Sandwiched between the launch of the long-awaited full-fat Range Rover Electric at the start of September and the upcoming final reveal of the much-anticipated Jaguar Type 01 in New York City next week, comes—with considerably less fanfare—JLR’s Range Rover Sport Electric.
However, considering that Range Rover Sport sales often run close to, or occasionally slightly higher than, the flagship Range Rover, thanks in part to its lower price, this all-electric version of the Sport could be just as important for an embattled JLR. The automaker announced earlier this month that it is cutting 4,000 jobs over the next two years.
According to JLR, the performance SUV has the stiffest body (unsurprising, considering the battery placement) and lowest center of gravity of any Range Rover Sport model, as well as a faster torque response than the Range Rover Electric—50 percent faster, apparently.
Crucially, the Sport gets the same powertrain as the Range Rover, but at a lower price (from £109,810, no US prices yet) and with different tuning. Like its larger sibling, the two 260-kilowatt motors dish out up to 550 pferdestärke (PS) and 850 Newton-meters (Nm) of torque (more than any other Range Rover Sport to date). It can go from standstill to 60 mph in 4.3 seconds if you’re in the EV’s Dynamic Launch Mode.
As for range, Range Rover claims the Sport with its 118.5-kilowatt-hour battery will get up to 374 miles on the WLTP standard, which should mean about 320 miles under the EPA’s stricter testing. Split-charging tech and an 800-volt architecture let the SUV add 136 miles of range in as little as 10 minutes in ideal charging conditions, and go from 10 to 80 percent in 22 minutes.