There is an easy one Reason we haven’t reported on Land Rover for a number of years: The company has been positively icy on the rollout of hybrid and EV technology. While other automakers continued to push their reputations in true hybrid and all-electric technology, Land Rover continued to pretend to join the party with its “mild hybrids,” a thoroughly abused and misleading term that luckily falls out of favour.
Eventually, however, the brand caught up. At least in the hybrid world. For an all-electric Range Rover, you’ll have to wait until 2024 – a full six years after sister brand Jaguar launched its I-Pace EV.
Before we go any further, yes I can hear you. These new Range Rover Hybrids (Regular and Sport versions sharing the same MLA-Flex architecture) are actually not technically the first Hybrid Range Rovers. But they are the first real brand.
Photo: Jaguar Land Rover
Some might still remember the plug-in hybrid model from 2018, but that first half-assed attempt had a claimed maximum EV range of just 31 miles. In real life, many said the number had dropped to the low to mid-20s. When I tried it out, admittedly on a pre-launch model, if I recall correctly I got about 10 miles on one charge. It was practically useless. Additionally, charging time for that measly EV-only range took seven and a half hours with a 10-amp home charger. I strongly suspect that few who bought this 2018 car ever bothered to charge it regularly.
Because of this shared architecture, the new 2022 Original Hybrids are mechanically and electronically identical whether you opt for the Range Rover or Range Rover Sport plug-ins. Thanks to a shorter roof line, the sports models are a touch stiffer. The US gets the less powerful P440e model, while the UK can also opt for the P510e, but they all use the same 38.2kWh battery powering a 143hp electric motor that has a 3.0-litre straight-six -Turbocharged petrol engine assisted. The P440e offers a total of 440 horsepower and 457 foot-pounds of torque, while the optimized internal combustion engine in the P510e jumps to 509 horsepower and 516 foot-pounds with a claimed zero-to-60 time of 5.2 seconds.
But in truth, I care little about the burn offerings shown here. That 38.2kWh battery is why I’ve returned to check out Land Rover, specifically the Range Rover Sport P510e. In full EV mode (hybrid is the default), Land Rover claims up to 70 miles of zero-emission driving. And thanks to DC charging with 50 kW, the battery is charged from zero to 80 percent in about an hour. 7kW home charging will fill the battery to the brim in five hours. Quite an improvement on 2018 – and it also makes it entirely possible, considering the average daily mileage in the US is 35 miles, to drive the hybrid Rand Rovers on electric-only most of the time, even when you’re not busy load.
The Reduction Rules
With the look of the new Range Rover, the company is once again taking the path of reduced design, as specified by Chief Creative Officer Gerry McGovern. It’s about taking away the unnecessary stuff and supposedly leaving you with the essence of the Range Rover aesthetic and nothing else. This theory has stood the test of time for Land Rover over the years. It also means that there have been few radical changes or missteps.
Here, the definite wins are the narrower grille, window glass that’s flush with the pillars, and taillights that almost disappear – and if they don’t, they certainly look a damn sight fancier than the road alternatives. However, this reductive ethos has a downside when you take away too much. It can be seen in the general rear view of the Sport. It could almost be the rear of a line of SUVs. Driving in the convoy, I looked at the rear of the new Range Rover Sport for the first time ever and thought, ‘I’m not sure I could tell right away what it was.’ The same does not apply to the side and front profiles, though . This is where the classic Range Rover design comes into play.
EV rating
Let’s get straight to the important part. The plug-in hybrid Sport’s mass is substantial (6,030 pounds), but in hybrid mode the electric motor is called in to smooth the ride and get you going, especially in city traffic, with smooth, quiet EV performance. So you drive off easily at first, then the petrol engine kicks in almost imperceptibly. It works well.
The odd thing is that in EV mode, when you floor the accelerator the Range Rover doesn’t leap forward with all the torque you’d expect from an EV motor. In fact, there is a distinct lag, as if pretending to be an internal combustion engine. This gives the car a very different feel to other pure-electric vehicles, and those who thought electrification would give them a Range Rover with ridiculous off-light performance might be disappointed. What it does is merge with the ICE to ensure you don’t notice the change in propulsion.
As for range, I took out the Hybrid Sport for a pure EV drive and forced it not to go into standard hybrid mode. Through city traffic, then freeways, then winding country roads, I treated the car like a regular ICE car with little or no regard for economical driving. In other words, as many owners will in real life.
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