Land Rover has announced impressive plans to electrify its fleet, aiming for fully electric Land Rovers to comprise up to 60 per cent of the company's sales by 2030, with the first fully electric models – probably a Range Rover – available by 2024.
But electrification isn't the only avenue the company is going down – the company is trialling hydrogen fuel cells, and mules will be on the UK's roads this year.
Under the Reimagine strategy, six pure electric variants will come into the Land Rover stable and will utilise the forthcoming flex Modular Longitudinal Architecture (MLA) platform. The range will include electrified internal combustion engines (ICE) and full electric variants. A pure electric based Electric Modular Architecture (EMA) platform will also be used – future Jaguar models will be built exclusively on a pure electric architecture.
Land Rover’s aim is to achieve net zero carbon emissions across its supply chain, products and operations by 2039. And with the hydrogen economy maturing, development is already on the way, and we'll start to see prototypes on the UK roads within the next 12 months.
There will be a slight shift in the production of vehicles, with the Solihull factory becoming home to the MLA platform, as well as the future advanced Jaguar pure electric platform.
There will also be some streamlining, with the company saying: 'Reimagine will see Jaguar Land Rover right-size, repurpose and reorganise into a more agile operation. The creation of a flatter structure is designed to empower employees to create and deliver at speed and with clear purpose.'
The alternatively fuelled models will be designed to tackle the tough environments that Land Rovers have traditionally worked in, but with the benefits of lower, or zero, tail pipe emissions.
It's not the end of the internal combustion engine in the brand, though, the company understands that not everyone will be able to plug their Land Rover into a socket to recharge it – so conventional engines will continue to be offered.
The first all-electric Land Rover is due in 2024, but in the meantime, plug-in hybrids (PHEV) are available in the Range Rover, Range Rover Sport, Velar, Evoque and Discovery Sport, with a Defender PHEV in the pipeline.