Orders for the battery-electric Range Rover will open later this year ahead of the car going on sale by the end of 2024.
It will be the first electric Land Rover from JLR (the new official name for Jaguar Land Rover) and will be built at the Solihull production facility in the Midlands.
Like its donor car, the Range Rover EV will be based on the MLA platform, which supports both hybridised ICE and fully electric powertrains.
Few other technical details of the car that JLR bills as the “world’s first electric luxury SUV” have been revealed, however.
JLR’s vehicle programme director Nick Collins said it would “deliver true Range Rover values”, including “off-road ability, usability, and refinement” in an “uncompromised” approach.
He added: “It will be a benchmark for refined luxury and a testament for what this brand will create.”
The MLA platform will spawn other EVs in the future as part of JLR’s pledge to have an electric model under each of its four brands (Range Rover, Discovery, Defender and Jaguar) by 2026, an electric model in each of its model ranges by 2030 and for every car it sells to be electric by 2036.
The electric Range Rover will initially use batteries sourced from an external supplier, before it switches to using cells made by JLR parent company Tata when it has its gigafactory online within the next five years.
JLR CEO Adrian Mardell confirmed that this battery supply deal was secure and that it wouldn't slow down the launch of the new car next year.
All Land Rover models will offer a fully electric powertrain option by the end of the decade in line with the brand’s ambition to achieve a 60% EV sales mix by that point.
The electric Range Rover, which will serve as a rival to the BMW iX and Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV, remains under wraps (even camouflaged prototypes have yet to hit public roads), but visually it's unlikely to differ substantially from the ICE-powered car.
The subtle evolution of the Range Rover’s design over the years suggests its recognisable silhouette is intrinsic to the model name, so it's likely to be maintained for all powertrain variants.
Originally, it was planned that Land Rover’s first EV would share the MLA underpinnings with the long-promised electric Jaguar XJ, but that model was cancelled as it was deemed incompatible with then CEO Thierry Bolloré’s vision for the brand.
The electric Range Rover could be one of the first production models to benefit from a new development partnership between JLR and BMW, which will have the German and British firms collaborate on electric drive systems. Whether these systems will bear any relation to those used by BMW’s current EVs – or indeed JLR's own Jaguar I-Pace – is unclear, but it's almost certain that an electric Range Rover would feature two driven axles and have similar power figures to the most potent ICE car.
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- and excess weight. God knows at what figure the thing will tip the scales. Thankfully there shouldn't be too many of them wearing out our already crumbling roads
The problem with large electric vehicles is the battery. The current battery technology is outdated. We have new technology which we will see in the future, but I doubt we will see this new tech anytime soon. Mass production of the new battery technologies is still a long way away.
This means the new Range Rover EV will be of a considerable mass. 2800kg+? Remember the battery weight itself is going to be 500kg+ if the battery is over 75kwh+. A 100kwh battery is around 600kg+.
The main problem with current large EVs is they are bad for the environment. The amount of pollutants that are discharged into the atmosphere during their production, plus the lifetime of the vehicle, will be greater or the same as an equivalent current technology internal petrol combustion vehicle of similar dimensions, this is because the extractions of the elements to make current EV batteries is having devastating effects and causing massive amount of increased pollution.
It is best to stick to a hybrid drivetrain where the battery is much smaller. Thus allowing time to save valuable natural resources until new battery technology is available in mass.
Consumers need to stop buying these large EVs with their flawed outdated battery technology as the current EV battery production is killing our planet and it's atmosphere. It is madness to keep making these large EVs until the current battery technology is totally replaced with a far more environmentally kinder alternative.
Stick to a current hybrid or full internal combustion drivetrain vehicle.
The mayor of London of course is happy to have all electric cars in his city, even if it means the planet gets red hot. He just cares about himself and his future knighthood.
Russia of course has the natural elements to produce the current flawed battery tech in abundance, hence the conflict in Ukraine using the West's current armory tech to destroy Ukraine and it's people and hopefully get Putin out! (no chance there)
China and south America also have massive natural resources to make the current flawed tech batteries for EVs at the cost of the atmosphere etc. So expect some trouble in these countries soon. The rich West wants all they have, even if it means engineering a conflict/war in order to get it, but sadly it will cost everyone in the end. Where on earth are we going?
Buying a large current tech EV is a bad idea, it could cause a war. STOP IT. Go Hybrid and save lives and the planet.
Funny how you think 2800 is too much, yet these monstrosities are already on the road.
2024 until an electric Range Rover appears! Why so slow? Why don't they just build a Range Rover Sport on the Jaguar iPace platform? That's what Geely are doing with Volvo. The Polestar 2, the Volvo XC40 electric and about 4 Geely SUVs, are all built on the same platform in the same Chinese factory. It's a real concern that JLR could get left behind in this race.
I remember a couple of years ago Jaguar said that the iPace was on a unique platform that wasn't suitable for other models, no idea why or how it's unique.