Power Trip: From Gas Guzzler to Lean Green Machine

  Manufacturing   PM Network  

Land Rover’s iconic luxury Range Rover 4x4 needs little introduction. Big and fully loaded with all sorts of customized accoutrements, the $94,100 car has found favor around the world with a certain audience of well-off urban adventurers.

But with an oh-so-thirsty 400-horsepower 4.2 liter V8 engine, the Range Rover doesn’t exactly scream green—a fact reflected not just in its carbon emissions and gasoline consumption, but also in the punitively steep taxes it’s being slapped with in its birthplace of Britain. Beginning in 2010, vehicle taxes will be based on the grams of carbon dioxide emitted per kilometer. Spewing more than 376 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer, the Range Rover with all the custom trimmings is woefully off the scale. Those Brits who opted for the car will be shelling out £455 ($853) versus just £20 ($37.50) for owners of a Toyota Prius 1.5 VVTi Hybrid.

Even outside of its native home, the Range Rover could be a tough sell to customers increasingly focused on sustainability.

And that’s where British start-up Liberty Electric Cars spotted the opportunity for its flagship project: an electric Range Rover. “It’s the world’s first zeroemission 4x4,” explains Barry Shrier, a former investment banker who founded the Oxford, England-based company with $60 million in seed capital.

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