- Range Rover executives say it was hard to blend all of the vehicle's historic qualities in the new EV, but they managed to do it.
- The electric Range Rover is coming in 2025 to fight the Mercedes-Benz EQG and other large, luxurious off-road-focused electric SUVs.
- It will have an 800-volt architecture and a wading depth of 33.4 inches.
Range Rover is hard at work honing its first-ever electric vehicle, which will look virtually identical to the models it’s currently selling, but it will be quite different underneath. Even with the shift from combustion to electric power, though, the manufacturer insists that the upcoming EV will retain all of the qualities the brand’s vehicles are known for, blending luxury and comfort with go-anywhere capability.
Based on the same MLA platform as the fuel-burning Range Rover, the electric Range Rover will undergo modifications to accommodate a large battery pack in its floor. This has forced the automaker to rethink the rear suspension setup, which took up too much space, so engineers came up with a multilink setup that still allows for similar levels of wheel articulation, but it’s considerably more compact than in the combustion version.
Gallery: Range Rover Electric teasers
We don’t know its powertrain configuration, but it will at least have a dual-motor setup with one drive unit for each axle to give it all-wheel drive. Range Rover could do something similar to Mercedes-Benz, whose electric version of the G-Wagen has a quad-motor system that allows it to do tank turns.
However, even though the electric Range Rover will only be an electric version of the existing model, developing it has not been easy. MotorTrend spoke to Jaguar-Land Rover COO Lennard Hoonik, who explained that “the electric Range Rover has to be a Range Rover first,” adding that “even if you have your eyes closed, it shouldn’t matter if it’s a V-8 or an EV or an I-6. It must be a true Range Rover.”
EVs can be completely silent, so by making the Rage Rover electric, the brand will create its most refined vehicle ever. The feeling of utmost luxury is more important to most Range Rover buyers than going off-road, so the serene experience of driving an EV while cocooned in one of the brand’s lavish interiors is definitely appealing.
Gallery: Electric Range Rover teaser images
Even with the suspension changes and electric powertrain, though, the electric Range Rover will still be excellent off-road. According to Range Rover managing director Geraldine Ingham, “Capability is our core DNA, and customers really do care about capability,” but few customers actually use these vehicles to the breadth of their abilities, and most buy them specifically for their luxury feel.
The experience will be similar to that offered by the Rolls Royce Spectre, the brand’s first production EV, which finally achieves what Rolls had been trying to accomplish since its inception: offer completely silent and effortless powertrains. It is the most serene Rolls ever, and the electric Range will be a lot like that, only higher off the ground.
Earlier this year, Range Rover showed an EV prototype testing around the Arctic Circle. It shared photos of the vehicle driving and charging in freezing conditions, as well as going sideways around corners. One of the few details shared was that the vehicle would have an 800-volt architecture, which would allow it to charge from 10 to 80% in 30 minutes. The EV's wading depth of over 33.4 inches was another bit of information released, which is a bit less than the gas model.
The manufacturer hasn’t said how big the EV’s battery is, but it’s safe to assume that its capacity will be 100 kilowatt-hours or more. For reference, its direct rival, the Mercedes EQG 580, has a 124 kWh battery, which gives it up to 290 miles of range on one charge.
We also know that unlike Jaguar-Land Rover’s first EV, the Jaguar i-Pace, whose production was outsourced to Austria, the electric Range Rover will be built in the firm’s Solihull plant in the U.K., where it builds the Range Rover, the Range Rover Sport and the Velar, as well as the Jaguar F-Pace.
More information on the electric Range Rover should be revealed as 2024 draws to a close. Even though no one has seen it yet and its specs remain undisclosed, it has reportedly already garnered 42,000 reservations. Range Rover is also working on an electric equivalent of its Velar model, which will be a lower and sportier SUV with more of an on-road focus.
