Jaguar Land Rover has unveiled its first plug-in hybrid vehicle, known as the Range Rover Sport P400e. Read on for the UK price, performance and efficiency figures.
Since the Government crackdown on petrol and diesel car sales from 2040, every manufacturer has announced some sort of electric future. Well, except Tesla. Jaguar Land Rover is the latest, having promised that all vehicles will feature some form of electrification by 2020.
Now, the British manufacturer has unveiled the first vehicle to lead the charge. Known as the Range Rover Sport 400e, the eco-minded SUV features a plug-in hybrid powertrain that is designed to improve fuel economy and lower CO2 emissions.
This will be done using a combination of a 2.0-litre four-cylinder Ingenium petrol engine and an 85kW electric motor for a meaty output of 404hp (297kW) yet CO2 emissions come in at just 64g/km, while fuel economy is a claimed 101mpg.
The Range Rover Sport is faster, as is the new SVR (more on that in a second), but the P400e can still blast from 0-62mph in 6.7 seconds before topping out at 137mph. It should do this in bad weather, too, because of its permanent all-wheel drive system.
To put that into perspective, the lighter Volvo XC90 T8 Twin Engine manages 0-60mph in 5.3 seconds, has a top speed of 140mph, fuel economy of 134.5mpg (claimed) and 49g/km of CO2.
Then there is the much less powerful Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, which uses two electric motors and a 2.0-litre petrol to make 200bhp. 0-62mph takes around 11 seconds, while CO2 and fuel economy is 41g/km and 166mpg, respectively.
Powering the P400e’s electric motor is a 13.1kWh lithium-ion battery, which sits below the boot floor and can be charged in as little as 2 hours and 45 minutes using a 32amp wall box or seven hours and 30 minutes with the standard home charging cable.
A 7kW on-board charger is fitted inside the car to enable charging. It is actually hidden behind the Land Rover badge on the right of the front grille, as you can see in the pictures.
Like most plug-in hybrids (particularly bulky SUVs), keeping the battery charged is essential unless you want the engine to drag around more weight than usual. The upside is that the Range Rover Sport P400e will be able to go around 31 miles on electric only.
Two driving modes can be used in the Range Rover Sport 400e. The first, Parallel Hybrid mode, combines petrol and electric and is the default.
In this mode, a Save function can be used to select how much battery energy to keep, while the Predictive Energy Optimisation (PEO) looks at your navigation destination to work out when best to use either electric and petrol along the way.
The second setting, EV mode, is self-explanatory. When selected, the petrol engine stays out of things, letting you silently cruise to your destination without touching a drop of fuel.
Jaguar Land Rover has modified the Range Rover Sport’s look, too, with a new redesigned grille and bumper and Matrix Pixel LED headlights providing a slightly fresher look. It also gets Advanced Tow Assist, which makes positioning a trailer easier when reversing.
As for the cabin, that has been jazzed up a bit with up to 12 power points (including two standard plugs for charging laptops) and two high-definition touchscreens – the sort of luxuries that help elevate a Range Rover above the competition.
These changes apply to the Range Rover SVR (well, not the hybrid stuff), which now develops a whopping 575hp from its 5.0-litre supercharged V8 and has a 0-60mph time of 4.3 seconds.
Prices start from £70,800 for the 2.0l P400e HSE and £73,800 for the more luxurious HSE Dynamic. For the full shebang, expect to part with £84,400 for the P400e Autobiography Dynamic ─ £15,280 less than the V8-toting Range Rover SVR. Orders are open now.
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