After half a century of gas-guzzlers, Land Rover is turning the Range Rover into an EV. It’ll be sold alongside the versions with combustion engines, promising V-8 performance with zero emissions. The new teasers released today show the luxury SUV devoid of camouflage because there’s nothing to hide. It looks all but identical to the conventionally powered model.
The electric Mercedes G-Class debuting this week at Auto China 2024 in Beijing will follow the same recipe by largely inheriting the design from its ICE counterpart. Meanwhile, the Range Rover Electric posed for the camera while undergoing cold-weather conditions in the Arctic Circle. It endured temperatures as low as -40 degrees Fahrenheit. Land Rover is also testing the silent SUV in the grueling deserts of the Middle East at 122 degrees Fahrenheit.
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It’s touted as the “quietest and most refined Range Rover ever created” and has a newly developed traction control system. The electric luxobarge put the setup to good use on the frozen lakes of Sweden. Compared to a standard traction control setup based on the ABS, the Rangie EV’s new hardware can distribute wheel-slip management to each electric drive unit. Doing so reduces the torque reaction time at each wheel from about 100 milliseconds to only 1 millisecond.
There’s also some software trickery to minimize ABS intervention and achieve a smooth ride even on slippery surfaces. Land Rover says the large EV will be motivated by a “new in-house all-electric propulsion system.” The Tata Motors-owned brand doesn’t go into details but we’re expecting over 500 horsepower since the V-8 has 523 hp from a BMW-sourced 4.4-liter, twin-turbo gas engine. Maybe even more considering the Range Rover SV has 606 hp on tap.
At the very least, a dual-motor setup seems like an educated guess since the Range Rover Electric is certainly going to have four-wheel drive. The electric G-Class officially known as the “G580 with EQ Technology” is expected to feature a quad-motor setup.
Much like the go-anywhere Defender, the electric Range Rover will wade through 33.4 inches of water. It’ll be underpinned by the same Modular Longitudinal Architecture (MLA) used by the regular SUV with combustion engines and is going to feature an 800-volt architecture for fast-charging capabilities.
The upcoming SUV will be JLR’s second electric model, following the Jaguar I-Pace launched back in 2018. While the smaller EV is assembled by Magna Steyr in Graz, Austria, the Range Rover Electric will be manufactured at home in Solihull, UK.
The ICE-less Rangie will be a stepping stone to JLR’s goal of achieving zero tailpipe emissions by 2036. Jaguar will be the first to go purely electric in the coming years.