Land Rover adding stop-start systems from 2009

Bowing to public pressure to make its vehicles more environmentally friendly, Land Rover has announced today it's planning to launch an engine stop-start system for all its Freelander 2 TD4 manual vehicles from 2009 onwards.

The system turns off the engine when the vehicle is stationary and automatically restarts it when the driver is ready to move off. This prevents the engine from unnecessary idling, eliminates wasting fuel and cuts carbon dioxide emissions. It will help to cut CO2 emissions by over 7% from 194g/km to 179g/km. This equates to a fuel economy improvement in a combined cycle from 37.7mpg (7.5/100 km) to 41.5mpg (6.8/100 km).

Last month, Land Rover also announced plans to extend its carbon offsetting scheme to cover customers of its older cars as well as owners of newer models which have traveled more than 45,000 miles. Under the original program set up in September last year, Land Rover enabled new-car buyers to offset carbon-emissions for the first 45,000 miles by paying a small green tax to help fund conservation projects like wind farms and tree planting.

Pictured above is a rendering of a new baby Land Rover said to be in development. The project, known internally as ‘The Landie,’ is expected to be completed by late 2008 but until then click here to read more.