This Is Our Best Look Yet at the Electric Range Rover
The date is inching closer, and so it’s getting harder and harder to keep our cool about Range Rover’s upcoming EV. The brand’s first battery-powered model was recently tested out in the desert, and the company was kind enough to release some behind-the-scenes photos, giving us our best look yet at what is surely our most hotly anticipated EV of 2025.
Although its name may not win any awards for creativity — the battery-powered SUV is simply called the Range Rover Electric — the company has clearly been devoting its efforts elsewhere. Because this is a Range Rover, customers have high expectations. It could be powered by Booster Juice for all some of us care; a Range Rover still has to do what a Range Rover always does. Buyers expect these vehicles to traverse the desert, wade through rivers, crawl over rocks, and shrug off muddy trails that would leave other SUVs hopelessly spinning their tires. The brand was built on this “go anywhere” ability, even if the vast majority of its products never leave the safety of tarmac. Range Rover knows buyers will accept no excuses here.
To that end, Range Rover’s daring test-pilots have been subjecting the electric prototype to some of the most unforgiving climates the world offers. In the United Arab Emirates, the SUVs were put through merciless testing in temperatures of 50 Celsius and up to 90 percent humidity. (So, not much different from a Toronto summer day then?) The engineers say there’s no place on Earth more challenging for a car’s climate control system.
“A hot climate is one of the most challenging for any battery electric vehicle, because of the need to cool the cabin and optimize battery performance at the same time,” explains Thomas Müller, executive director of product engineer at Range Rover. Batteries like to operate at a happy medium: not too hot, not too cold.
“The additional challenge of driving on sand requires controlled low‑speed torque, so our specially developed traction control and thermal management systems work in harmony to ensure power delivery is unaffected. 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 [gas-burning] equivalents; in some instances, even surpassing them – thanks to the introduction of these new features,” Müller said.
In other words, if an EV can keep you cool in the desert of Dubai, it can keep you cool anywhere.
Range Rover Electric prototypes were also seen testing on “Big Red,” the fearsome 91 metre tall (about 28 stories, or 300 feet) sand dune in the heart of Sharjah’s Al Badayer desert. The saffron‑coloured dune formation is often called Dubai’s greatest desert hill climb. It’s not enough that the battery-electric Range Rover be able to clime that towering dune, oh no. Like all Range Rover models, it must be able to ascend the dune five times, “without showing any reduction in performance before proceeding to the next testing stage.” Good News! The test-pilots reported the Range Rover Electric prototype completed the feat with “flying colours.”
Working in the EV’s favour when the going gets rough is its well-balanced weight distribution and low centre of gravity. (Thank the heavy battery pack for that.) Thus far Range Rover has been tight-lipped about what type and how many electric motors power this thing. The company does claim, however, that its new Intelligent Torque Management system, “distributes the wheel slip management task directly to each individual electric drive control unit, reducing the torque reaction time at each wheel from around 100 milliseconds, to as little as 1 millisecond, offering improved traction control while driving on fine sand.”
Does that mean this is a quad-motor electric off-roader like the Mercedes G-Class EV and the Rivian R1S? We’ll find out sometime in 2025 when Range Rover officially unveils its Electric SUV and opens the reservation books.
If you can’t wait that long for your next new Range Rover, you’ve got plenty of other choices though, from the Range Rover Sport SV Edition Two, to the Canadian limited edition Range Rover SV Arete — that is, of course, assuming they’re not already both sold out.
