JLR teases 800V Range Rover Electric, opens waitlist while testing in extreme conditions

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) brand Range Rover has offered a brief glimpse of its long-promised all-electric SUV in a new video you can view below. Alongside the brief visual cuts of the Range Rover Electric, the automaker kicks off its official waitlist as it enters a physical prototype testing program.

Range Rover is a rugged luxury marque established in 1970 and underpinned by veteran UK automaker Land Rover. The sub-brand currently operates alongside JLR names like Defender, Discovery, and Jaguar – each of which was spun out into their own brand identities this past summer.

India’s Tata Motors currently owns the entire Jaguar Land Rover family. Still, the parent company has not forgotten JLR’s British heritage and has even made efforts to keep much of the design and manufacturing in the UK as its sub-brands slowly but surely go electric.

Range Rover has offered PHEV versions of its namesake SUV since early 2022 and has been promising to one day deliver an all-electric version ever since. The plug-in only provides about 50 miles of all-electric range, leaving much to be desired for consumers worldwide, particularly in the US, where we’re seeing more and more electric trucks and SUVs delivering both range and comfort.

The Range Rover Electric is scheduled to arrive sometime in 2024 and will compete worldwide with the Porsche Macan – another noteworthy SUV model seeing a fully electric makeover.

While we still don’t know exactly when we will see the launch of the Range Rover Electric, the SUV remains on track for next year, and its makers have kicked off a wait list for orders with a teaser video and a few specs to whet our appetites.

Range Rover Electric enters prototype testing phase

According to an update from Range Rover, the BEV version of its halo SUV model is on track to arrive as the “quietest and more refined Range Rover ever created.” Prototypes of the all-electric version have begun a rigorous testing phase that includes temperature testing in regions like Sweden and Dubai through temperatures ranging from -40℃ to 50℃ (-40℉ to 122℉).

As you’ll see in the video below and the featured image above, Range Rover also put the prototypes through harsh terrain, including wading through water depths up to 850mm. That’s 33.5 inches or 2 feet 9.5 inches.

The automaker also shared that the upcoming SUV will sit atop JLR’s 800V Modular Longitudinal Architecture (MLA) and deliver performance comparable to a combustion Range Rover with a V8 engine. JLR’s executive director of product engineering, Thomas Müller, spoke:

We are on target to create the quietest and most refined Range Rover ever created. The magic ingredients that underpin the success of Range Rover remain unchanged: timeless, reductionist design, a serene cabin and go-anywhere capability – but now offered with zero tailpipe emissions. And as repeated throughout history, Range Rover will continue to set the standard. The first of its type. An electric luxury SUV that can deliver on the Range Rover promise. A true global luxury product, as yet unseen in the industry.

JLR says the Range Rover Electric will be designed, developed, and manufactured in the UK alongside its hybrid SUV siblings. The BEV’s batteries and electric drive units (EDUs) will also be built and assembled at JLR’s new Electric Propulsion Manufacturing Centre in Wolverhampton, UK.

The waitlist to pre-order a Range Rover Electric is now open, but when reservations, sales, and deliveries officially begin remains a mystery. We are sure to learn more in 2024 as the automaker moves closer to BEV production. In the meantime, here’s Range Rover’s brief teaser of the all-electric SUV: