Range Rover Hybrid Prototypes Complete Epic 10,500-Mile Silk Trail Expedition [w/Video]

Precisely 53 days after they started the journey in Solihull, UK, the three Land Rover Range Rover Diesel Hybrid prototypes have successfully completed the 10,472-mile (16,853-km) long adventure by reaching their final destination: Mumbai, India.

The Silk Trail expedition has served as “the ultimate engineering sign-off test” for Land Rover’s first hybrid before it goes into production. The route included 13 countries in hostile conditions including asphalt roads riddled with large and deep potholes, dusty desert trails in 43 degrees Celsius (109.4 degrees Fahrenheit) and countless miles of mud and gravel tracks and cattle trails.

The adventure was made all the more exciting for both man and machine by the river crossings, passes clinging to the edges of mountains partly blocked by rock falls, the “the dense and erratic traffic of Chinese and Indian roads” and the thin air of extremely high altitudes.

The route took the three Range Rovers through the UK, France, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, China (including Tibet), Nepal and India. For much of the distance the expedition followed the ancient Silk Road trading routes. To make the expedition even more worthy of the Silk Trail name, overnight stops were made in hotels, hostels and tents at many of the same staging posts visited centuries ago by Silk Road merchants, missionaries and mercenaries.

The Range Rover Hybrids reached heights of over 5,300 meters (17,389 feet) above sea level on the Xinjiang-Tibet highway where they spent seven consecutive days at altitudes between 3,350 and 5,379 meters (11,000 and 17,648 feet).

An interesting detail is the average fuel consumption of the three large hybrid SUVs – 36 to 37 mpg UK (30 to 30.8 mpg US, 7.84 to 7.63 l/100 km). The Range Rover Diesel Hybrid features a 3.0-liter turbodiesel engine linked to a 35kW electric motor, with a total output of 335hp and 700 Nm (516 lb-ft) of torque.

Land Rover engineers sent home more than 300 gigabytes of detailed technical records, as the purpose of the expedition was not to test reliability but to fine-tune the calibration of engine and transmission software to “ensure perfectly seamless performance in all terrains and extreme temperatures and altitudes,” according to the company.

By Dan Mihalascu

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