Since the mainstream rebirth of the electric car, a litany of automakers seem to have got it in their heads that everyone wants to drive around in a battery-powered spaceship for the road. That’s perfectly fine if your surname is Jetson, but many of us don’t want to commute in lozenge-shaped screenfests. We like gear levers that work more-or-less as expected, steering wheels that are more-or-less circular, and styling that’s good rather than merely different. It’s taken nearly five years for Solihull to roll out an electric Range Rover, and it looks nearly identical to the regular one. Good.
Of course, under the skin, the electric Range Rover sports some substantial differences to combustion-powered models. None of it sounds particularly groundbreaking on first glance, though. A dual-layer battery pack with 118.5 kWh of energy capacity and a nominal voltage of 800 sits beneath the floor, feeding an electric motor on each axle with enough juice to produce 542 horsepower and 627 lb.-ft. of torque. Certainly a sufficient number, but in a league with models from Rivian and Lucid that produce more than 1,000 horsepower, it’ll leave monocles firmly in position. A zero-to-60 mph time of 4.3 seconds isn’t earth-shattering, 350 kW DC fast charging is competitive but not enormously novel, and an estimated range of 333 miles doesn’t exactly stand out either. And guess what? Standing out doesn’t matter at all here.
As long as it’s quick enough and goes far enough on a charge, the one thing an electric Range Rover has to do above everything else is be a Range Rover. At first glance, they really haven’t messed it up here. Visually, you get different wheels, a marginally different grille on any trim other than the SV models, and that’s it. The NACS charge port hides underneath a door that looks like a fuel filler flap, the lack of visible exhaust tips is shared with the combustion models, and the rest of it is 100 percent pure Range Rover. Other than a presumed quietness to its low-speed maneuvering, which shouldn’t be truly unique as a plug-in hybrid Range Rover exists, no bystander will be able to tell the difference.
It’s much the same on the inside, too. You get the same dashboard, the same steering wheel, the same infotainment system and the same shifter and drive mode selection controls as in any other Range Rover. The only tell is a virtual power-and-battery gauge where a tachometer would normally go. The electric Range Rover even comes with a start button like a normal car. If you already drive a Range Rover and are curious about going electric, there shouldn’t be any learning necessary inside the EV. Just sit back on sumptuous seats, contemplate the selection of woods and textiles, and enjoy a commanding view of the tarmac ahead.
However, before you go thinking that this is some sort of compliance car, need I remind you that a Range Rover is a bit like an Omega Speedmaster? You’ll never take your wristwatch to the moon or your electric luxury 4×4 to the Serengeti, but it’s nice to know you could. With that in mind, the tech beyond the headline specs is more interesting than you’d probably expect. For instance, Range Rover can manage motor speed in half the time it takes to blink, resulting in traction management that’s 100 times quicker than in a typical combustion-powered SUV. In addition to climbing a 45-degree slope, Range Rover claims you can come to a dead stop on a 33-degree slope and set off again in the Range Rover Electric, no problem. It will wade through more than 35 inches of water, extend its air suspension by an additional 2.36 inches if it senses flotation, and comes with a magnificently complex thermal management system that’s designed to boost actual driving range in truly inhospitable temperatures. You know how -40 is the same whether measured in Celsius or Fahrenheit?
So, then. The Range Rover Electric. It’s been a long time coming, but it still has a split tailgate and individual armrests and claims of immense capability in both the arts of exploring and cosseting. At $140,450 to start, it’s priced the same as the V8 model, accelerates ever so slightly quicker than the V8 model, and looks almost identical to the V8 model, but it’ll almost certainly be cheaper to run, and there is something nice about never having to visit a gas station in the bitter cold of winter or the blazing sun of summer. A proper Range Rover? Sure seems like it.
Top graphic image: Land Rover
*Smacks kid on the head*
That’s how you do an EV
Great writeup–and nice bit about the capability–but there’s one rather misleading statement.
“At $140,450 to start, it’s priced the same as the V8 model.”
Well, sure–if you really need a V8. But the base turbo-six at $25,000 cheaper is extremely smooth and capable, which makes the purchase of the electric variant less of a rational “I’ll get the money back eventually” decision and more of an emotional “This is really cool” decision.
What could possibly go wrong with a British car and electrical systems? They are known for long term reliability and no bugs whatsoever…
this will end up being a masterclass on how to make an electric car unreliable
I think the specs are right on for 2026. Nothing that moves the needle on EVs, but certainly adequate and competitive. At this price point, it certainly could use more battery, like the 147kwh in the upcoming BMW iX5.
It’ll be interesting to see how it does off road. In theory, the quick response of electric motors should be amazing, but David’s recent R1 article showed it depends wholly on calibration in practice.
I confess, the giant iX5 battery is rather mind-boggling; it’s like they tapped into the heads of the GM engineers who put a 200kWh battery into the Escalade IQ…
I think we’re going to have to get used to seeing larger kWh figures. As battery chemistry improves, we’ll be able to stuff more capacity in the same form factor/weight.
It’s for that reason I wish pack weight and dimensions were standard specs offered by automakers.
100kWh today is a much smaller and lighter battery than 100kWh was in a Model S 10 years ago.
Will it be hilariously unreliable for the third owner and constantly smell of hot coolant? Oh, and make bonging noises all the time while it announces bulb failures for lights you can see are still working?
It’s fully electric, British cars never have electrical problems!
Oh…wait…oh no…
I’m less worried than I should be about a JLR product with an 800 volt battery. I guess I’m just used to them being out of service with superficial electrical errors that I’m not focusing on the fundamental errors.
Wait… is the 333 mile range EPA or WLTP?
I was under the impression that’s a WLTP rating, which means it will struggle to do 250 miles in the real world. That would also mean it’s atrociously inefficient, even compared to bigger EVs like the Ioniq 9.
If that’s an EPA rating, that’s actually pretty okay.
I think running HVAC controls through the touchscreen is an even bigger mistake than on other cars. Range Rover used to brag about how their chunky controls were designed to be operated with gloves on. That’s a real world benefit that has now been deleted in favor of a format everyone hates.
I think it’s actually neither. Looks like WLTP is 372 but RR quote their own “real world” estimate of 333.
Given the 118kwh battery is relatively sizeable, even for this boat, I’d expect 300 real world.
I like the hybrids/ev cars looking exactly like the gas ones. I dont need to shout “im saving the planet” everywhere i drive.
Does the interior feel up to par in terms of materials quality and fit and finish? Let’s face it, a very well put together interior out of top spec woods and leathers is traditionally one thing JLR has known how to do right on their flagship models, but we’ve seen other automakers fumble in that department in making an ICE to EV transition. The downgrade in build quality from a regular S-Class to an EQS was noticeable and embarrassing for Mercedes-Benz, for example.
It doesn’t appear that there’s any change in interior execution between ICE and EV…
I’m curious if it’ll be sold with the lwb and third row
Yes, the website will let you build and order one of those.
“Just like the ICE, but with a different drive train” is certainly a non-negative, but it has far less positive value when the interior of the ICE appears so fully EV-ified. What appear to be haptic wheel controls, touchscreen with no physical reference points or actual physical controls for high-importance items… “has a physical shifter” is a sadly low bar for this thing to clear.
For now, I’ll go back to yelling at clouds, but I’m holding out hope in my heart that by the next time I buy a car, the pendulum will have swung back closer to the new Chinese regulations regarding a baseline of dedicated physical controls.
Omega. Nice reference. They are excellent.
Sure, if you’ve got thousands to blow on a piece of jewelry that is outperformed in every objective way by a $600 Citizen Eco-Drive Navihawk. It tunes into a SW signal from Fort Collins, CO, Japan or Germany every morning and adjusts its time to atomic clock references. It adjusts itself for DST. It’s water resistant to four times as deep as an Omega Moonwatch. It recharges its own capacitor with an in-face solar panel.
Aesthetics? That’s a matter of taste. Watches are like cars. People buy them (or used to buy them) for their own sets of reasons. I know a guy who got knocked out walking on a street in Miami Beach for his Rolex whatever. What’s that worth?
More Lucas jokes