Land Rover Range_e plug-in hybrid captured on video

We've teased you with pictures of the Land Rover Range_e plug-in hybrid for several days and now we're about to stroke you delicately upside the head with this hands-on video so you can see the thing through the medium of moving pictures.

What you don't quite get from stills is how utterly enormous the Range_e really is. It's based on a standard Range Rover Sport, so it'll dwarf anyone standing next to it. It's heavy, too. The standard car tips crushes the scales at 2,455kg, so it's bound to make the tarmac beg for mercy after Land Rover's strapped in a 14.2kWh lithium-ion battery and a 69kW electric motor along with its 3-litre TDV6 diesel engine.

All that weight doesn't seem to affect its economy and emissions one bit, though. Land Rover claims the car pumps out exactly the same CO2 emissions as as the smaller Toyota Prius -- just 89g/km. What's more, the Range_e manages to achieve a whopping 85mpg, surpassing the Prius' mpg figure by 12.6mpg.

The Range_e can be driven for 22 miles on electric power alone, helping you commute without polluting the environment with emissions from the exhaust. When juice from the lithium-ion battery pack is kaput, the diesel engine can take over to drive the car for a total of around 700 miles.

The Range_e is currently in the concept stage, but Land Rover has several development models roaming UK streets. It's gathering data, analysing reliability and removing gremlins at a feverish rate, with the intention of transferring the Range_e's hybrid gubbins to the rest of its model range by as soon as 2013.

Watch the video above to learn more, then head over to our 2011 Land Rover Range Rover video review to see how that car copes off road.

• Video produced by Drew Stearne. Presented by Rory Reid.