To demonstrate the capabilities of the new Range Rover Sport Hybrid, Land Rover has teamed up with Airstream – a manufacturer of travel trailers – in an extreme real world test. For 2,500 miles the car towed a 2.5 tonne trailer to Land Rover’s cold-weather test center in Arjeplog, Sweden, then on to the Arctic Circle.
En route, the team had to cross the 5-mile long Øresund Bridge, which was being lashed by the tail end of Hurricane Ole. Off-road, the car proved its worth too, repeatedly pulling the trailer up and down snowy and often dangerously icy hills, and along forest tracks without fuss.
Ben Samuelson, who led the team, said, “We were closely watching the long range weather forecasts before we set off but nothing prepared us for how bad it got. However, time after time, it was only as we got out of the car that we realised quite how treacherous it was outside.”
Further north, as temperatures plummeted to -22°C outside, both the vehicle and the trailer’s cold-climate capability and comfort ensured that driver, passengers, and those in the trailer each evening, experienced nothing.
Manager of the Arjeplog test facility, Phil Talboys, commented, “The Range Rover Sport Hybrid has gone through the same gruelling test and development regime that all our cars do. This journey just goes to show that the Range Rover Sport Hybrid is pure hybrid – with all the capability and versatility that you’d expect from a Land Rover.”
Meanwhile, Land Rover has tested the new Range Rover Evoque Convertible 40m below the streets of London, UK. The car maker was granted exclusive access to the 26-mile (42km) network of Crossrail tunnels with its first prototype. Engineers were allowed the opportunity to drive the disguised Evoque Convertible with its roof lowered in complete privacy. The vehicle negotiated a range of obstacles through the 6.2m diameter tunnel with its top down.
Click here for a video of the Range Rover Evoque under test.
