The 2023 Range Rover Sport PHEV stayed sure-footed as a snowstorm battered Utah’s highways and reduced visibility for several car lengths. Driving this thing to a ski resort—headlights flashing through billowing snow, engine dead silent—I felt like a prince on vacation. That’s where the SUV’s token Britishism ends these days, though.
Andrew P Collins
Production of the first version of the Range Rover Sport ended a decade ago. The brand and the sports model in particular have evolved enormously since then. Technology, efficiency, build quality and refinement are so advanced that old fans would hardly recognize a new Rover. It’s hard to complain about that. I only wish the brand hadn’t scrubbed away so much of Land Rover’s whimsy, character and distinctiveness as they polished their products.
Andrew P Collins
2023 Range Rover Sport PHEV Autobiography Specs
- Base price, PHEV model (Autobiography as tested) $105,675 ($109,585)
- Drivetrain: 3.0-liter twin-turbo straight-six | 105 kW electric motor | 8-speed automatic | all wheel drive
- PS: 434 hp
- Torque: 406 lb ft
- seating capacity: 5
- curb weight: 5,860 pounds
- loading volume: 53 cubic feet behind the first row, 38.2 behind the second row
- ground clearance: 11.1 inches
- 0-60km/h: 5.5 seconds
- Top speed: 140km/h
- Off-Road Angle (if applicable): 29.7° approach | 24.5° tilt angle | 30.0° descent
- EPA fuel consumption: TBA mpg city | TBA Highway | 51 mpge combined
- Take fast: High-tech and high-class mobility, now with a little less climate debt.
- Score: 7/10
A god transporter
Range Rover has practically been a brand in its own right since it first appeared on the market in the 1970s. While technically still Land Rover models, it’s beyond your imagination if you’ve noticed more gauges and dealership signage that segregates Range Rovers on their own island above the rest of the LR fleet.
The people who market Range Rovers have wisely been more actively using the cachet and brand name recognition of late to sell a lifestyle as much as they sell an automobile. They’ve got a running start – “Range Rover” is really funny to say and is fairly commonly associated with being a baller. You could even call it a finisher car; a god transporter.
The Range Rover Sport is now in its third generation (new for 2023) available with mild hybrid, V8 and plug-in hybrid powertrains. The PHEV I drove starts at $104,200. Here are my key takeaways from hours spent with this unit in severe winter weather on snow tires at about 6,000 feet above sea level.
Piano black as far as the eye can see. But the grab handles, as well as the steering wheel and shift controls, feel good. Andrew P Collins
The material quality in the interior is nothing short of extraordinary. Every surface looks and feels beautiful; The overall cockpit design is clean. The ambient lighting is quite nice and the headliner, oh lord, fit for a king. The infotainment system is without a doubt Land Rover’s best yet. Digital menus and gauges are all very easy on the eye, responsive, and even customizable in very cool ways.
experience behind the wheel
Visibility is great from behind the wheel and the storage space in the cockpit is clearly well thought out. The pickup-style dual glove boxes are handy, as is the secret pocket under the cup holders, and the large center console that locks in its up position so it can be left open without flapping around.
Andrew P Collins
The signature Land Rover armrests for the front seats are still present, allowing you to stretch out even with this console up. And did I mention the materials it’s all wrapped in are super pretty? The spec sheet calls the optional seat wrap I felt “Perforated Ultrafabrics”; I would describe its texture as a bit like the neoprene you might find on a wetsuit but much softer and smoother.
A 3.0-liter twin-turbo straight-six and a 105-kW electric motor claim 434 hp and 406 lb-ft of torque. Pulling away from a stop you’ll feel a lot of grunt, but you’ll never feel the hybrid system switch between electric and petrol power in hybrid mode. Driving in all-electric mode reduces acceleration abilities a bit, but the SUV can cruise up to freeway speeds without even activating its petrol engine.
The shifter is a beautiful piece of design. Andrew P Collins
Unfortunately, the mileage we drove didn’t really warrant a viable fuel economy test, but the RRS PHEV is said to be able to go about 50 miles on electric power alone, and in some drive modes I hit about 70 mph before I did An saw the petrol engine coming. Unlike many PHEVs, it has a DC fast charge connector so you can charge it up very quickly. If you had a fast charger at work and lived about 40 miles from your office, you could potentially slow-charge overnight, zip into the cabin, charge at work, and drive home without using the gas engine before doing the whole thing do again.
Back on our commute, the weather was so hostile that I wasn’t inclined to make many open-throttle puffs or panicked lane changes. But the electric steering has a nice weight and the traction management system does a spectacular job of making you feel like you’re driving on dry surfaces, even when you’re definitely not.
Land Rover does an excellent job of utilizing the high customizability of a digital dashboard. Andrew P Collins
But despite the vehicle’s level of automation and driver-assistance technology, there’s a small learning curve in how the vehicle behaves in its various modes. I stumbled a few times trying to give it the beans in grass/gravel/snow mode, only to wait a full hit before pedaling action translated into propulsion. The vehicle tried to protect me from myself, perhaps overdoing it at times.
On rough roads, including rough dirt, the suspension allows for a remarkably smooth ride, even with a good clip. The vehicle feels fairly large, but not unwieldy or unstable. The Range Rover Sport was never really a truck, but now it doesn’t even feel like a distant cousin to those old straight-axle 4×4 Rovers.
The parking cameras were able to keep working in the sloppy wet thanks to small discs mounted near them. And unlike older rovers, the resolution is now crystal clear.
Noble, but not full of character
Unlike older Rovers. You may have noticed that this topic came up a few times in this story. And that brings us to where the Range Rover Sport falls short – the design of the new RRS is sleeker and more ultra-modern, and largely lacking in personality.
Andrew P Collins
Gerry McGovern’s disdain for the old-school SUV aesthetic is once again evident in this thing. He’s been the main man behind the look of Land Rover for a number of years, and you can easily find quotes from him that go along the lines of ‘retrospectively bad; futuristic good,” but I don’t even have to name one because when was the last time you saw a Rover that looked anything remotely like a truck? Even the Defender is hardly beefy or brick-like.
Andrew P Collins
I know – it’s such a bum cliché to see a car nerd complaining that a new car looks too new. But consider this: Land Rover differentiated itself from the competition and emerged as a status symbol in the ’90s and 2000s, while its products were objectively seedy, gruff and notoriously unreliable. How? Why? Because they were just cool. The British gentleman explorer vibe was palpable and made driving around in Pre-Discovery 5 rovers inherently fun.
Andrew P Collins
“I always feel like I’m on safari,” a friend once told me as we crawled through traffic in my old Discovery 1. A big yellow button next to the traction control knob. And now the only indications of that are in 4x4i display mode on the Range Rover Sport’s screen, and like anything that’s projected digitally, that just feels kind of wrong.
All of this I have to say, I just can’t help but lament the fact that the new Range Rover Sport cockpit lacks the soulfulness and vitality that has oozed Land Rover meaning for so long. This new version is nice to sit in and nice to drive, but nothing about it says “right, that’s a Land Rover Innit”.
Bad weather was not a problem during our test drive. The retractable door handles continued to work, the floor mats shed the mud, and even the vehicle’s cameras and sensors didn’t seem to care about the falling snow buckets. Andrew P Collins
The competition
On the market, the Range Rover Sport is an ultra-premium and sizeable, but not huge, SUV. You get very comfortable seating for four (suitable for five) and decent cargo space behind the second row, but no jump seat on the way back. Because this version is a plug-in hybrid, it’s in a smaller subcategory of luxury sport utility rigs with fuel efficiency that’s at least not dire.
Rear fog lights (red dots below) come in handy when driving a dark vehicle in low-light situations. Andrew P Collins
A few other vehicles in this orbit are the BMW X5 xDrive45e, which costs less and is perhaps a hair less luxurious but probably more appealing to drive, the exceptionally well-made and exceptionally fast Porsche Cayenne E-Hybrid, the very Swedish Apple aesthetic Volvo XC90 Recharge, the underrated but adventurous Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe, and the upcoming plug-in version of the Mercedes-Benz GLE. The Acura MDX used to be available as a hybrid, but not anymore.
value/judgment
Of this lineup, the Range Rover Sport will probably feel the most opulent, and the RR brand name has a particular appeal. Luxury items are difficult to assess because they are inherently overpriced – if you want value for money, grab a used Honda. But if you’re wondering, “does the Range Rover Sport feel like $100,000,” I’d say it does. In that sense the value is there.
We were able to see some beautiful Utah skylines before the snow and clouds rolled in. Andrew P Collins
You don’t have to be a Land Rover fan to dig into this thing – and I think that’s exactly why the design has strayed so far from the old Explorer energy I talked about before. It’s a very luxurious and stylish method of transportation that clearly has all the bad-road capabilities you’ll need, and it’ll be cool to see what kind of range people can squeeze out of this new PHEV model. After all, fuel efficiency is usually the best automotive attribute you can have when it’s time for a real adventure.
Andrew P Collins
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