Business secretary Vince Cable got an exclusive chance to try the Jaguar Land Rover Limo Green concept after visiting the firm’s headquarters in Gaydon, Warwickshire.
The electric/petrol hybrid concept vehicle is designed to help the carmaker prove that ‘luxury’ and ‘green’ need not be incompatible statements. The firm hopes the vehicle will achieve CO2 emissions of less than 120gm/km, fuel consumption bettering 57mpg and a top speed of 112mph. The car -capable of driving 30 miles in EV mode alone- has been developed in conjunction with Lotus Engineering, MIRA and Caparo Technologies and is based on the new, lightweight, XJ saloon.
Dr Cable tried the vehicle out during a tour of the West Midlands, discovering all about the area’s strategic importance to the car industry.
Other green vehicles on display for the secretary included the Range Rover Sport REHEV (Range Extended Hybrid Electric Vehicle) and Land Rover’s much-anticipated new model, the Range Rover Evoque. The Evoque is a smaller, lighter, more fuel-efficient addition to the Range Rover line-up set to go on sale in 2011.
The visit gave the carmaker –the UK’s largest investor in automotive environmental technologies –the opportunity to showcase how it has utilised some of the £800m already committed to the development of technologies aimed specifically at reducing tailpipe CO2 emissions.
Later, the Business Secretary’s visited the International Digital Laboratories at Warwick University in Coventry where Jaguar Land Rover have recently opened an advanced technology and research facility on the campus.
While at the university the Business Secretary will get behind the wheel of a racing car designed and made from sustainable and renewable materials that include chocolate, carrots and potatoes.
