By Jamie Nimmo
Jaguar Land Rover Automotive Plc’s first electric Range Rover will start at £154,070 ($208,420), a price tag that will test wealthy buyers’ appetites for a battery-powered sport utility vehicle.
Orders are now open for what is one of the most expensive electric SUVs on the market and almost £50,000 more than the standard combustion-engine version. The Range Rover Electric can travel 372 miles (599 kilometers) on a single charge in testing conditions, and goes from 10% to 80%-charged in 22 minutes.
The new model will gauge the high-end market for a large electric vehicle amid uneven demand for battery-powered cars, including among luxury automakers. It is priced similarly to the electric Mercedes G 580, and not far off ultra-luxury combustion models like Bentley Motors Ltd.’s Bentayga.
Its range isn’t the best in class for an electric SUV. For example, BMW AG’s iX3 can travel as far as 500 miles on a single charge in testing conditions.
The high price sets it further apart from cheaper SUVs coming out of China that are taking the UK by storm. Chery Automobile Co.’s Jaecoo 7 has quickly become one of Britain’s most popular models, earning itself the nickname the “Temu Range Rover” for being a discount version of the British car.
JLR, owned by India’s Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles Ltd., will be able to mitigate any swings in demand as the electric version is being made on the same production lines at its Solihull plant in the West Midlands as the combustion and hybrid Range Rovers.
That’s a boon for UK manufacturing at a time when there’s uncertainty around the car industry after Brexit and with costs remaining high. BMW’s plans to move production of the electric Mini to Oxford from China are up in the air.
Around 9,000 factory workers in Solihull have been trained for the electric age, JLR said, as well as a further 1,500 in the West Midlands region. The company’s Electric Propulsion Manufacturing Centre in nearby Wolverhampton is producing the battery packs and electric-drive units.
Getting the model out of the factory doors will be a relief for JLR after Britain’s largest carmaker last year suffered a crippling cyberattack that shut down its plants for weeks. The company has also had to contend with higher US tariffs and a slump in demand in China.
Under new Chief Executive Officer P B Balaji, JLR is putting even more emphasis on the US, its largest market. As part of that push, the manufacturer plans to create hybrid versions of the Range Rover and Defender without a plug. The Defender, a rugged SUV that was rebooted in 2019, is made in Slovakia.
The new Range Rover Electric can reach 60 miles per hour in as little as 4.3 seconds, and can accelerate from 50 mph to 75 mph in as little as 2.7 seconds.
It’s not the only debut JLR is planning this year. It’s also reviving the Jaguar brand with a new fully electric lineup, with the first car being unveiled later this year. The initial video teaser drew criticism, including from US President Donald Trump, for its use of expressionless models and the lack of cars.