Land Rover’s press event at the 2006 New York Auto Show was a bit over our heads, but impressive all the same. Sure, off-road is the soul of the Land Rover brand, but this year they’ve been focusing on efficiency. The boys in engineering have come up with several innovations, all of which they’ve thrown together under the “Land-e” concept theme. There was no actual concept car, just demonstrations of some interesting future technologies we should be seeing on Land Rovers of the future-including a promised LR-2 (baby LR-3?) model.
The E-terrain system is part of Land-e, and consists of essentially an integrated starter/generator that shuts the engine down at a stop, and an electric rear axle that provides four-wheel drive power and rear-drive, electric-only capability. This hybrid system combines with a power-shift gearbox to reduce fuel consumption by up to one third. And what’s more, it can run on E85 ethanol.