Land Rover, long a symbol of off-road ruggedness, now appears to have discovered a new selling point: protection against coronavirus.
"The car of the future could help win the battle against superbugs," Land Rover once proclaimed in March 2019, more than half a year before the coronavirus pandemic began.
Long before we knew what "flattening the curve" meant, the brand was touting its plans for ultraviolet virus-killing features and ventilation systems to "neutralise pathogens which cause infections."
In July this year, it showed off its newly developed "contactless touchscreen to help fight bacteria and viruses."
Now, Land Rover has announced a facelift for its Discovery Sport and Range Rover Evoque models with an air filter designed to filter out virus particles.
"We've upped the filter size by 10 per cent on both vehicles to increase its capacity to capture finer particles, even below 2.5 microns in size," Mark Burnaston from Land Rover’s Gaydon Materials Laboratory told the Irish Times newspaper.
"While harmful viruses and pathogens are often smaller than the PM2.5 size, research has shown that pathogens, agglomerate on dust particles, which can then be filtered inside the vehicle climate control system, reducing the level of threat to the occupants."
On the technical side, meanwhile, Land Rover is putting the emphasis on more frugal engines.
The Range Rover Evoque and the technically closely related Land Rover Discovery Sport will in future be available with new, more economical engines and mild hybrid technology for almost all variants.
Sales are to start in the next few weeks, the manufacturer Land Rover announced, but did not yet name any prices.
For both, there will be two diesel engines with an electric starter generator in future: the two-litre four-cylinder engines have an output of 163 and 204 horsepower.
The Evoque.
They are expected to have significantly lower carbon emissions through more energy recovery and longer start-stop phases. The consumption of the Evoque will drop to 6.0 litres (158 g/km CO2) at best, and to 6.3 litres (165 g/km) for the Discovery Sport.
A new 290-hp petrol engine with 2.0 litres capacity, 233 km/h top speed and a standard consumption of 7.6 litres (179 g/km CO2) or more is also being introduced at the top of the Discovery Sport range, while the British maker is extending the Evoque's engine range downwards.
In future, the P160 will also be available with the three-cylinder engine known from the plug-in hybrid - albeit without the corresponding electric motor.
The off-roader, which is only available with front-wheel drive, will then have a displacement of 1.5 litres, 160hp, a maximum speed of 199kph and a standard fuel consumption of 6.8 litres (154 g/km).
According to the manufacturer, the optimised engines are accompanied by an update for infotainment with music streaming and online updates as well as improved assistance systems, which now also use a 3D all-round camera.
