AutoblogGreen

Land Rover vehicles are not renowned for their fuel efficiency, at least not in a good way. Now that the English SUV builder is owned by India's Tata it has to make do without input from Ford and will have to meet future CO₂ emissions limits without averaging with its former parent. As a step in that direction, Land Rover unveiled a new variant of the Freelander 2 (LR2 here in the states) at the Paris Motor Show. The TD4_e version adds a new "Intelligent Start/Stop" system along with an upshift light in the instrument cluster. When the TD4_e replaces the current TD4 next year, it will also get lower rolling resistance tires.

Because of the high compression ratios of diesel engines, they tend to shudder a bit when shutoff abruptly. Land Rover has incorporated some control changes that ramp down the fuel feed and engine speed before shutting off completely allowing for smoother operation. The engine is shutoff when the vehicle stops, the transmission is in neutral and the clutch pedal released. As soon as the driver presses the clutch pedal, the engine restarts. The bottom line is an eight percent improvement in fuel efficiency from 31.4 mpg to 34.6 mpg (U.S.). Since no Land Rovers are available with diesel engines in North America, we probably won't see the TD4_e anytime soon.


[Source: Land Rover]