Land Rover has taken a deliberately subtle approach to disguising its first electric Range Rover, and having now driven it, the restraint seems to suit the car rather well. From the outside, the Range Rover Electric looks almost indistinguishable from its combustion-engined siblings. The headlights, grille and smooth-flanked bodywork with concealed door handles all sit flush to preserve the model's signature silhouette, while even the exhaust outlets on the petrol and diesel versions are tucked out of sight to keep things visually consistent. The real giveaways are a blanked-off front grille and a set of aerodynamically optimised wheels carrying discreet EV badging on their centre caps.

Every Range Rover Electric starts life in Autobiography trim, which in this case represents the entry point rather than a flagship upgrade. That means buyers get a generous standard specification regardless of which version they choose, including LED headlights, a full-length panoramic sliding roof, a Meridian sound system, four-zone climate control and 24-way adjustable seats with both heating and cooling. There's also an "Ambient Fragrance Diffuser," which can be loaded with up to three Jaguar Land Rover-developed scents and dispersed through the car's ventilation system on demand.

Inside, the cabin leans into a more old-school form of minimalism than the screen-dominated layouts now common among rivals. The dashboard avoids a sprawling digital display in favour of a more restrained arrangement, with physical controls retained on the steering wheel, a rotary dial for drive modes, a volume knob and a compact gear selector on the centre console. Curiously, rear passengers get tactile rotary controls for their climate functions, while front occupants must use the touchscreen for the same settings.

Material quality throughout is a strong point, with metallic door pulls, refined seat switchgear and leather upholstery that help the cabin feel as upmarket as almost anything else on the market, even if a few harder plastics creep in here and there.

The infotainment setup, meanwhile, shows its age slightly. Rather than a sweeping, deeply integrated display of the kind now found in newer rivals, the Range Rover Electric sticks with a more conventional setup: a digital instrument cluster paired with a separate 13.1-inch touchscreen that sits somewhat awkwardly proud of the dashboard, like an attached tablet rather than a seamlessly built-in unit.

Source: Auto Express

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