Twelve countries, 16,000 kilometres and challenging roads. This pretty much sums up the 2013 Silk Trail Expedition. The exciting journey, which began at Solihull, UK and Berlin simultaneously, concluded with the 18-vehicle convoy making it to Mumbai at Tata’s Headquarters on Saturday. Part of this journey were a set of Range Rover hybrids - the Range Rover and the Range Rover sport.
The convoy of 11 Land Rover Evoques and 7 Land Rover Hybrid (of which three were prototypes on test-drive) passed through Europe, Eurasia, Russia, half of the ex-Soviet republics, China and Tibet before entering India through Nepal.
While the German team had 11 Evoques, the English team were on 3 LR Hybrid Prototypes and 4 LRs. Team members came from 11 countries, said Land Rover global PR director Gabi Whitfield, who joined the expedition in Jaipur-Mumbai leg.
These cars were the first hybrids to ever attempt this challenging Silk Route. The Silk route extends for 4,000miles which connects East, South and Western Asia with the Mediterranean and European countries.
The cars went over terrains that included the European plains, the blazing Uzbekistan deserts, the icy mountains of Kyrgyzstan and the mighty Himalayas.
Summing up this feat, John Edwards, Jaguar-Land Rover, Managing Director, said, “Land Rover has been exploring the planet since the debut of its first model in 1948. With the new Range Rover Hybrid, the world’s first premium diesel SUV hybrid, combining significantly lower CO2 emissions with uncompromised performance, the Silk Trail 2013 expedition expresses Land Rover’s commitment to its vehicles as well as to the environment.”
We had reported about this expedition earlier, the details of which can be found here.
