YOU can now drive the world's best luxury SUV to and from your office - 30 miles each way - for only 30p.

That is according to Simon Fairbrother, senior engineering programme manager of the new Range Rover PHEV who has spent the last four years developing the model.

He has worked it out that it takes just 15p to charge the new PHEV overnight and a further 15p to charge it again before driving 30 miles back to home.

Stunning facts but you have to be prepared to spend at least £86,965 to get one in standard wheelbase form and Vogue Trim.

Go up to Autobiography trim and you will have to find £105,865 and even more £113,065 if you want the long wheelbase version.

On paper it's the first 100mpg-plus Range Rover and with emissions of just 64g/km the plug-in hybrid has immense appeal to business users because of the tax advantages but the claims are really nonsense.

In real life the PHEV will never achieve that and you can expect about 25mpg - well short of what the ordinary diesels can achieve.

While the P400e as it is called, will excel on short trips and can travel those 30 miles at up to 85mph, it will start to use petrol when the electric charge runs out.

After thatthe 2.0-litre petrol engine cuts in and the P400e operates as a hybrid with decent performance. You can recharge the battery from a fast charger in just two hours and 45 minutes while it will take seven-and-a-half hours to charge from a normal domestic supply.

The car will normally start up on battery power but that can be saved by switching to the petrol/hybrid mode until EV work is required around town.Leave it to its own devices and it runs as an EV whenever possible to conserve fuel but transforms back to hybrid power when necessary.

The Range Rover P400e is fitted with an 85KW electric motor paired with the company's 2.0-litre Ingenium petrol engine.Together they develop 404bhp and that's bettered in the Range Rover line up only by the supercharged V8s which have either 525 or 565bhp on tap.

Performance is more than useful andthe 2.5-tonne hybrid sprints to 60mph in just6.8 seconds and has a top speed of 137mph.

In the stunning grounds of Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire the PHEV proved to be every bit as capable off road as any of its siblings.

Thanks to the extra torque provided by the electric motor it tackled the rough stuff with ease. It waded through a lake without difficulty and dismissed mud and ruts without a care.

The Terrain Response traction system could be altered at the touch of a button to cope with different situations and the Range Rover never struggled even when it was up to its axles in gore.

Out on the open roads of the Cotswolds the PHEV took it all in its stride and the eight-speed automatic gearbox slipped through the gears without fuss as required. To protect pedestrians Land Rover engineers have added an Audible Vehicle Alert System to alert people when the PHEV is silently moving in electric mode through towns and villages and this proved to be more than useful.

Inside the Autobiography cabin is the last word in luxury and the latest updates mean that the Range Rover now enjoys the Velarcockpit treatment with two large central display screens added to a 12-inch digital instrument panel that has been altered to show all the EV range information to the driver.

The Autobiography offers every creature comfort including power adjustable heated and cooling front seats which also have a massage function to keep you happy on the move. There is a head up display to help you keep your eyes on the road and a superb sound system to keep you entertained.

One drawback is that the battery pack has a considerable impact on boot space but Land Rover still expects the new PHEV to be responsible for 20 per cent of all Range Rover sales.

That will be mainly due to the tax advantages to business users and to drivers who do less than 30 miles per day but I have to admit that if it was my cash I would still opt for the diesel version.