May

Land Rover going aluminum for next generation Range Rover

Posted by admin Published in MPG, Land Rover

AutoCar rendering of possible next generation Range Rover

When the current version of the Jaguar XJ was introduced a couple of years ago, the styling didn’t change radically from the look that has prevailed on the big cat sedans since the late sixties. One major element of the car did change radically, the steel structure gave way to aluminum. The aftereffect was that even though the car grew larger in every dimension and had increasingly equipment it was by 300 lbs lighter, reversing a seemingly inexorable trend among most cars.

Now Ford stablemate Land Rover is looking to follow the same path for the next generation Range Rover. The plan is to use conventional aluminum stampings

for inner and outer body panels that are soon after rivet bonded together in technique similar to the Jaguar. The aluminum structure is expected to reduce the weight of the Range Rovers body by 700-900lbs, a very substantial change. That would bring the overall weight down to about 4800lbs which is by no means light but it would still supply for a fifteen percent improvement in fuel economy and perhaps increasingly depending on what new engine technology is used. The new Range Rover could see the light of day by mid-2011.

[Source: AutoCar]
Original post by Sam Abuelsamid