Land Rover introduced today the fifth-generation Range Rover and we’ve already detailed its two plug-in hybrid powertrains. The P440e and P510e PHEV models are complemented by a pair of gasoline and three diesel engines all equipped with mild-hybrid tech, with only the BMW-sourced 4.4-liter, twin-turbo V8 lacking electrification.
For a Range Rover that will do away with the internal combustion engine altogether, you will have to wait until 2024 when Land Rover says a purely electric variant of the company’s flagship SUV is going to hit the market. The Tata Motors-owned British brand sadly doesn’t go into any details about the EV, only saying that it’s “spearheading Land Rover’s drive towards the electric future.”
A zero-emissions Range Rover isn’t all too surprising since we’ve known for a while the all-new flagship SUV would ride on Jaguar Land Rover’s MLA platform. The architecture has been developed to accommodate gasoline, diesel, plug-in hybrid, and EV powertrains. It was supposed to debut already with the next-gen Jaguar XJ, but the fullsize electric sedan was canceled at the very last minute.
With the plug-in hybrids already promising to offer a somewhat substantial 62 miles (100 kilometers) of electric range per the WLTP cycle from their 31.8-kWh lithium-ion battery pack, we’re expecting great things from the EV model. We can all agree anything a range between charging of fewer than 300 miles (483 kilometers) in the real world would be simply unacceptable for a luxury SUV with the prestige few models in this segment can match.
Weight will certainly be a concern considering the Range Rover equipped with combustion engines is already a heavy SUV, but with a vehicle of this size, the engineers can fit a large battery pack. Not being an electric-only platform could mean some compromises will be made in terms of packaging, so the EV version might not be as roomy as the Mercedes EQS SUV coming next year.
The Range Rover EV is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Jaguar Land Rover’s electric ambitions as another five vehicles without a combustion engine will arrive within the next five years. These will cover not just the Range Rover / Range Rover Sport lineup, but also the Discovery and the Defender. As a refresher, Jaguar will entirely switch to EVs from 2025 when all of its cars powered by gasoline and diesel engines are going to be discontinued.
Source: Land Rover
