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posted by Fnord666 on Monday September 11 2017, @04:24PM   Printer-friendly
from the electric-jaguars,-land-rovers-and-volvos;-Oh-my! dept.

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has pledged to stop building cars powered solely by petrol and diesel. The company hopes that every car built after 2020 will either be fully electric or a hybrid that makes use of both an electric motor and a traditional petrol-powered engine.

"Every new Jaguar Land Rover model line will be electrified from 2020," Jaguar Land Rover boss Ralf Speth said in a statement. "We will introduce a portfolio of electrified products across our model range, embracing fully electric, plug-in hybrid and mild hybrid vehicles."

The move comes just months after rival Volvo Cars confirmed that it would electrify its entire range of vehicles by 2019. Between 2019 and 2021, Volvo plans to launch five new electric vehicles, while every other car in the range will feature some form of hybrid engine. Honda has also promised that all of its new models from 2020 on will have an electrified variant.


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  • (Score: 2) by acid andy on Monday September 11 2017, @11:41PM (3 children)

    by acid andy (1683) on Monday September 11 2017, @11:41PM (#566468) Homepage Journal

    Several cans of fuel and a generator? Or you do like the other reply says and use a hybrid instead of a pure EV, then it's just cans of fuel.

    Yeah but really, what's the point? The electric motor and batteries are then little more than extra weight. I don't get this hybrid thing. I get it's hyped as more environmentally friendly and efficient technology, but I just don't see it in practise.

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  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 12 2017, @04:11AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 12 2017, @04:11AM (#566537)

    Hybrids can make a real, practical difference in stop-and-go driving, where the extra weight more than pays for itself, using the energy gained from regenerative braking to accelerate back up to speed. On the highway, it adds absolutely nothing but weight (though highway mileage is dominated by aerodynamic drag, not rolling drag, so the weight isn't as big a penalty as you might think) compared to a normal vehicle with the same size engine. (Of course, you can argue for comparing them, not on an equal-engine basis, but on e.g. equal 0-60 time; then the conventional vehicle needs a more powerful engine because it doesn't benefit from electric assist off the line, and the hybrid with its smaller engine would be a bit more fuel efficient at cruise. Not a big difference either way.)

    So if most of your driving is stop-and-go city traffic, it probably saves you money on gas (although it may or may not save you enough to pay for itself -- depends how much you drive), and it still works like normal (jerry cans and all) for long trips.

    In other words, it's not something you'd buy for camping trips, and occasionally use around town; it's something you'd buy for around town, and use for occasional camping trips.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 12 2017, @04:26AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 12 2017, @04:26AM (#566542)

    It has a couple of benefits, especially for large vehicles. The main one is that electric motors give you a large amount of torque, especially at lower speeds. This means that the manufacturer can choose to provide smaller and more efficient engines that are tuned to a narrower RPM range. Most of these benefits are there whether you are using the engines on a generator (like locomotives) or a combined drive (like many cars). Land Rover could have that in mind given that they love showing people bouldering in their commercials.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by RedBear on Tuesday September 12 2017, @05:47AM

    by RedBear (1734) on Tuesday September 12 2017, @05:47AM (#566557)

    I don't get this hybrid thing. I get it's hyped as more environmentally friendly and efficient technology, but I just don't see it in practise.

    You're right, in a way. A lot of what they call "mild" hybrids really don't accomplish much, the Prius notwithstanding. There are actually non-hybrid versions of some hybrids that get equal or better gas mileage than the hybrid version.

    But the equation changes with plug-in hybrids, as long as there is enough electric range involved. Like the second-generation Chevy Volt. It has 53 miles of usable electric range. For most Americans that means at least 90% of daily driving can be done entirely within that electric range. If you can plug in at work as well as at home, it essentially becomes an electric car with 106 miles of range, plus whatever the fuel tank provides at 42mpg. Many Volt owners visit a gas station once a year or even less frequently because they so rarely need to use the gasoline engine. It only kicks in on really cold days or long road trips. Effectively, they get hundreds of miles per gallon. Depending on the region, electricity can be significantly cheaper per mile traveled than gasoline. Lots of utilities have special lower rates for nighttime EV charging.

    Of course it should go without saying that if the electricity in your area is produced mainly from solar, wind, hydro, geothermal or nuclear then it is significantly better for the environment than using fossil fuels. It's also becoming common for large cities around the world to ban vehicles in the city center that aren't zero-emmision, so in the near future many millions of people will need some kind of hybrid with usable electric range in order to drive in the city legally. There's nothing wrong with the concept of hybrids, it's the execution that makes the difference.

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