The first-ever all-electric Range Rover is in the works, and the British carmaker released the first teaser images of the big zero-emission SUV today. We’re talking about the big Range Rover here, not the smaller Range Rover Sport, just to be clear, although the latter will reportedly also get a battery-powered version sometime next year.
First off, the looks. Land Rover didn’t release any pictures of the entire car, but from the published close-ups, it’s pretty clear that the BEV Range Rover will look more or less identical to its internal combustion relatives.
For instance, the rear tail lamps are of the same vertical LED strip variety as on the latest-gen model ICE model. To discreetly distinguish it from its gasoline-burning stablemates, the battery-powered version will have wheel center caps that read “EV.”
Based on the same Modular Longitudinal Architecture as the plug-in hybrid version of the SUV, the new all-electric Range Rover will benefit from an 800-volt architecture. It will be built in Solihull, United Kingdom, and the batteries and electric drive units will be assembled at Jaguar Land Rover’s new Electric Propulsion Manufacturing Center in Wolverhampton, UK.
Gallery: Electric Range Rover teaser images
The British marque says its first fully electric model is anticipated to be the quietest and most refined car it ever made, and that it will be capable of wading through up to 33.4 inches (850 millimeters) deep water. That's just as capable as the Land Rover Defender.
In other words, the luxurious battery-powered Range Rover should retain its off-road prowess even in all-electric guise, although we’re skeptical that owners actually take their $100,000+ four-wheeled barges off the beaten track that often.
Besides being capable of wading through waist-deep water, the upcoming Range Rover EV will feature “a unique active road noise cancellation configuration and sound design” which should help reduce unwanted noise that would otherwise be covered by the combustion engine.
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Over-the-air software updates and “effortless charging” will also be part of the mix, while the performance of the yet-to-be-detailed powertrain will be comparable to a flagship Range Rover V8, the company said. In the case of the gas-powered P530 version, its 4.4-liter V8 makes 523 horsepower and 553 pound-feet of torque, so we should see comparable figures on the EV.
Prototypes of the all-electric Range Rover are already being tested all around the world in temperatures ranging from minus 40 degrees to 122 degrees.
We don’t know when the SUV will debut, but Land Rover will open pre-orders sometime next year. Until then, customers can join a waitlist to get notified when they can place an order.
The Range Rover going electric is a pretty big deal, considering a lot of people see it as the original luxury SUV. We’ll just have to wait and see how big batteries fare in an already pretty heavy machine.