Range Rover’s journey into the electric age has taken a while, and now it’s taken an unexpected twist. Before the long-awaited Range Rover Electric has even reached customers, its slightly smaller and sportier sibling has appeared in prototype form – and it has brought a wide-bodied jet along for the ride.
The Range Rover Sport Electric has just made its first driving appearance, at the Goodwood Motor Circuit and almost exactly a year after the full-size electric Range Rover was shown there. That earlier outing was limited to a carefully prepared off-road course. This time, Goodwood had been turned into something closer to an oversized adventure playground, with tarmac, gravel, grass, steps, quick-reaction cone tests and, most unusually, an aircraft fuselage parked across the back straight of the circuit. I was invited to take the prototype Range Rover Sport Electric for a first test.
The timing raised an obvious question. Range Rover and Range Rover Sport share the same MLA platform and are built on the same production line in Solihull, so an electric Sport was always likely to follow soon after the full-size model. Yet the larger Range Rover Electric has still not had its full public launch, despite Range Rover saying it has heard from more than 77,000 people who might want one.
Explaining the delay to the full-size model, Range Rover managing director Martin Limpert said: “We wanted to take more time to make it a proper Range Rover.” First customer deliveries of both electric models are now due in 2027, we’re told.
That means this first drive was less about finished showroom details and more about demonstrating what will separate the two cars. The full-size Range Rover is described by the company as the purest version of the brand, while the Sport is meant to be its most dynamic expression. The electric versions are being pushed further apart in character, rather than being allowed to feel like the same car in two different outfits.
JLR vehicle engineering director Matt Becker is leading that work. Becker joined the company after spells at Lotus and Aston Martin and has also been involved with the electric Jaguar Type 01 prototype. His brief for the Range Rover Sport Electric is to give it a more alert, energetic feel while keeping the comfort and off-road ability expected of a Range Rover.
“We’re trying to make a little bit more distance between the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport,” he said. “And it’s not just software tweaks, there are hardware changes too, to make the car more dynamic. That helps us to improve the steering, too.”
There is a limit to that chase for extra agility. The Sport is not being turned into a hard-edged SUV aimed squarely at cars such as the Porsche Cayenne Electric. “It’s still a Range Rover,” Becker said.
Limpert described the aim for the Sport as a car that’s “moving apart from Range Rover in terms of sportiness and visceral feel.” Let’s see…
Under the skin, there is still plenty shared between the two electric Range Rovers. The Sport prototype uses a 118.5kWh battery and electric motors, producing a combined 543bhp. Range Rover is holding back several other figures until the car’s full reveal towards the end of September. Price, official range, charging speed and detailed performance figures will be revealed then.
Range Rover’s Goodwood course was designed to demonstrate the car’s different sides in quick succession. A tight series of low-speed turns came first, using four-wheel steering to help the large SUV change direction in a space that might otherwise require a much more complicated shuffle. Compared with the familiar petrol and diesel Range Rover Sport models, the electric prototype reacted more quickly and kept its tall body more level through the changes of direction.
The electric motors could have been set up to deliver a huge initial hit of acceleration, like so many other EVs. But the engineering team chose a smoother approach. Becker said the car has a more linear delivery, with its pull intended to continue as speed rises rather than arriving in one dramatic burst and then fading away.
Launching from a standing start showed that it still gathers speed rapidly, but the way it does so is deliberately controlled rather than theatrical.
Silence changes the atmosphere, too. A Range Rover Sport has traditionally had an engine note somewhere in the background – and even a seriously vocal one in sportier SVR guise – even when the cabin has been well insulated from it. In the electric prototype, acceleration came without that familiar accompaniment. The Sport Electric is expected to offer an added sound for drivers who want one, although the final system has not yet been detailed.
The cabin follows the current Range Rover Sport layout, with most functions handled through the central touchscreen and relatively few physical buttons. Its materials and design retain the clean, high-quality, understated look used across the latest Range Rover line-up, while the Sport’s interior is positioned just a small step below the more lavish full-size model.
Leaving the smooth Goodwood circuit brought the other half of the demonstration into play. On gravel, the electric car moved almost silently, its suspension isolating the cabin from the rougher ground. This was also my first chance to try its one-pedal driving mode, which like in most other EVs slows the car strongly when the accelerator is lifted, harvesting energy and feeding it back into the battery.
There is a small twist in how it is selected. The one-pedal mode is activated by moving the gear selector into a setting marked S. Drivers used to electric cars may expect a B, usually short for (regenerative )braking, but Range Rover has gone its own way.
Then came the so-called dragon challenge: a steep set of steps tackled at walking pace. This is where an electric drive system can make life easier. Its motors can deliver tiny, carefully measured amounts of power and torque without an engine, gearbox and clutch having to work together, helping the car creep over difficult ground without sudden surges.
The Sport also uses computer-controlled all-terrain settings and a collection of exterior cameras to help the driver see where its wheels and body are going. From outside, the step section looked deliberately awkward. Inside, the car moved slowly and steadily, with the electronic systems taking much of the drama out of it.
Goodwood’s strangest obstacle was still waiting. A large aircraft fuselage had been placed slap bang in the middle of the back straight, right across the track, with ramps running through openings in either side. Guided by a spotter stood outside, the Range Rover and I climbed into the cabin and passed between rows of airline seats. Less of a motoring test, it was more like a very expensive game of thread-the-needle.
The exit needed particular care. As the front of the car started down the far ramp, the rear rose towards the curved aircraft roof, putting the shark-fin aerial close to the fuselage. The Sport cleared it and sprinted towards Goodwood’s final chicane, where its brakes brought the car back down from speed.
Range Rover says much of the car’s routine slowing will be done by the electric motors, which recover energy as the car decelerates. The company believes that could allow the conventional brakes to last for the lifetime of the vehicle, although that claim will depend on how and where individual cars are driven.
The demonstration covered plenty of ground, from tight corners to steps and an aircraft cabin, but it could not answer the questions that will matter most when the Range Rover Sport Electric goes on sale. There was no road drive, no chance to check its efficiency over a longer journey and no opportunity to test charging. Official range and charging figures are still missing, as is the price.
Those gaps are especially important for a large, luxury electric SUV with a sizeable battery. The prototype showed how electric motors, four-wheel steering and carefully tuned controls can be used on very different surfaces, but buyers will also want to know how far it travels between stops and how quickly it can be ready to go again.
More information is promised at the full reveal towards the end of September, followed by drives in production versions on the road and off it. If the latest timetable holds, the Range Rover Electric and Range Rover Sport Electric will reach their first customers in 2027. After a long build-up, that will be the point when the aircraft tricks and obstacle courses give way to the everyday test of living with an electric Range Rover. But the early signs are that this could be one of the very best electric 4x4s by far.
