Sandwiched between the launch of the long-awaited full-fat Range Rover Electric at the start of September and the upcoming final reveal of the much-anticipated Jaguar Type 01 in New York City next week, comes—with considerably less fanfare—JLR’s Range Rover Sport Electric.
However, considering that Range Rover Sport sales often run close to, or occasionally slightly higher than, the flagship Range Rover, thanks in part to its lower price, this all-electric version of the Sport could be just as important for an embattled JLR. The automaker announced earlier this month that it is cutting 4,000 jobs over the next two years.
According to JLR, the performance SUV has the stiffest body (unsurprising, considering the battery placement) and lowest center of gravity of any Range Rover Sport model, as well as a faster torque response than the Range Rover Electric—50 percent faster, apparently.
Crucially, the Sport gets the same powertrain as the Range Rover, but at a lower price (from £109,810, no US prices yet) and with different tuning. Like its larger sibling, the two 260-kilowatt motors dish out up to 550 pferdestärke (PS) and 850 Newton-meters (Nm) of torque (more than any other Range Rover Sport to date). It can go from standstill to 60 mph in 4.3 seconds if you’re in the EV’s Dynamic Launch Mode.
As for range, Range Rover claims the Sport with its 118.5-kilowatt-hour battery will get up to 374 miles on the WLTP standard, which should mean about 320 miles under the EPA’s stricter testing. Split-charging tech and an 800-volt architecture let the SUV add 136 miles of range in as little as 10 minutes in ideal charging conditions, and go from 10 to 80 percent in 22 minutes.
For dynamic driving as well as off-road smarts, the Sport has all-wheel steering and electronic Active Roll Control, which can supposedly apply up to 1,400 Nm of force across each axle to keep “maximum composure,” as well as an adaptive dynamics system that monitors 100 parameters 500 times per second for greater control of body roll and pitch when cornering or braking. The car can also wade through up to 900 mm of water and tackle 45-degree inclines.
As a last flourish, an “aerodynamically-optimized” grille and alloy wheels supposedly contribute up to 10 extra miles of driving range at motorway speeds.
JLR will produce Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV), gas, and diesel versions of the Sport, but the electric model will go toe to toe with the likes of the Porsche Cayenne Electric, BMW iX xDrive60, and Lotus Eletre 600. The Porsche starts £20,000 cheaper than the Sport, though.
The Polestar 3 Dual Motor is another competitor to the Sport Electric, but not in the US, as Polestar was banned from selling its cars earlier this year because the brand is majority Chinese-owned. The ruling made Polestar the first major casualty of a US rule banning Chinese software in new internet-connected vehicles.
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