Range Rover has launched its first electric vehicle – a year later than planned – offering a greener option for fans of gargantuan British-made SUVs who are also conscious about the climate crisis.
Due to be built in Solihull, the home of the marque since ۱۹۷۰, the vehicle comes with an eye-watering price tag, starting at £۱۵۴,۰۷۰.
However, the delayed launch marks a milestone departure from cars powered by fossil fuels for Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), which is owned by India’s Tata Motors but headquartered in Coventry in the UK.
It also provides a much-needed moment of positivity for JLR, which reported falling profits earlier this year as it counted the cost of Donald Trump’s tariff wars and supply chain disruption after a crippling cyber-attack last year.
JLR said it had given extra training to ۱۰,۵۰۰ staff working on the project and that the car had undergone testing equivalent to ۳۸ trips around the world, more than any other Range Rover.
The company said the luxury vehicle, which can reach ۶۰mph in ۴.۳ seconds, heralded “a new era of enhanced refinement and capability”.
While the model’s electric powertrain will limit its impact on the environment compared with JLR’s petrol and diesel models, SUVs of its size are consistently linked to higher numbers of road deaths in accidents involving pedestrians.
However, Ranger Rover’s bespoke commissioning service does mean that buyers have an “extended choice of near limitless paint colours and finishes, elevated materials, tailored colour combinations and personalisation details including unique embroidery”.
Martin Limpert, the managing director of Range Rover, said the vehicle was the end product of a “decade of considered engineering and technological development”.
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Production at Solihull will be supported by the automaker’s propulsion manufacturing centre, in Wolverhampton, which makes battery packs and electric drive units, as well as traditional internal combustion engines.
