Land Rover's hit the Discovery Sport and Range Rover Evoque with the electrification stick. On Wednesday, the British automaker revealed the Range Rover Evoque P300e and Discovery Sport P300e plug-in hybrid models. On paper, it sounds like efficiency doesn't come with many trade-offs.
We'll begin with the similarities between the two models. Both the Evoque and Discovery Sport plug-in hybrid sport a new turbocharged 1.5-liter three-cylinder engine paired with an electric motor tucked into the rear axle and a 15 kilowatt-hour battery. Both SUVs provide 305 horsepower and 372 pound-feet of torque, and a new eight-speed automatic handles gear changes. All-wheel drive is, of course, still part of the package.
No matter which model, they'll go up to 84 mph on battery power alone before the engine kicks in to handle some of the duty.
The two diverge a bit in fuel economy estimates and purely electric range ratings, but they're pretty darn good. The Range Rover Evoque P300e should return 41 miles on a full charge and return 201 miles per gallon equivalent under European testing standards. The Discovery Sport P300e comes in slightly lower with 38 miles to a full charge and an estimated 175 mpge.
The hybrid system tucks away neatly with the lithium-ion pack stowed below the rear seats and the high-voltage junction box integrated under the front seats, and right next to it resides a belt-integrated starter generator inverter to send regenerated energy from the brakes to the battery pack, or to the all-wheel drive system.
Drivers can choose from three modes to operate the Land Rover plug-in models, Hybrid, EV and Save, to either let the full powertrain operate, run solely on electric power or use the engine as the primary power source. When there's no juice left, it should take about 30 minutes for a full charge with a DC fast charger, so drivers shouldn't need to worry about long charging times.
Land Rover said both new models are available to order now in the UK, but those of us in the US will be left out. A Land Rover representative told Roadshow there are currently no plans to offer either model stateside.
