Greenpeace breaks into Land Rover

Attack on gas-guzzlers - sports cars next?

By PH Staff / Tuesday, 17 May 2005 / Loading comments

First they came for the SUVs...

Greenpeace protesters yesterday broke into Land Rover's Solihull plant, where Range Rovers are made, with the aim of branding it as an 'environmental crime scene'.

They chained themselves to the production line which was halted for a while, but the police soon arrived to take them away again. The company reckoned it lost 70 SUVs that it should have built, worth about £4 million.

The environmental group argues that SUVs are "wrecking the environment". They rarely leave the road, and so don't need the 4x4 capability, but carrying the extra weight makes them fuel-hungry in an increasingly fuel-starved world, and generates more pollution, argue environmentalists.

The FT reports that it spoke by mobile phone to Stephen Tindale, Greenpeace UK's executive director, from the back of a police van. He apparently said that he had been arrested while negotiating with the company, and that it was important to stop the fashion for "gas-guzzling" SUVs spreading from the US to Europe.

Widely acknowledged to be a fuel-guzzler, the top-end petrol-fuelled Range Rover costs £56,995, weighs 2,570Kg, and returns 17.4mpg, according to manufacturer's figures. Diesels return 25mpg.

However, buying trends are working against Greenpeace. Both in the US and in Europe, people are increasingly buying larger vehicles, increasingly unlikely carmakers are turning their hands to SUVs in a bid to grab some of the action. We were shocked at Porsche's Cayenne, but much less so by Spyker's announcement (see link below).

Greenpeace's action looks unlikely to do anything other than create a tiny dent in Land Rover's profits. Meanwhile, if the group is aiming at vehicles with high fuel consumption, high-performance sports cars could be next.