New Range Rover Electric essentially revealed during hot-weather testing

Never one to tease unnecessarily, Land Rover has essentially revealed its new Range Rover Electric during hot-weather testing in Dubai. The British brand hasn’t been shy about keeping its electric icon under wraps, and thanks to a new set of images released by Land Rover, we can now see that it’ll look identical to the petrol-powered variant, save for a new grille insert. 

As with almost all brand-new cars, the new electric Range Rover has been put under the stresses of hot-weather testing. This takes the package to extremes to make sure that it’ll work just as well in the Arabian desert as it will in the somewhat more mundane environments it’ll face closer to home. 

These latest images join a previous teaser showing five pictures that included close-ups of the car’s trim and grille, as well as unique EV-branded centre caps for the alloy wheels. A short video accompanied the images, revealing that owners of the zero-emission Range Rover won’t be troubled with a manually opening charge port; instead, the electrically operated door slides right to left to reveal the car’s CCS plug and charge indicators.

In typical electric car fashion, the grille looks more flush than on the standard Range Rover. This is presumably not only for aerodynamic reasons, but also because the car’s batteries and electric motors require less cooling – something that will have been tested to the maximum in the desert conditions of the new images. There’s copper-coloured trim on the side of the car, although it’s not clear at this stage whether this will be specific to the EV, or a new option across the range.

Despite Land Rover revealing a close-up picture of the electric Range Rover’s tailgate and rear light cluster, there are no obvious changes to the design here. That means the same darkened lamps and full-width black trim, featuring the usual Range Rover lettering across the back. 

The Range Rover EV will sit on the same Modular Longitudinal Architecture (MLA) platform as the existing petrol, diesel and plug-in hybrid models, and be built in the same factory in Solihull. Jaguar Land Rover says the batteries and electric drive units – details of which are still under wraps – will be made at the firm’s new Electric Propulsion Manufacturing Centre in Wolverhampton.

The maker says the electric Range Rover will “deliver performance comparable to a flagship V8” when it goes on sale in 2025. The only other technical details revealed so far surround the car’s 800-volt electrical architecture – similar to the system used in the Porsche Taycan. This should give the Range Rover access to the UK’s expanding network of 350kW ultra-rapid chargepoints. And although battery sizes haven’t been confirmed, we’d expect a 10-80 per cent charge to be possible in under 30 minutes – even for a battery of 100kWh or more.

Thomas Müller, Executive Director for Product Engineering at JLR said, “We are on target to create the quietest and most refined Range Rover ever. The ingredients that underpin the success of Range Rover are unchanged – now with zero emissions.”

But the new vehicle will also be able to perform well off road, just as any Land Rover product should. The company says the car’s testing regime will see it “subjected to one of the most rigorous engineering sign-off programmes ever – to confirm capability spanning extreme temperatures, all conditions and every terrain”. Land Rover says the Range Rover EV will be able to wade to depths of 850mm – the same as a coil-sprung current-generation Defender.

Along with these images and early information, Land Rover has confirmed that a waiting list for the car is now open. 

Geraldine Ingham, Managing Director for Range Rover, said, “Since going on sale in 2021, the latest-generation Range Rover has set a new benchmark for desirability. Across the globe, we’re seeing the highest levels of client demand in our 53-year history.

“Because of this unprecedented success story,” she continued, “we’re now opening the official waiting list for the opportunity to be among the first to place a pre-order for the most anticipated Range Rover of recent times.”