The Range Rover Electric, the battery-only version of the current full-size Range Rover, is currently deep in the pre-production test program. Though the vehicle is at its core the tried-and-true two-year-old L460 Range Rover platform, the electric drive motors and EV powertrain are all newly engineered, and require full testing to make sure they're up to the demands of powering a Range Rover.
Unlike other Land Rover test vehicles, including the upcoming high-performance Defender OCTA which is also based on an existing vehicle, the Range Rover Electric is doing its testing circuit with zero camo. It's a testament to the MLA-Flex platform it's built on, which is designed to accept anything from a full-battery EV powertrain to a screaming twin-turbo V8. Because of that, the Range Rover Electric won't look all that different on the outside from any other Range Rover, and there's no need to wrap the test vehicle in camo, because there's nothing to hide.
The vehicles are currently undergoing the usual test program, from the cold reaches of Sweden to the hot desert dunes of Dubai. The goal is to make sure that all of the electric drive components can handle the same range of temperatures and conditions as the rest of the vehicle, which has been both laboratory and real-world tested for several years now. The battery and electric drive unit (EDU) are both assembled in-house by JLR, allowing it to be engineered to the same high standards for all-condition performance as the rest of the vehicle.
Electric vehicles bring about a whole new powertrain layout, and in the case of the Range Rover, there are individual drive units in each of the wheels. This allows the engineering team to play around with new technology to improve off-road and poor-conditions performance. There will be more releases of more tech as the development goes on, but as Land Rover is currently focused on the results of the cold-weather testing program, the marketing focus right now is on the new icy and low-grip surface traction control system. Traditional traction control systems are based on the vehicle's ABS system, activating brake calipers in a sequence to provide torque and power where it's needed. It senses wheel slip within 100 milliseconds and activates the brakes to compensate.
As the power distribution unit moves directly to the wheels, the latest traction system reduces the reaction time to one millisecond. A conventionally-powered vehicle has to attempt to move all four wheels at once (differentials will distribute power differently in difficult situations), but with an electric vehicle, you can have the vehicle's computer distribute power millisecond by millisecond, wheel by wheel, to get out of a sticky situation. There is no reliance on the braking system anymore -- traction can be controlled by applying or reducing power to individual drive units.
All of this points to Range Rover Electric holding an interesting and unusual position in the luxury electric SUV space. While other high-end automakers are building EVs with sleek lines, angular accents, and "futuristic" lighting everywhere, Land Rover seems to be doing what they always do best -- taking the subtle and mature route, with a Range Rover Electric that looks no different from any other Range Rover. There is nothing brash, no strange lights or dubious-looking fake "grille." The focus is also heavily on making the vehicle live up to Land Rover's all-terrain reputation, even though the full-size Range Rover has almost completely drifted out of that market space. At the end of the day, everyone who walks into a Land Rover dealership still flashes a Camel Trophy-esque image through their head, and the vehicle has to be able to perform whether it's in the jungles of Kalimantan or the beaches of Great Point.
As the luxury market is taking the electric "revolution" as a sign to make more and more avante-garde vehicles, the Range Rover is planting its flag as the symbol of maturity and stability, just as it has for the past five decades.
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