Range Rover will use the new 3.0-litre V6 diesel motor and feature a parallel arrangement for the 25kW electric motor, which will allow it to run as an all-electric vehicle, just like a Toyota Prius. Land Rover isn’t divulging how it will achieve the 20-mile electric-only range, but the car is understood to operate as a plug-in and surplus electrical energy will be stored in a conventional battery pack.

It is also clear that this first-generation Land Rover hybrid will feature conventional storage of the electrical charge rather than the ultra-capacitors that the firm has been testing.

Ultra-capacitors deliver high voltages but low currents. The technology is said to be particularly suitable for Land Rover because the short, sharp energy boost that capacitors can deliver is well suited to off-road driving.

With even Land Rover going green and producing hybrids, it will be very interesting to see where we are 20 years from now in the development of hybrid / electric / green vehicles.  Maybe we finally get personal air cars or hover cars, which I guess would kind of be the ultimate go anywhere 4x4's.  What's your take on the future of 4x4 vehicles?  Let us know in the comment section...