Greens invade Range Rover plant

GREENPEACE protestors invaded Land Rover's Solihull factory today as part of a long-running campaign against 4x4 vehicles.

The environmental group said 35 volunteers, dressed as staff, managed to get into the West Midlands plant to demostrate against 'climate-wrecking' Range Rovers. They locked themselves to the car's assembly line to halt production.

Ben Stewart of Greenpeace said the group is seeking a pledge from parent company Ford to stop making and marketing the cars for the city market. He said:

'Making cars like this for urban use is crazy when 150,000 people are dying every year from climate change. Range Rover do less miles to the gallon than the model T Ford. These are climate-wrecking cars that will tackle nothing steeper than a speed bump but the green house gas they spew out is killing people.'

Stewart said that volunteers were leafleting staff, while the protesters themselves have food and water and planned to stay as long as they could. Greenpeace's demonstration comes as protest groups spring up in urban areas against 4x4s.

A group calling itself the 'Alliance Against Urban 4x4s' began protesting earlier this year in north London. Parents driving their children to school in Range Rovers and other large sports utility vehicles (SUVS) were given leaflets.

The mounting protests are seen as a potential threat to the car industry which is struggling to find profitable new models ? SUVs and 4x4 offroad vehicles have been a lucrative niche for the industry over the past few years. More than 80,000 SUVs were sold in the UK last year, more than 6% of all new car registrations.

Ford think they might have the answer to some of the protestors' concerns by incorporating what is known as hybrid engine technology into some of their SUVs.

It is exploring the potential of hybrid power systems which use traditional petrol engines coupled with an electronic motor that reduces fuel consumption and gas emissions. The technology is still expensive, however, and not widely available.