Land Rover has revealed its new Range Rover Electric during hot-weather testing (50 degrees C) in Dubai. The engineers wanted to know whether the cooling systems would meet client expectations under such extreme conditions. Evidently they did.
The test vehicles also had to climb a 300ft sand dune to test the EV’s new Intelligent Torque Management system. This replaces a conventional ABS-based traction control system with a torque vectoring set-up. Evidently power can be diverted to each electric motor within a millisecond to reduce torque reaction time. The old system was 100 times slower. JLR says, after five continuous attempts, none of the cars demonstrated any decrease in performance.
“Our tests have shown that in this climate, repeatedly driving the equivalent of 100 metres uphill on fine sand, Range Rover Electric matches the performance of its ICE equivalents, in some instances, even surpassing them.”
LR also undertook cold weather testing of its upcoming EV near the Arctic earlier this year.
New RR Electric looks almost identical to the petrol-powered variant, apart from a new grille insert. Teaser images earlier showed the car’s trim and grille, as well as EV-branded centre caps for the alloy wheels. There’s also a power operated charging door!
The grille looks simpler than that of the standard Range Rover for aerodynamic reasons, and because the car’s batteries and electric motors require less cooling.
Otherwise, it’s hard to tell the difference from the ICE powered RR. It will sit on the same Modular Longitudinal Architecture (MLA) as the existing petrol, diesel and plug-in hybrid models. And it will be built in the same Solihull factory. The batteries and electric drive units will be manufactured at the firm’s new Electric Propulsion Manufacturing Centre in Wolverhampton.
Expect performance similar to that of the V8 when it goes on sale next year. No figures are yet available but you have to imagine power will exceed the 390kW tally of the V8, given the EV will be heavier. It will also feature an 800-volt electrical architecture so it can make the best use of 350kW ultra-rapid charge points. So you can expect a 10-80 per cent recharge in under 30 minutes. Battery size remains unclear.
Thomas Müller, Executive Director for Product Engineering at JLR said, “We are on target to create the quietest and most refined Range Rover ever…now with zero emissions.”
It will also perform well off road, as you’d expect, with “capability spanning extreme temperatures, all conditions and every terrain”. Land Rover claims a wading depth of 850mm, the same as for a coil-sprung Defender.
Geraldine Ingham, Managing Director for Range Rover, said “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.”
