HYBRID POWER
The 48-volt mild hybrid (MHEV), standard on all powertrains bar the entry-level front-wheel-drive diesel manual, tucks a battery under the driver’s seat (comprising 14 8Ah pouches for a 200w/h output). Juice lows from this via a converter to the belt-driven starter-generator, up front with the engine.
The promise? Seamless cutting in and out of the internal combustion engine, an additional 103lb ft of torque when you need it, regenerative charging as you
slow down and boosted eiciencies (a six per cent reduction in fuel consumption and CO2 savings of up to 8g/km). The PHEV is a necessarily a bigger deal, and lends credence to Land Rover’s claim
that this is essentially a new body-inwhite and not an adapted E¢Pace (which, in turn, was an adapted Evoque 1).
Up front, the PHEV will deploy a new three-cylinder, 1.5-litre version of JLR’s
Ingenium petrol engine. That mounts a starter-generator wired to the main battery: a 11.3kWh slab of lithium-ion under the rear-seat passengers and just ahead of the fuel tank. It feeds an e-motor on the rear axle – there’s no mechanical drive to the rear axle; this is hybrid 4x4 – capable of adding 107bhp and 192lb ft to the Ingenium’s 197bhp and 207lb ft of torque.
No all-electric Evoque? ‘You have to do these things over time,’ says Land Rover UK marketing director Anthony Bradbury. ‘Battery electric is still relatively niche, absolute sales volumes are relatively small; for a while we’ll be in a mixed condition. The move to full-electric for Land Rover is a longer-term journey.’