Land Rover is pretty confident about the credentials of its first all-electric Range Rover luxury SUV, and its prototypes are not even camouflaged anymore – at least while they provide the classic black-over-white contrast in a winter wonderland.
While no one really knows what will happen with the sibling Jaguar brand after some reports of its potential dismissal, Land Rover is apparently thriving. They already presented a couple of special editions for the Range Rover family – one for America and another one for Canada. Both had to do with sports and winter wonderlands, by the way.
There's also the upcoming Defender Octa coming to try and ascertain supremacy over mid-size off-road SUVs like the 2024 Toyota Land Cruiser, Jeep Wrangler, 2025 Toyota 4Runner, and Ford Bronco, but it seems the flagship Range Rover division has even more novelties this year. So, after late last year, we got the first teaser regarding the upcoming Range Rover Electric, complete with an open waiting list, now there's no longer a need to get our spy photographer partners freezing when trying to spy the camouflaged prototypes – Land Rover simply de-camouflaged them and also threw an official photo shoot.
More precisely, Land Rover is simply announcing that "the first Range Rover Electric prototype vehicles are now being subjected to global testing," they're out in a winter wonderland to complete the first phase - old temperature calibration assessment at and around the Arctic Circle. These first official images showcase initial all-black prototypes for a nice contrast with the surrounding snow, and Land Rover says they were released into the wild after a year's worth of component and virtual development processes – and they also claim the company is on track "to deliver the quietest and most refined Range Rover ever created."
The all-electric powertrain is being put through its paces at the most extreme temperatures – "from -40°C in the Arctic Circle, to +50°C in the searing deserts of the Middle East." That's how we also found out that both the battery pack and the Electric Drive Unit (EDU includes transmission, electric motor, and power electronics) were assembled in-house by Jaguar Land Rover. JLR also announced that Range Rover Electric will be equipped with a new traction control system that can lower the "torque reaction time at each wheel from around 100 milliseconds to as little as 1 millisecond."
As previously stated, the new Range Rover Electric forced Land Rover to file more patent applications than any other version, and it wants it to become the "quietest and most refined Range Rover ever created." Production will occur on the flexible Modular Longitudinal Architecture in Solihull, United Kingdom, where the factory is getting a new £70 million facility. Meanwhile, the EDUs will come from JLR's new Electric Propulsion Manufacturing Centre in Wolverhampton, the UK.
Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution. Full profile
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