Currently reading: Land Rover cuts petrol engines
4x4 maker to stop selling naturally aspirated V8 petrols

Lack of demand means that Land Rover is to drop its naturally aspirated V8 petrol engine in the UK.

The 4.4-litre V8 used in the Range Rover, Range Rover Sport and Discovery 3 will disappear early in 2008. However, celebrities and the environmentally conscious will still be catered for, as the supercharged 4.2-litre V8 petrol will remain alongside the 2.7 V6 and 3.6 V8 diesels.

Land Rover reckons that over 90 per cent of the cars it sells in the UK this year will be diesels. The firm has already stopped selling petrol-powered Defenders in the UK.

The Freelander 2 will be the only Land Rover sold in the UK with a naturally aspirated engine - the 3.2-litre six-cylinder petrol unit made in Bridgend.

Land Rover has also announced the addition of an automatic gearbox to the TD4 2.2-litre diesel Freelander, previously only available with a six-speed manual gearbox. It is on display at the Geneva motor show this week, and goes on sale in April.

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