Eco-4x4 has landed

09th October 2008

Off-roaders usually make headlines for the wrong reasons these days. But it was the fuel-saving stop-start technology fitted to Land Rover’s new Freelander TD4_e that was grabbing attention at the Paris expo.

The set-up certainly sounds impressive, cutting emissions by 15g/km to 179g/km on the 2.2-litre diesel. Fuel consumption is also boosted by around 20 per cent to 41.2mpg on the combined cycle.

We tried the system in prototype form back in November last year. The engine switches off when you pull up to traffic lights, put the gearbox in neutral and lift off the clutch. The motor then restarts as soon as the clutch pedal is pressed. Other changes include an extra pump to keep the air-conditioning working when the powerplant is off, low-resistance tyres and a remapped ECU.

All manual-transmission TD4 Freelander 2s will be fitted with the system from June next year, without any overall price increase to the range.