New Range Rover Electric: Unexpected Feature Beyond Its 118.5-kWh Battery

There are cars that mark a turning point for a brand. This is the case with the new Range Rover Electric, although at first glance it may look like the same car that has become an icon among today’s luxury SUVs.

I was able to see it in person last July, during my stay at Goodwood coinciding with the Festival of Speed, and even then I had the feeling that Range Rover was facing one of those important moments in its history.

Because electrifying a model in the lineup is relatively easy. They have done it with many, both the Sport and the Velar or the large Range Rovers have plug-in hybrid versions.

The real challenge, though, is making a car that for decades has built its identity around a massive combustion engine, luxury and exceptional off-road capabilities remain recognizable when the internal combustion engine disappears entirely, as is the case here.

And that is precisely what Range Rover has tried to do with this car: not to create an electric SUV that happens to carry the Range Rover name, but to ensure that it is, first and foremost, a Range Rover and only then an electric car.

The brand itself sums it up with a phrase that defines the project perfectly: “to be, above all, a Range Rover and, second, electric”. And after learning its figures and, above all, after seeing it live, I think that is the key to understanding it.

The Range Rover that inaugurates a new era

Since 1970, Range Rover has built a very specific identity. Luxury, off-road capability, comfort and a very particular way of understanding the automobile. Over the years it has become much more than a vehicle capable of venturing off the asphalt: it is one of the great icons of British motoring.

A car that is said you can go hunting in the field in the morning, rinse it off with a hose, and go to dinner at London’s most luxurious restaurant at night. Will the new Range Rover Electric be able to do the same?

We are looking at the first fully electric Range Rover and it arrives with the intention of elevating even more some of the attributes that have traditionally defined the model. The absence of a combustion engine, on paper, allows reducing noise and vibrations even further, achieving a more refined experience in a car that is a benchmark in this regard across all its versions.

Moreover, the instant torque delivery fits especially well with that sense of effortless forward motion that Range Rover has always sought.

The brand asserts that it is the quietest, most responsive Range Rover ever, and not a single one of its capabilities is compromised: its two permanent-magnet electric motors develop up to 550 hp and 850 Nm of torque, figures that place it in the territory of a true V8.

And the most interesting part is that all of this has not forced a radical change in its personality. In fact, at a glance it still looks like the same car as ever.

I saw it at Goodwood and it remains unmistakably a Range Rover

One of the things that most caught my attention when seeing it at Goodwood was precisely that, despite being a completely new car in terms of propulsion, it does not try to stand out the way many electric cars do.

It does not need extravagant shapes, exaggerated aerodynamics or a futuristic aesthetic to make it clear that we are looking at an electric car. At first glance it remains that comfortable and elegant Range Rover, just like the one that had just taken me to Goodwood from Heathrow Airport, although that one was an SV with a V8 engine.

The design philosophy is the most conservative I’ve seen in an electric car in a long time. All the dimensions, proportions, clean surfaces and straight lines that have made the current generation one of the most recognizable in its segment are preserved. The modifications introduced mainly aim to improve aerodynamic efficiency.