Battery size: 117 kWh
Range: 310 miles (est)
Max charge rate: 350kW
The snow is gently falling, the lake is still and motionless. No, don't worry, it's not Christmas again, and we haven’t put the wrong playlist on. While the whole world is slowly getting ready for spring, Thomas Müller and Matt Becker have once again pulled out their winter coats and are trudging across the icy lakes at the Swedish Arctic Circle to tell us all about the new electric Range Rover.
Müller is head of development at Jaguar and Land Rover, while Becker is responsible for the driving dynamics of the entire fleet. And both of them are in Arjeplog with us, while we have a drive in the latest prototype version of the battery-powered Range Rover. A car that we’ve all been a waiting a very, very long time for. It’s one of those cars that has, seemingly, been ‘coming next year’ for about three years.
So, four years after the latest generation Range Rover made it into showrooms, the Range Rover EV is finally here. Well, sort of. It’s at least here in a form that we can drive, albeit still a way off joining its ICE and PHEV siblings in JLR dealerships.
It will be the end of 2025, if not the beginning of 2026, before we finally see the full market launch of the electric Range Rover, but we’re pleased to be here driving this 117kWh electric SUV, which now has a host of rivals to contend with. The Mercedes EQS SUV, Volvo EX90, Audi Q8, Polestar 3 and BMW iX are right up there, of course, but many – including the team at Electrifying – would point to the Kia EV9, as well. Which is saying something for the Kia’s skills given that we’re uttering its name in relation to a car that’s likely to cost some £140,000.
How far will the Range Rover Electric go, and how quickly does it charge?
There aren't many genuine luxury SUVs with plug-in power, nor have many manufacturers yet electrified an off-road vehicle that can truly venture off-road. And Müller and Becker didn't want to make any compromises in either area. On the contrary, says Müller: "First and foremost, this is a true Range Rover and only secondarily an electric car."
Three electric motors power the all-wheel drive electric Range Rover, with 542bhp and 620 lb ft making the electric version the biggest powerhouse in the Range Rover family, this side of the full-fat performance SV.
The 117kWh lithium-ion NMC battery (usable capacity) is expected to power it to an official range of “well over 500 kilometers," according to Müller. That’s 310 miles, in British parlance, and that’s as close as we’ve got to an official WLTP range for now… You do get a heat pump as standard, as you’d expect, so we’d hope for a real-world electric range of 200- to 280 miles, but it’s very much a guess at the moment. Being well over three tonnes, efficiency isn’t the electric Range Rover’s chief strength, but we’ll have to wait and see how it does for range when JLR announces the final details, and when we’ve had a proper go!
As for the charging, JLR has obviously gone all-out with an 800V system that will enable the electric Range Rover to charge at up to 350kW, so if you stop at a powerful enough rapid charging station you can get 100 miles of additional range in as little as five minutes. It also has 22kW AC charging as standard, so that you can make the most of any faster AC kerbside- or destination chargers. A 7kW home charger will take some 17- to 20 hours to fully charge this massive battery from nearly empty.
We don't know yet whether JLR will include vehicle-to-load (V2L) charging on the Range Rover, but here's hoping. It'd make a lot of sense on a car like this!
What’s the electric Range Rover like to drive?
It reminds me of the Rolls-Royce Spectre, such is the Range Rover’s refinement and general silkiness. Your lordship becomes the driver of three tonnes of ultimate peace, and you feel like you are lying on clouds (you’re actually on fully adaptive air-suspension) as you are beamed through the Swedish winter landscape on your leather throne.
Off road, the Range Rover’s electric drive is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because it's so powerful and can be regulated much more precisely than any combustion engine. And a curse because the all-too-spontaneous power delivery doesn't quite match the effortless ease with which Sir Range Rover usually plows through mud or snow. To achieve this, the BEV’s ECU brain has to adjust the drive and traction control in anticipatory obedience before anything even happens. When it all works, the Range Rover starts without a single lurch or scrape, even on polished ice, and it can plow through deep snow and ruts with stoic calm, but it isn’t infallible.
The Range Rover also allows you to use the one-pedal driving or the adaptive cruise control at low speeds, to help navigate slippery slopes and descents. I even experienced it climbing a steep ramp with complete composure, even when one side was on Tarmac and the other an icy track. It really is impressive stuff.
And as if that weren't enough to worry Müller and Becker, battery powertrains - unlike petrol and diesel engines – aren’t as tolerant to extreme climate changes. That's why the British company has developed a sophisticated thermal management system that automatically selects the best compromise between interior comfort, charging speed, and range from 700 settings, while the heat pump can help to boost the Range Rover’s range, even at -10 degrees.
Nowhere is the electric drive as perfectly suited to the Range Rover as it is on the road. With its almost explosive power delivery, seamless throttle modulation and eerie silence, it is absolutely a luxury limousine experience – just in an SUV body.
What’s the electric Range Rover like inside?
The only point where you can tell that the Range Rover wasn't developed specifically for electric drive is the missing frunk, because the front is still packed with control units, electric motors and other gubbins. You’ll be unsurprised that there’s no official line on boot capacity or any other tech- and dimension specifics, but suffice to say that there’s space in the boot for your cables.
We’ll have to hold judgement on the rest of it, for now, as our prototype test cars didn’t have finished interiors. But the Range Rover has one of the most sumptuous cabins of any premium SUV, and this new electric variant will obviously have much the same interior (potentially with some mid-life facelift tweaks over the existing cars), so we’ve no doubt that the interior won’t disappoint.
Verdict
Confident, silky, quiet, and yet incredibly powerful; electric drive is a perfect fit for a car like the Range Rover, where luxury is even more important than pure performance. And because the Range Rover always has a bit of Defender in it, there are no compromises off-road, either. The fact that the whole thing will be an expensive experience will hardly come as a surprise to anyone considering a new Range Rover of any kind.
Of course, we can’t really deliver a proper verdict until have we’ve got the full details and have driven the electric Range Rover. Is that range enough when the BMW iX, Volvo EX90 and Mercedes EQS SUVs all manages circa 370- to 400 miles or more? Hmm. Everything else looks great but that could be a crunch point for some potential customers.
We’ll have to wait and see. Watch this space, as we’ll know more soon!
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