Range Rover’s first battery-powered car is a flagship model that promises V8 prowess without the emissions from gasoline. According to the brand, it is a Range Rover first and an electric second.
But is that good enough to persuade the wealthy buyers who sidestepped the electric Mercedes G-Class? Maybe the real competitor here is exactly that gasoline-powered Range Rover that sits in the same showroom.
After nearly two years of delays and unmet testing results, Range Rover has finally opened order books for its first fully electric model. The Range Rover Electric, revealed this week and built at the brand’s well-known Solihull plant, arrives with a base price of 163,830 euros for the EV450, or roughly 17,000 euros pricier than the mild-hybrid diesel SE model in Belgium.
Despite the price hike, there’s a worldwide waiting list of more than 61,000 names gathered since late 2023. These were expecting their vehicles in 2024, but the launch was pushed to 2025, and only now, in September 2026, will the first units roll up their driveways. Under a new form of grace: silence.
What took so long?
Range Rover insists the delay was about getting the product right, not about the market. Martin Limpert, Range Rover’s managing director, told the BBC that the company took testing “even further than originally intended to ensure Range Rover Electric is genuinely the most accomplished Range Rover ever.”
The numbers behind that claim are definitely thorough: prototypes covered a distance equivalent to driving around the world 38 times, supplemented by over 250,000 hours of virtual testing. The aim was to shake and shock those battery cells, then freeze them after baking them at temperatures ranging from -40 to +90 degrees Celsius.
That battery pack sits in a double-stacked configuration under the floor and features a usable capacity of a whopping 118.5 kWh (125 kWh nominal). The NMC chemistry feeds an 800-volt electrical architecture. Obviously, since we’re talking Range Rover, all-wheel drive is guaranteed by two permanently excited motors.
Together, they deliver 405 kW (542 horsepower) and 850 Nm of torque in the strongest version, the EV550. That’s V8 levels of power translating into entertaining accelerations: the 0-100 km/h sprint is over in 4.5 seconds. Not bad for a car that looks like it needs a building permit. The EV450 delivers – you guessed it – 450 hp and ticks 100 km/h in 5.6 seconds. Still very swift.
Refill in twenty minutes
But, then again, making an electric car go fast isn’t the peculiarity; providing decent range to a near 3-ton behemoth is. Land Rover claims an autonomy of 601 kilometers for both models, which is better than the aforementioned G-Class (435 kilometers) with a battery that is barely smaller (116 kWh).
But in real-world circumstances, that weight of 2,885 kg will surely drag the Range Rover’s autonomy figure southward. Official consumption stands at 24.7 kWh per 100 kilometers.
Despite the huge battery pack, Land Rover promises a 10-to-80 percent charge in just 22 minutes, thanks to peak charging at 350 kW. Again, finding a charging station that can handle that level remains rare. So at less powerful chargers, like 250 kW, that waiting time will double.
The skeptical question is, of course, whether an electric powertrain can match the low-speed control that makes any ‘Rangie’ feel like it can tackle the Himalayas.
Land Rover’s answer is a suite of Intelligent Driveline Dynamics and Integrated Traction Management systems that can modulate motor speed within 50 milliseconds and react to wheel slip 100 times faster than an equivalent internal combustion drivetrain.
Single-pedal driving works on gradients up to 45 degrees. That’s steep. The wading depth is 900 millimeters. That’s deep. But don’t look for fancy tank turns like you can make the G-Class dance.
Impossible to distinguish
Land Rover deliberately made the electric Range Rover near impossible to distinguish from its gasoline siblings. The only giveaways are a reshaped grille, bespoke wheels, and dual charging ports on either side at the rear, an interesting and quite comfortable choice.
There is no EV-specific badging; the company concluded its buyers want the car exactly as it is, electric drivetrain or not. That’s the same approach that turned BMW’s electric series into a success. Interestingly, even the cargo volumes (a minimal 733 liters) are unchanged compared to the gasoline range.
On the inside, the cabin mirrors the combustion model so closely that passengers might not even notice the difference until they hear the absence of a piston engine. A leather-free interior featuring wool and other textiles is now available.
The 13.1-inch curved Pivi Pro touchscreen, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and a rear-seat entertainment system with dual 11.4-inch displays carry over. Same for the seating configurations, available in four-, five-, or seven-occupant settings.
The Range Rover rides on Jaguar-Land Rover’s MLA architecture, a flexible platform that also underpins mild-hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and internal combustion variants from the same factory line. That flexibility is pragmatic. If the waiting list suddenly softens after the wave of early adopters, JLR can slide the production mix back toward gasoline without moving a single robot.
