Land Rover was so impressed with the refinement of its new V8 turbo diesel, engineers had to develop an intelligent fuel filler cap to prevent drivers accidentally misfuelling its Range Rover cars with unleaded.
Described as a world first, the system distinguishes between the short diesel nozzle and the longer, thinner unleaded dispenser that goes deep into the tank. If the wrong nozzle is inserted a mechanical shutter is activated, preventing the wrong fuel entering the tank.
Expect the technology to one day be standard on all cars, and misfuelling to become a thing of the past. Land Rover’s owner, Ford, has already confirmed its next generation Mondeo will also for the very first time have misfuelling technology fitted.
Last year, the AA reported more than 100,000 cases of diesels cars being filled with petrol, with the cost of repairs running into the thousands of pounds per car, if the vehicle was started.
