We drive the prototype Range Rover Sport Electric Smooth and oh so refined Land Rover promises identical off-road ability as the combustion cars Oh wow. We all knew a Range Rover Electric was due imminently but a Sport version as well? Plus the Type 01 from Jaguar that’s coming this year. Like London’s buses, you wait ages for an electric car from these British brands, then three come along at once… Not only that, within five minutes of finding out about the car, we were strapping into a prototype for an early drive. Fast workers, those Brummie engineers. The thinking behind this is almost ‘why not’. The Sport rides on the same platform as the proper Rangie and benefits from the same advantages of going electric, only in this case JLR bosses are trying to stretch the Sport’s remit and make it even more dynamic, seeing this new electric era as a way of distinguishing the top two Range Rovers even further. The sales numbers are encouraging, as JLR thinks 70 per cent of owners will be new to the brand. The clue’s in the name – it’s an electric version of the Range Rover Sport. Looks-wise, it’s virtually identical. Just a slightly different grille and re-profiled rear bumper for better aero (there’s no need for an exhaust back there, after all) are the only visual hints. These are scarce at the moment. What I can tell you is that it’s on the MLA platform – as mentioned, this is the same flexible underpinnings as the full-fat Range Rover, capable of handling both electric and ICE – and runs on the same 800V cabling as the bigger brother. Power is 542bhp, which compares well to the Porsche Cayenne S (536bhp). Torque is 590 lb ft, again a chunky figure. Land Rover has developed its own motors and own battery for the car, shared with the Range Rover, because the brand’s unique off-road demands meant an off-the-shelf set-up wasn’t up to scratch. Range Rover won’t tell us the official performance figures yet, nor the certified range. But the car we drove was showing as 75 per cent charged and had just over 200 miles left. I can’t say how the car was used before I jumped in for a single lap of Goodwood, but I suppose a 275/300-mile real-world range of something this size, shape and weight probably isn’t far off what you’d expect. It uses 800V technology, like the Cayenne, so charging will be rapid. Can it get close to the Cayenne’s 400kW and 16 minutes for 10-80 per cent charge? We’ll have to wait and see. But the hardware is in place, so it’s not unreasonable to expect it. It also uses a twin-stacked battery pack of 118.5kWh – a smidge above the Cayenne’s – and two electric motors, one at each end. Now you might question this latter point. Why wouldn’t RR use four electric motors, or even three, for both better torque vectoring and better control off-road? Land Rover prefers a physical connection between the two wheels and doesn’t want to rely on sensors, instead using an open diff and then control the wheels with brakes and traction control. From what we could tell – we only got a single lap of Goodwood – Land Rover’s claim about control via the brakes and TC stands up well. We crept over a few obstacles and the instant torque from the electric motors was delivered seamlessly, allowing the car to move at just the pace you wanted it to. The Sport comes with all the same Terrain Response settings as the regular car, so you can deploy the various modes in exactly the same way. Hill descent worked well and seemed to be much calmer, with none of the ABS grabbing that you normally get. The overriding impression was how smooth it was. Raised driving position, reactive powertrain, oh-so-quiet waft – the electric Sport is going to make the diesel feel uncouth and unresponsive. I wouldn’t say it felt any sportier than the normal car and certainly isn’t as sharp to turn in as either the Sport SV. Land Rovers claims of pushing this car further in that direction don’t seem to bearing fruit at the moment. Exactly the same as the normal Rangie
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