Land Rover has displayed its hybrid diesel Range Rover for the first time at the Geneva show. This is a hybrid prototype for now, but Range Rover will definitely be offering a production hybrid within a couple of years.

The headline figures for the Range-e are spectacular: a Prius-equalling 89 g/km of CO2, a 20 mile range on electric power, a top speed of 120 mph and a total range of 690 miles.



The battery pack is no afterthought: it has a 14.2 KW/h capacity driving a 94 bhp electric motor. To put that into perspective, the Range-e has half the battery power of the Nissan Leaf, a car which has no internal combustion engine at all.

To fully recharge the batteries from a domestic power source takes a reasonable four hours. Land Rover is also very proud of the fact that it meets all the off-roading standards of its non-hybrid cars. That means all the electrical systems are fully waterproofed so that the hybrid can wade through deep water.

Yes, we know owners of £70K Range Rovers tend not to do that, but the company believes that its brand depends on the ability to do unfeasible off-roading, even if only 1% of new Range Rover buyers actually do that (ironically, it tends to be second and third owners who actually make more use of their capability).

In terms of timing, things are a little complicated. The next-generation Range Rover will offer a conventional (i.e. non-plug-in) hybrid from 2013.

The version being shown here, with plug-in capability, will follow probably one or two years later. At that point, it will be possible to buy a super-luxury SUV with sub-100 g/km CO2 emissions.

Indeed, Land Rover is hinting that the next Range Rover, which will be much lighter, could have even better range and CO2 figures than the Range-e prototype. Militant greens may have to find a new hate-figure.