Land Rover and Range Rover hybrid sales soar over EV uncertainty

A shift in car buyers’ priorities toward hybrids amid confusion over when only new fully electric cars can be sold is playing into the hands of Range Rover and Land Rover, their manufacturer claims.
JLR, the West Midlands-based, Indian-owned automotive group, has reported a 29 per cent surge in demand for its plug-in hybrid models in the first half of its financial year, the six months to the end of September.
“More customers [are using] the technology as a stepping stone towards battery electric vehicles,” the company said.
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Many in the industry have long argued that plug-in hybrids which can run on rechargeable electric batteries and then on a petrol engine when the charge runs out, should have been regarded as the plausible halfway house on the road toward full electrification.
Plug-in electric hybrids or PHEVs, it has been claimed, would allow consumers the chance to get used to the new technology and overcome so-called range anxiety on longer trips as well as allowing manufacturers the chance to bring production costs down on full electric vehicles over time to make them more affordable.
For Range Rover models, JLR reported global PHEV sales rising by 47 per cent. For its Defender brand, the vehicle name for the new version of the old Land Rover, PHEV sales rose 23 per cent. That, said JLR, builds on the 59 per cent rise in global PHEV sales in the year to March.
In the UK, the company’s PHEV sales are up 55 per cent to 20,800. In Britain as a whole, PHEVs are the fastest growing segment in the market rising 26 per cent this year. Though that has come from a low base and represents just 8 per cent of all sales, PHEVs have overtaken the dwindling supply of and demand for diesel vehicles.
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“Demand is growing for our plug-in electric hybrid models as customers become more accustomed to electrification,” said Mark Camilleri, JLR’s director of its electric vehicle programme who said PHEVs offered customers “ownership experience including home and public charging” before the potential future acquisition of a fully electric vehicle.
JLR is promising full electric Range Rovers and Defender and Discovery models by the end of the decade having pledged to go fully electric at its sister brand Jaguar from next year.
PHEVs can only be driven for a few dozen miles in zero-emission mode. JLR claims that that is 70 miles for its Range Rover PHEV models which it says is three and half times the average UK motorist’s daily drivetime of 20 miles.