Land Rover introduces plug-in hybrid technology for the Evoque and Discovery Sport

Land Rover has just showcased the plug-in hybrid variants for the Discovery Sport as well as the Range Rover Evoque, both of which are slated to go on sale in the European markets. This hybrid system offers short-range electric-only mode and has a petrol motor to extend the range of the car.The plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) models will be named P300e in their line ups.

Powering both the P300e is an all-new turbocharged 1.5-litre Ingenium petrol engine with a output of 200bhp. An additional 108bhp electric motor is mounted on the rear axle.

The motor is linked to a battery pack and the combined output of this system is approximately 300bhp and 540Nm of torque. The engine is mated to an 8-speed automatic transmission. The electric-only mode for the Range Rover Evoque gets up to 66km whereas on the Discovery Sport it is just 61km due to its larger size. Performance wise, both these cars are no slouches, delivering 0-100 figures of 6.1 seconds for the Evoque and 6.2 seconds for the Discovery Sport. The cars can hit a top speed of 135kmph in electric mode only. Once the cars hit higher speeds, the electric motor stops to make the cars front-wheel-drive only. Land Rover has added three driving modes the first default driving mode be the HYBRID mode uses both the petrol and electric power units to deliver an optimised performance to the driver , second there is a Electric Vehicle mode that allows the SUV to run purely on electric power ideal for city use and lastly Land Rover has added a SAVE mode that uses the combustion engine as the main power source to help keep the batteries at an optimum charge level.

Now coming to the batteries of these SUVs, they can be charged from a regular socket which takes up to six hours to top up. There's also the provision for a 7kW AC wall socket, which can take the battery from 0 to 80 per cent charge in just 1 hour 24 minutes. Lastly, through DC fast charging, 0 to 80 per cent can be achieved in just 30 minutes. All of this energy is stored in a Samsung-sourced 15kWh battery pack.

There's been no official word from Land Rover about when these cars will be offered in India, but as per the JLR product pipeline, there is an electric car headed our way in the form of the Jaguar I-Pace, scheduled to come out this year. There aren't too many plug in hybrid cars in India but these two SUV's will be a great addition to the current Land Rover portfolio, when it comes to providing cleaner emissions and lower running costs.