Stop-start Freelander is first step on Land Rover's eco mission

It's the first evidence of Land Rover's 800 million investment over five years in new environmental technology. "We will reduce CO2 output of our vehicles without comprising our values," says Murray Dietsch, director of Land Rover programmes. "We still have to have the best vehicles for the toughest conditions."

He describes stop-start as the first step on Land Rover's green technology road map which will eventually lead to a diesel hybrid Landie capable of 3.9 liters/100 km and with emissions below 120g/km.

"Downsizing is an important part of our future; we will have more compact, lighter vehicles with greater aerodynamic efficiency, low rolling resistance tyres and electric power steering among a long list of measures," says Dietsch.

Stop-start on its own reduces CO2 emissions by eight per cent, taking the Freelander from 194g/km to 179g/km.

Phil Wiffin, manager of stop-start systems at Land Rover, says that on a typical 40-minute journey in London, a vehicle's engine is only needed for about 19 minutes. "We're saying this is the world's first intelligent stop-start SUV. Fuel consumption in these conditions is improved by 12 per cent which is a saving of 13 on a tank of diesel at today's prices on a typical London test route."

At the moment stop-start is only available on manual gearboxes but it will also be adapted for use with automatic gearboxes and rolled out in other Land Rovers from around early 2011.

Special features of the system includes sensors which will automatically restart the engine if the cabin starts to get too cold or too hot so that the air conditioning operates; this also works if the windows start to mist up. The engine also restarts automatically if the Freelander starts to roll more than six feet.

Stop-start Freelander is first step on Land Rover's eco mission.

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Credits: JRC