The inevitable is about to happen as JLR (formerly known as Jaguar Land Rover) is teasing the first-ever electric Range Rover. Even before the full debut, the British luxury brand is already accepting preorders from early adopters. In the meantime, preliminary details confirm the high-end SUV won’t lose the off-road chops that have made it an automotive legend.
The switch from combustion engines to a fully electric powertrain won’t come at the expense of all-terrain abilities. The Tata Motors-owned marque says prototypes are being subjected to one of the harshest testing programs ever to ensure go-anywhere capabilities. Land Rover mentions the Range Rover Electric will wade through waters as deep as 33.4 inches (850 millimeters). That means it’ll match the mighty Defender fitted with the coil-spring suspension.
It’s touted as being “the quietest and most refined Range Rover ever” while offering performance comparable to a V8. We’ll remind you that the eight-cylinder variant uses a twin-turbo 4.4-liter mill from BMW with up to 606 horsepower and 553 pound-feet (750 Newton-meters) of torque. The Range Rover SV does 0 to 60 mph in 4.3 seconds and tops out at 162 mph (261 km/h).
The zero-emission Rangie will ride on the same Modular Longitudinal Architecture (MLA) as the versions equipped with a combustion engine. Support for fast charging will be possible by adopting an 800V architecture. Although not mentioned in the announcement, a dual-motor setup is a logical assumption since the electric SUV will definitely have all-wheel drive.
The teasers released today hint at a design almost identical to the conventionally powered SUV. We are noticing the wheel center caps have an EV script rather than the Land Rover logo while the grille seems to have a more closed-off layout. Obviously, there’s now a charging port through which the presumably large battery will draw its juice. Don’t be too surprised if the battery’s capacity is going to have three digits.
The Range Rover Electric spearheads JLR’s ambition to achieve zero carbon emissions by 2039.
