2025 Range Rover Sport P550e Hybrid Review – Is this the benchmark luxury SUV?
It is addictively calming. You don’t so much drive this car as you just ride in it. Hello and welcome to the DriverReviews channel. I’m Vicki Butler-Henderson and today we are looking at a poster car for sporty off roaders, but with a twist. This is the Range Rover Sport that not only uses petrol, but also needs one of these. It is the plug in hybrid in top luxury autobiography spec and it’ll do 74 miles around town using electricity alone. And if that’s not enough to grab your attention, then how about the price? A cool £114,000. And that’s before you’re tempted with the options list. Before you settle down and watch, please press like and subscribe so that you’re notified each time we post something new. If this car was a rugby player, it would be the full front row. Because of its mass of bodywork and high shoulder line, this thing is a whopper. This car’s velocity blue paint job does nothing to hide its bulk and it is a color that draws the eye, especially in town. You might prefer a more subtle white, perhaps, and you’d be saving yourself £8,000 over this color. No matter what you pick from the palette though, these door handles will always pop out and seem too angular for the rest of the body. But you might love them. Please let us know your thoughts in our comments section. Now, the roof is black and that comes as standard with the autobiography trim. And there’s a black exterior pack for almost £1,500 which does what it says on the tin and puts various shades and shines of black around the grille, Range Rover letters and bonnet louvers. There’s almost £200 worth of LED front fog lights that are so well integrated it’ll take you a while to spot them. Aha. There they are. Privacy glass is another £500 option, but well worth it, I reckon, as is the convenience pack, which in return for £680 gives you hands free. Tailgate opening. I grew up with Range Rovers with a split tailgate and I used to love sitting on the edge of the split tailgate. This one doesn’t have it, which I think is a bit of a shame. In here are a host of smart features that make life easier. This net stops anything falling into a passenger’s lap. And, this rather fabulous floor partition gives flexibility between full loads or a supermarket shop. The boot size is competitive with 647 to 1491 litres. There are plenty of adjustable straps, a power socket and electric controls to raise and lower the car to help an old dog hop up maybe. And you can also move the rear seats or get ready for towing. If you spend £1,000 for the electric tow bar, then you’ll be set to haul up to 3,000kg. That’s not as good as a non plug in hybrid Range Rover Sport which will tow 3,500kg, which is the same notably as Porsche’s Cayenne Hybrid. So that car might be worth looking at if trailers play a big part in your life. And you can see our review of the Cayenne Hybrid in the link on the screen. If you need a little assistance towing in your Range Rover, There’s a near 400 pound advanced tow assist function that also allows you to reverse a trailer with while the Range Rover Sport takes care of the counter steering. I think that I have kept the best bit until last to show you because under here is something rare these days. It is a full size spare wheel. Oh yes. And keeping the rest of the car on terra Firma are four identical wheels like this. They are 23 inch glossy black ones. They are huge and are surrounded by Pirelli Scorpion Ms. Tyres. They’ve been developed in collaboration with Land Rover. The LR marking on the sidewall tells us this. It is as plush as a pamper parlour in here with seats that you sink into like floor fluffy clouds. They are such an important part of this car that they have their own icon. There are 22 ways you can tweak them with hot or cold air. You can have a massage, move the headrest to the perfect position and you can even fold the rear seats ready for other people to manually load things in. The dash is big and bold and one laden with leather and suede. And this is one of the rare cars with a pillars that are so athletic aesthetically pleasing that you’ll have to touch them. Range Rover’s double sun blind is always a welcome feature as well. And should you ever need to grab the grab handles, there are not many as luxurious to hold as these. Then there’s the roof peel the cover back to reveal a panoramic roof standard in the autobiography which can open over the front passengers. When it comes to storage of course there’s not one glove box but two and glossy edged door bins, a deep center cubby, cup holders which open up for access to an L shaped box underneath. Then there’s a wireless charger and a little more storage underneath that. There’s just one physical button here which would normally really annoy me. But thankfully the screen is as close to idiot proof as you can get. If you like your music to be studio Perfect, the Meridian 3D surround sound system is the crowning glory to an interior that’s like the best room in your house. And if you want tech, you’ve got it. It’s rammed with the stuff and if you want more, you can have it as well, including a £440 Wi Fi data plan to keep the rear passengers from asking, are we nearly there yet? Here’s something else that the kids will definitely want in every car. The £3,700 rear entertainment setup that connects to a smartphone, tablet or games console via hdmi. Range Rover headphones Of course, this car sits on the same platform as the full fat Range Rover, so space is on the generous side. The seats are split 60, 40 and you can recline them and adjust the headrest from the door panel. These sun blinds are really great for those sunny trips, as are, these illuminated seat belt buckles for when the sun goes down. And if you want a pub quiz fact today, then may I offer one? The patent for the world’s first illuminated seat belt buckle was given in 2020 to Skoda. The doors have a tactile mix of cloth and leather and glossy bits. And in the centre, these dials not only feel great, but have a cleverly simple design to what they do. Heat and cool the seats as well as the air. Back here, there are a couple of different sockets too, including something that I need in every car, a socket for a normal plug. Once the headphone box is in the door bins, your storage is reduced to this seat panel and centre armrest. And the whole cabin feels robust and well put together, apart from one thing, the bonnet pull, which feels too flimsy for the task. But that really is nitpicking at its finest. In one of the finest interiors you can get. Whatever car you drive, the only thing connecting you to the road or the track are the tiny contact patches on your tyres. So it is crucial to find the right set. But searching for them can be stressful and confusing. If you need help choosing new tyres for your car, then go to driverreviews.com where you will see thousands of reviews of all the top brands written by drivers just like you. Also, check out the winners of our latest Customer Choice Awards. On the road, there is an overwhelming sense of serenity. It is addictively calming. The air suspension almost airlifts you out of each pothole and somehow takes away stress. This car will do so much for you, including parking. And we’re gonna go searching for some spaces. Okay. Oh, you’ve seen one. Lovely. I’m gonna reverse in, please. And start. Here we go. Put the indicator on for me. Oh, oh, here I go. My foot is hovering over the brake pedal because I don’t quite trust such autonomy. Oh you can get in there. No, clearly not. Okay. Of course, this has got four wheel steering as well, just to help in tight manoeuvres. So it is stopping. So I’ve done nothing yet. I haven’t even touched anywhere. Manoeuvre complete. Oh, that’s brilliant. There we go. Perfect. And if you’re being super lazy as well, it will even go out for you. And why not? Off we go. No feet on the pedals, no hands. You’re fine. You were doing just great as you were, oh. So it’s gone back over the exact same ground where it started from and now I’m in control. When you do finally feel the urge to take over, you are in full charge of a 550 horsepower, six cylinder, twin turbocharged engine. It’s also got an electric motor with 160kW and that in itself is enough to power a small electric family car. There’s also a very healthy amount of torque, 800 Newton meters, which is the same as in Aston Martin’s V8 Vantage 0 to 62 in here. Happens well, not too shy of the time that a Golf R can do it in 4.9 seconds here. And it’s all mightily impressive considering this thing tips the scales at just over 2,700kg. Maintaining that frenetic pace isn’t actually all that enjoyable because with the speed, the sort of the bulk of the car intensifies and you become very aware that you are in charge of a machine that is almost 5 meters long and 2.2 meters wide. Plus that little purr, of the six cylinder engine. I actually quite like to hear it, but it can barely penetrate into the cabin. Such as the brilliant soundproofing. But to enjoy that little engine noise, you have to open the window, which isn’t, you know, ideal. And sometimes there’s a lack of urgency for everything under the bonnet to join forces and give a crisp response to throttle demands. If you want army like responses to your driving orders, then maybe best look at the Porsche Cayenne hybrid. When it comes to handling well, this car has got sport in its name. It’s also got the dynamic-i setting. So you’ve got a stopwatch, you’ve got Lap times, you’ve got a G metre, reading and a pedal graph for goodness sakes. With the setup in full dynamic mode, engine, steering, gear shift and suspension, that suspension sort of hunkers down into the tyres as much as it possibly can and does its best best to help you hustle around the bends. And it does a very sweet job, but there is still quite a lot of body roll and the steering feedback isn’t as good as it could be and so you are better off at a slower speed. Cruising in this car though, is a total joy. It is effortless. It is like you are being chauffeur driven. Even though you’re the one with the wheel in your hands. You don’t so much drive this car as you just ride in it. And what about those electric miles, 74 of them potentially around town, which is more than its main German rivals and more than enough to leave scornful onlookers spluttering in their own exhaust fumes as you drop Robert and Roberta off at the school gates. You can also put this car into save mode, which will maintain up to 50% of the battery for you to use later on in your journey. So prioritising combustion energy until that point, a very useful feature when you do drive with everything working, then the CO2 figure can be as low as 19 grams per, kilometer. To put that into a little bit of context, the non hybrid Range Rover Sport has somewhere around 250 grams per km. The combined fuel economy figure is anywhere up to around 340 mpg. But there is one big thing that you need to do with a plug in hybrid electric vehicle, and that is to plug it in to get all of those benefits. Recharging takes up to an hour with a fast charger, but one at home takes about five hours. So overnight, perfectly fine. Crikey, I almost forgot that this car comes from one of the most famous 4×4 families in the world. And of course its long list of off road credentials is more of a book. With seven terrain modes. They’re all accessed through the screen, including low traction launch. If you do want to feel vaguely useful and have more input, you can raise the ride height by 65 millimetres to 273, which is one of the highest of any car. And if swimming is your thing, then you’re good for 900 millimetres here and That’s the best you can get. Of course, the off roading I’m doing is what any sane person would do who has specced this car with 23 inch alloys and that’s just trample turf generally. I’m going to put it in full on electric mode and all of a sudden I’m becoming the greenest thing along a green lane. You’re welcome. Those brakes with the shiny black calipers have a lovely feel to the pedal. When you press it they give a comfortable but potent stop to the car at any speed. There’s also regenerative braking which claws back some of the energy and gives it back to you in miles and it doesn’t grab at all. It’s all done luxuriously and comfortably. These cameras are all so useful, really helpful when you don’t want to get out and check that that tree isn’t quite in your way or something like that. I do feel a juxtaposition because I’m here in the lap of luxury and I should be rattling around in some sort of tin box a bit more because I’m off roading. This is, this is the way to do it. If you’re prepared to pay more than the mainstream rivals then this Range Rover Sport isn’t just the car that you want, it is also the car that you need. Its class leading electric range offers as much of a guilt free school drop as you can possibly get. The luxurious interior will cosset you along motorway miles and and the off road talents are more than enough for most. Thank you so much for watching DriverReviews today. Please let us know your thoughts on the Range Rover Sport plug in hybrid and please press like and subscribe so that you’re notified each time we post something new.
Join Vicki Butler-Henderson as she gets behind the wheel of the Range Rover Sport Plug-in Hybrid in top-spec Autobiography trim – a luxury SUV with silent electric miles, serious off-road talent, and a price tag north of £114,000.
With up to 74 miles of electric range, 550hp, and a cabin that feels more like a private lounge, the Autobiography blends performance and refinement in signature Range Rover style. From massage seats and illuminated belt buckles to 23-inch alloys and terrain-sensing tech, this plug-in hybrid is designed to impress – whether you’re cruising the motorway or gliding down a green lane in near silence.
But is this the ultimate guilt-free luxury SUV – or just a heavy hybrid trying to do too much?
A special thank you to WildTracks (@wildtracksoutdooractivityp9605) for providing the perfect off-road setting for our review.
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— Chapters —
00:00 – Introduction
01:25 – Exterior Design & Boot Space
03:36 – Towing Capabilities
04:36 – Wheels & Tyre Talk
05:00 – Interior Design & Tech
07:13 – Rear Seating Space & Features
09:00 – DriverReviews
09:32 – Self Parking
11:47 – Engine Power & Battery
13:48 – Handling, Suspension, and Electric Miles
16:29 – Off Roading, Terrain Modes, and Brakes
19:10 – Vicki’s Verdict
