New 2018 Range Rover will now drive on electric

Land Rover has given the Range Rover luxury SUV a facelift for 2018, one headlined by the introduction of a new plug-in hybrid version that boasts a 31-mile electric range, 101mpg NEDC combined fuel economy and total power output of 404-horsepower. Ordering is open now (and prices are below).

Closely following the refreshed 2018 Range Rover Sport, the new Range Rover also gets mild design tweaks and, inside, the introduction of the firm’s new Touch Pro Duo twin-touchscreen centre console, as first seen on the Range Rover Velar.

But whereas Land Rover is keen to show off the high-tech connectivity of the system on the Range Rover Sport, for the Range Rover it’s simply describing it as “a digital butler fit for the 21st Century”.

Visual changes aren’t extensive. “Our customers are very clear about what they want from any new Range Rover,” reckons Land Rover chief design officer Gerry McGovern. “’Don’t change it, just make it better,’ they tell us.”

For the record, LED headlights are now standard, and offered in Premium, Matrix, Pixel or Pixel-Laser guise. The bumper has wider air vent blades, the grille is more modern and the clamshell bonnet itself is now longer. Exhaust tailpipes are more neatly integrated in the rear, there are six new alloy wheel designs and two new colours, Rossello Red and Byron Blue.

There are all-new seats inside, with the front ones now adjusting in up to 24 different ways; they have wider and deeper seat foams and even now come with heated armrests.

Indulgent rear seats are wider and softer, recline by up to 40 degrees and have a total of 25 different massage programmes. Hot Stone massage in a Range Rover? No problem, sir. They too have heated arm rests – and heated foot rests, and heated calf rests. You can even heat them up remotely via a smartphone app.

Green or mean?

The Range Rover P400e combines a 200hp 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo petrol engine with an 85kW electric motor; that’s good for 137mph and 0-62mph in 6.8 seconds. It emits 64g/km CO2, so is relatively tax-friendly – more so than the uprated 5.0-litre V8 supercharged range-topping SVAutobiography Dynamic, which now produces 565hp for 0-62mph in 5.4 seconds.

The P400e recharges in 7hrs 30mins using a domestic socket, or 2hrs 45mins from a wall box. Land Rover guarantees the battery, which is mounted beneath the boot floor, for eight years, 100,000 miles or 70 percent state of health. It’s charged from a socket hidden in the grille.

The SVAutobiography Dynamic, meanwhile, is the most powerful Range Rover ever, and is marked out by a new Graphite Atlas mesh grille plus a beefier rear bumper with built-in metal exhaust tailpipes. Like the P400e, you can have it in standard and long-wheelbase guise.

All Range Rovers offer super-comfortable air suspension, but the SVO-tuned range-topper can be had in performance-optimised guise, which sits 8mm lower and promises more engaging handling with little loss in comfort.

The 2018 Range Rover is also now the most expensive Range Rover ever too, mind. The range starts at just under £80,000 for the base 3.0-litre TDV6 Vogue, stretching up to a mammoth £177,030 for the SVAutobiography Dynamic LWB.

2018 Range Rover prices