Bisected by the Arctic Circle, nestled between Norway and Finland, Sweden’s Lapland routinely sees temperatures of 20 to 30 degrees below zero over its depressingly dark winters. That makes the area around Arjeplog a hotbed of cold-weather testing—including our prototype drive of the first-ever Range Rover EV.
Climate change is shortening the testing season here, thinning meter-deep ice on frozen lakes where automakers develop and coach their sheet metal skaters. That only underscores the urgency of the electric task; including the need to goose northerly adoption by making EVs charge faster and hoard range in bitter conditions.
Here in Arjeplog, the wintertime population swells from 2,500 to 6,000 as engineers and executives—from Jaguar Land Rover, Mercedes, Porsche, Ferrari, Bosch, Continental and more—rent local homes or swarm seasonal hotels.
For the past two winter seasons, Range Rover EV prototypes have undergone 45,000 miles of testing over lake ice and land tracks here; now add a few more with me behind its sumptuous wheel. I’ve been sworn to secrecy for now on personal driving impressions. But I am free to discuss my sensations from the shotgun side, with engineers driving through deep snow and shimmying on ice.
So start with this: Picture a Rolls-Royce Spectre, likely the world’s quietest automobile, a royal stateroom wafting on waves of air-sprung flotation, all heightened by its BMW-based electric powertrain. Next, the Mercedes G 580, the Rover’s only direct off-road rival (no Rivian is this luxurious), whose own legendary 4x4 skills only get better in electric guise.
As with those models, a Range Rover’s electric evolution feels right and inevitable, as an SUV that casts itself as the benchmark of all-encompassing luxury, serenity and capability. These days, such haughty claims become nearly impossible to support with an ICE powertrain.
This Range Rover EV seems expressly designed to be the best Range Rover, to put an end to performance debates on any given Sunday or surface. It rides on Jaguar Land Rover’s aluminum-intensive MLA-Flex architecture, designed from the get-go to support EV, ICE and PHEV versions on a single assembly line. All the brains of this SUV, its power electronics and control modules, fit neatly into an existing transmission tunnel.
The power here comes from a 117 kilowatt-hour (usable) battery, designed and built in-house, backed by 67 patents, with 344 prismatic cells on their edges in two stacked tiers. The cell-to-pack design eliminates module boxes to save space and weight, but is fully armored for wilderness adventure or deep-water wading.
Suspension geometry, ground clearance, roofline height, breakover and departure angles are all virtually identical to gasoline models, with the EV version adding dual-stage dampers to its air suspension. Unlike Jaguar and its hot pink, Code Red bet on EVs, Land Rover—the brand that currently pays 100% of JLR’s bills—isn’t about to ditch its ICE-leaning customers for good.
Still, that doesn’t mean JLR half-assed the effort. One high-voltage argument is settled: The Rover’s 800-volt architecture has the 400-volt Benz beat. Given a robust enough charger, engineers claim the Rover can charge at a peak of 350 kilowatts, versus 200 for the Mercedes. My observations sussed out dual Tesla-style North American Charging Standard (NACS) ports, one on each rear fender of the prototype — ostensibly for flexible positioning at charging stalls — but JLR representatives weren’t ready to confirm the arrangement for production models.
Land Rover hasn’t estimated the EV’s driving range, but my rough calculations suggest roughly 280-300 miles on the EPA test cycle, versus the Benz’s 239 miles. Based on real-world data on 350 million journeys taken by its drivers, Rover says the electric version will cover 99% of daily trips on a full charge.
Other off-road gizmos include a four-wheel-drive system that senses and reacts to wheelspin with a 50-millisecond latency, or 100 times faster than gasoline-powered models. That’s not a contest; it’s a laugh fest. Even on ice polished to a Zamboni sheen, and shod with 21-inch all-season tires, the Rover hesitates for a beat under hard throttle, then digs in and hustles like it’s on damp pavement.
On a forested off-road course, the Rover toboggans through snow with such cruise-controlled ease that a pilot could sip cocoa and steer with a finger and thumb. Terrain Response modes, managed via a familiar console dial, are optimized to take advantage of the electric largesse. Regenerative braking adjusts automatically based on driving modes. A one-pedal mode operates smoothly even on icy slopes of up to a wicked 28-degree incline, and automatically engages Hill Hold so drivers can move off again without touching brakes.
Non-PHEV gasoline Rovers will tiptoe 0.4 inches higher in maximum off-road mode, but the EV’s 10.4-inch peak still tops the G-Wagen’s 9.9 inches. This British royal carriage still kneels graciously at the curb to admit riders.
Most importantly here, a sophisticated five-link independent rear suspension outclasses the Benz’s archaic de Dion solid axle, a workaround necessitated by the Mercedes’ retrofitted EV design. Translation: This Rover should carve circles around the Mercedes on pavement, where these SUVs will spend 99 % of their working-and-playing lives.
A pair of permanent magnet electric motors, designed entirely in-house with power-dense silicon carbide inverters, send 550 horsepower and 628 pound-feet of torque to four wheels. Lynfel Owen, Rover’s chief engineer for vehicle architecture, says the motors’ laminate windings are thinner than Tesla’s, allowing a stronger magnetic field and more torque in a given space. No stopwatch numbers yet, but engineers say the electric Rover should meet or beat standard V-8 models from zero to 60 mph. Figure a plenty-quick 4.5 seconds, versus 4.1 seconds for the more powerful Mercedes.
Regarding electric-motor count, a reductive take suggests the G-Class’ four beats the Rover’s two. Owen compliments the ingenuity of the Mercedes’ quad motor system, but says Rover considered and rejected the approach. Because individual motors can’t direct power side-to-side, they must be relatively upsized to ensure adequate torque at each wheel, dinging efficiency.
Rover’s larger dual motors can shuttle 100% of torque across an axle, so they can actually send more torque to a single wheel on demand. Mercedes’ approach also demanded an additional two-speed transmission at each wheel, and two more inverters, adding weight and complexity for what Rover insists is little practical gain. Unless you count the Mercedes’ notorious dance move, which, enjoyable as it is, is a YouTube gimmick.
“If you want to do a tank turn, great,” Owen says. “But our system is lighter, less mechanically complex, and more efficient in performance, energy usage and vehicle packaging.”
Rover further expects its “ThermAssist” to be the most advanced thermal management system of any EV. Where ICE cars waste the majority of their potential energy, an upside is surplus heat. EVs don’t have that luxury, so the development mantra for electric Rovers is that “Every watt is precious.” With eight onboard cooling loops and a boatload of algorithms, the system evaluates 700 environmental and onboard parameters to send watts where they’re most needed: Cabin, battery or powertrain.
Land Rover says the system reduces heating energy consumption by 40%, boosting cabin comfort and driving range. It can recover heat at ambient temperatures as low as 10 degrees below zero; this SUV is designed to sit outdoors for weeks in cold weather and lose little juice. Winter testing should ensure cold starts at up to 22 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, even after long idle periods.
The Rover’s flexible architecture and holistic design approach pay off with an estimated curb weight of about 6,000 pounds. If the brand can pull it off, that’s on par with a PHEV Range Rover, about 750 fewer pounds than the boxy Benz, and 3,000 fewer than the gargantuan GMC Hummer EV or Escalade iQ. Which again suggests a more nimble electric SUV, though that verdict must await a road test of a production model.
On the move in Sweden, dramatically backlit by sparkly snow, my ink-black Range Rover is barely distinguishable from gasoline models — just the way designers wanted it. Why mess with success, with the Range Rover’s impossibly smooth, yacht-like skin among its top selling points? It’s the same story inside, where nothing intrudes on the five-star Mayfair hotel vibe. There’s a power meter in the digital driver’s display, a few EV-centric screen pages, and that’s about it.
In a smart bid for wider adoption, the Range Rover EV will be offered in short- or long-wheelbase versions. We’re a long way from pricing, but executives hint at rates roughly in line with V-8 models. For short-wheelbase models, those gasoline swillers range from about $121,000 for a P550e SE, to $153,000 for a P550e Autobiography. In other words, it won’t be cheap, but a Range Rover never is.
For any truly blue-chip auto brand, the unavoidable question is how receptive people will be to an unfamiliar, even challenging face at the country club gates. That’s even more true now that EVs are being roiled by geopolitical storms and scrutiny over tumbling residual values.
Headwinds be damned, Range Rover intends to bring its electric flagship to showrooms early next year as a 2026 model. (If tariffs don’t sabotage exports from Solihull, U.K. to our benighted shores).
I’m gonna guess JLR would be satisfied if 10 % of Range Rover’s U.S. customers chose the electric version in its opening year. Fifteen percent would have champagne popping: That would be about 4,000 cars at current sales rates, with North Americans buying 27,000 of the 75,000 Range Rovers sold globally in the fiscal year ending in March.
Hell, the fictional Roy family in Succession would’ve bought a convoy of these, just to get climate protestors off their backs at staged public appearances. Even grumpy old Logan would notice a ride so creamy, and a cabin so blissfully silent, to amplify every epithet toward his trembling offspring. Maybe tell reactionary bastards that this Range Rover is electric after they’ve experienced it first, and JLR may have a hit on its hands.
Gallery: Range Rover EV
Lawrence Ulrich is an award-winning freelance automotive journalist. He's also the former chief auto critic of The New York Times and a contributing editor at Road & Track.
