Powerful acceleration not a focus of upcoming all-electric Range Rover
The luxury SUV will still be the best-performing model in the lineup, but absurdly low 0-to-60 times are not the priority.
The redesigned Land Rover Range Rover will offer a diverse lineup of conventional gasoline and hybrid powertrains, but the real showstopper should be the upcoming battery-electric version. It promises excellent, if not necessarily jaw-dropping performance.
"We're not chasing headline figures," Finbar McFall, Land Rover's global executive director of vehicle programs, said while chatting with Roadshow at the LA Auto Show earlier this month. In other words, don't expect the all-electric Range Rover to scramble your organs with a 0-to-60-mph time of less than 3 seconds.
That's not so say this top-tier SUV is going to be some slow-lane laggard. The upcoming battery-electric Range Rover will still be the highest performance version in the model range, at least from a 0-to-60 standpoint, because of the instant response of its electric motors. But all-out acceleration is not really what Range Rovers are about, noted McFall. It's "almost a secondary or tertiary message," he said. "It's not really why people buy Range Rovers."
What keeps customers coming back for more is this nameplate's go-anywhere ability and its enviable refinement. "It will still be the most capable and refined SUV. So the fact that it's powered by electric, that won't change," McFall said. The battery-powered drivetrain will only serve to make this SUV even more civilized, since it produces almost no vibration or noise.
Company representatives declined to comment on the all-electric Range Rover's power, range or battery chemistry, but they reiterated that it will offer all the capability and refinement customers expect from this vehicle. "It will be able to tow the way you want a Range Rover to tow," noted McFall.
The redesigned 2022 Range Rover is scheduled to launch next spring and the plug-in hybrid model, which offers 62 miles of battery-only range is expected to come out in 2023. The all electric Range Rover is due to launch a year later. Based on this SUV's stunning design, opulent interior and cutting-edge tech, it's a vehicle lineup I can't wait to experience.
