A mighty plug-in hybrid jeep that’s fit for farm toil

In theory, plug-in hybrids offer the best of both worlds: the silent effortless power of electric for short journeys and the lack of range anxiety of petrol for the longer trips.

But do they work for the big farm jeep which needs to tow and cover miles on a daily basis?

I recently test-drove a Land Rover Defender 110 PHEV — a special 75th-anniversary model with a green paint job and matching alloy wheels. It was certainly not a week where I could sneak around and get up to anything nefarious.

The Defender 110 is a big machine so it needs power just to get it around. Land Rover have twinned a 2L petrol engine with a 105kw motor, giving a stonking 404hp and 640Nm of torque.

In electric-only mode the Defender will do 40 to 50km. On petrol, they claim it can manage a very frugal (for a 2.5t jeep) 3.1 L/100km, I found that number to be a little optimistic but it still easily beat anything else of this size and power for fuel economy.

With a towing ability of 3,000kg, the it was very poised when I hooked it to a tri-axle flatbed trailer to move some three 500g bags of fertiliser.

The air suspension makes the Defender particularly comfortable, with or without a load on behind.

The test car came with a cool electrically operated hitch, which with the flick of a switch appears and disappears behind the back bumper. Once the hitch has been deployed, the reversing camera becomes a handy helper to hook up the trailer.

Once the lights are plugged in the jeep goes into towing mode, enabling some smart camera angles for reversing and managing the suspension.

The first Land Rover 75 years ago was a pure workhorse designed to trudge across farm land and do some of the jobs tractor could do. Up until the demise of the old Defender in 2016 it still carried some of the utilitarian function over form that made it brilliant off-road but a bit aloof and uncomfortable on sealed surfaces.

The cabin of the old Defender was sparse. The new one certainly isn’t. The interior is still rugged and practical, but it is remarkably well appointed.

It is a real pleasure to be in and up there with its big cousin the Range Rover for comfort on a long haul.

Yet the Defender remains extremely capable off-road. I brought it to places where many SUVs would get stuck, and it didn’t even flinch.

There are many different off road settings and even without full engagement of them, the Defender seems as capable as its predecessors, or more so.

So this PHEV jeep is suitable for the farm: it pulled well and did everything you could need it to do. But this is the cream of the crop when it comes to plugin hybrid technology and power.

Lower-specification jeeps may not be as good, but these are not yet on the market.

There is one big issue with the Defender: it costs an eye-watering €123k. For the lucky few who can afford it, what a machine.

For the rest of us, hopefully more PHEVs with similar abilities will come to market at a more affordable price in the future.