Jaguar and Land Rover intend to develop modular hybrid technology that could be used across a variety of vehicle platforms without “diluting” the brand values, the group’s vehicle engineering manager for hybrids and sustainability said.

Martin Dowson said Ford as a whole had accepted that there was a correlation between carbon dioxide build-up and global warming. “Bill Ford’s view is that Ford is a 100-year-old company and he wants to make a 200-year-old company."

Land_E offers one view of LR hybrid technology

Dowson said that hybrids could offer extra technologies on upmarket vehicles, such as fast clearing of iced windscreens through application of 240V current.

He said that present market backlash against the Toyota Prius for not meeting claimed fuel economies was down to the way the product was being used. “Hybrids are appropriate technologies for certain use, and that is what the public need education on; in urban use, hybrids with stop/start function and regenerative braking are good for CO2 savings."