A trusted advisor doesn’t change their manner just because they’ve learned something new. The Range Rover Electric follows the same instinct: same silhouette, same commanding driving position, same unhurried character — just quieter, and with a plug where the fuel filler used to be.
A Deliberately Unremarkable Arrival
Range Rover has taken its time getting here, and the company makes no apology for it. „We are not a company that generates sales volume by hook or by crook,“ says Range Rover chief Martin Limpert, whose guiding principle for the car is blunt: Range Rover first, electric second. Visual changes are correspondingly modest — an aerodynamically optimised grille and wheels, a revised underbody — while the tall seating position and pared-back cabin carry over largely unchanged.
Underneath: A Platform That Planned Ahead
The Electric shares its MLA-Flex platform with the combustion and plug-in hybrid versions of the full-size Range Rover, a modular architecture designed roughly eleven years ago specifically to accommodate multiple powertrains. That flexibility lets Solihull build petrol, hybrid and electric models, in short and long wheelbase forms, on a single production line — though it costs the Electric its front boot, a compromise the platform’s original design simply didn’t allow for.
Power: Restrained on the Outside, Serious Underneath
Two in-house-developed permanent-magnet motors deliver up to 260 kW (354 PS) each. In the range-topping EV550, that combines for up to 405 kW, or 550 PS, and 850 Nm of torque — figures Range Rover pointedly compares to its own V8. The short-wheelbase EV550 covers 0-100 km/h in 4.5 seconds and 80-120 km/h in just 2.7. The less powerful EV450 manages 331 kW, or 450 PS. Jaguar Land Rover deliberately fitted two motors rather than four, reasoning that extra machines would add weight and complexity without meaningful everyday benefit — a Range Rover spinning on its own axis, the company notes dryly, would raise eyebrows rather than applause.
Battery, Range and a Genuinely Useful Detail
The 118.5 kWh usable battery weighs just over 700 kg and runs at 800 volts with split-charging, taking roughly 22 minutes to charge from 10 to 80 percent on a 350 kW DC charger under ideal conditions. WLTP range reaches up to 600 kilometres. A bespoke thermal management system, ThermAssist, is claimed to cut heating energy use by up to 40 percent, adding up to 40 kilometres of real-world range — a detail that matters more on a nearly five-metre luxury SUV than a headline battery number ever could.
Still a Proper Range Rover Off-Road
Integrated Traction Management adjusts motor speed within 50 milliseconds, correcting wheel slip up to 100 times faster than a comparable combustion vehicle, while a new single-pedal mode helps meter out the considerable torque with precision. The car can pull away on 33-degree inclines and handle 45-degree gradients on the move, wading through 900mm of water as standard, 960mm when needed. On the road, cabin noise runs a claimed seven decibels below the already hushed V8 model — „worlds apart,“ as one might put it. The Electric skips an active anti-roll bar in favour of a comfort-tuned suspension that leans a little more than sportier rivals, in keeping with its character, and retains rear-axle steering turning up to 7.3 degrees for manoeuvring in town. Towing capacity reaches 2.5 tonnes.
Verdict: The Same Car, Deliberately
Strengths: genuine performance that rivals the brand’s own V8, strong charging speed, real off-road credibility, and a cabin quiet enough to notice immediately. Weaknesses: no front boot, a launch that has already slipped by a year, and pricing that starts at €163,500 for the EV450 and €180,100 for the EV550 — though 77,000 people worldwide have already registered interest, some 70 percent of them from other brands. The Range Rover Electric was never going to reinvent itself for this. It simply learned to whisper.
