The Range Rover PHEV experience makes you wonder why there’s a market for large luxury saloons.

It has all of the luxuries and equipment that you’d find in the latest and greatest offerings from Germany and Japan, but with more room, and with significantly more mechanical capability. More importantly, the JLR engineers and designers have done a fantastic job in creating this current Range Rover generation.

And that’s because, all things considered, the Range Rover PHEV is one of the most frictionless cars on the usability front. Everything appears to have been properly thought out – you’d be able to navigate all of its screens, and settle into its extremely comfortable chairs with very little headache.

Immense Road Presence

Are you expecting anything else from a luxury flagship offroader? The Range Rover PHEV is visually unchanged from its regular combustion/mild hybrid cousins, with the exception of an additional charge flap on the left quarter panel of the car.

You’d not mistake this for any other vehicle on the road – the JLR designers have kept it true to the Range Rover design language. As with the case of the regular car launched last year, subtle design tweaks over the previous generation Range Rover means this is now the firm’s most aerodynamic car to date.

Whilst it seems insignificant, reduced wind resistance means less noise from turbulent airflow when the car runs as a fully-electric vehicle. The rear end is a departure from what you’d expect from a Land Rover/Range Rover product, with sleek tail lights and indicators that are cleverly integrated into the rear light bar. 

Pure Luxury

You can start to work out where your $700k (before COE) is going when you open the doors of the Range Rover PHEV. There are no hard, scratchy interior panels anywhere to be seen. Every surface has been wrapped in a soft-touch material of some kind, with contrast trim panels finished in what feels like real wood or aluminium. 

Whilst I tend to prefer steering wheels to be wrapped in leather, the wood-trimmed unit fitted to this car actually feels really nice in the hand. I also like the size too, as it suits a car of its stature. The car adopts a minimalist design concept throughout the cabin, with very few actual physical buttons.

But what little switchgear is in the car has a nice tactility to them. The 13.1 inch PIVI Pro infotainment screen is also extremely intuitive, and crisp, modern graphics make it even easier to navigate. The overall execution of this system is proof that touch screen menus need not be convoluted and confusing to use.

And this is before I even talk about the space on offer, and the seats JLR has equipped the car with. All of the seats are ventilated, with massage functionality also built into the front pair. The rear seats have some degree of reclinability to them, so you’d be able to adjust them to your heart’s content. All headrests also come with Active Noise Cancelling technology, which works in tandem with the double-glazed windows to isolate you from the outside world. Or in other words, the interior of the Range Rover PHEV is just a genuinely nice place to be in.

A Commanding Drive

The theme of proper integration continues with the way the Range Rover PHEV feels on the move. A 3.0 litre Ingenium Inline-six is helped along by a 214 bhp electric motor. The combined powertrain develops 541 bhp and 800 Nm of torque, and this power is sent to all four wheels via a ZF eight-speed torque converter gearbox.

It always defaults to being an electric-only car. The 38.2 kWh battery pack means it’d do about 100 kilometres on a single charge should you decide to drive this purely on electrons. You can recharge this via a CCS charger at up to DC50, which will refill an empty battery to 100% in less than one hour.

When excessive torque demand is requested for, the combustion engine kicks on. This particular unit is buttery smooth on its own, with oodles of torque throughout the powerband. The most impressive thing about the combined powertrain is the way the motor acts as torque fill whenever the engine isn’t in its optimal powerband – no aggressive kickdowns translate into a smoother ride.

The power assistance for the steering rack feels substantial, so there isn’t excessive heft in the rack. However, there’s still a satisfying quality to the way it feels, and it is shockingly precise too. The car also rides very well, with the air suspension ironing out 90% of the road imperfections you’d find on our roads.

Central Integration

Modern automakers have found a way to make their new models almost seamless to use and to interact with. However, even the most premium models will have some degree of friction in day-to-day use.

And you can definitely tell this is something JLR took great care of in the design phase. You’d instantly be able to get comfortable in the car, with easy-to-use screens, plush seats and amazing overall ride quality.

There’s really very little to complain about, with the exception perhaps to its ability to recoup energy. Whilst there is some degree of regenerative braking, and it has been enhanced over its predecessor, it just isn’t efficient enough to recover a significant amount of charge on the go. To keep the battery topped off, you’d realistically have to plug the car in every night.

Which wouldn’t inconvenience the average Range Rover PHEV buyer anyways. With its $800k+ (with COE) price tag, chances are that you’d have access to a home charger anyways. When the pack is topped off, you’d be able to tackle your average daily commute on pure electric power alone, making this the first modern flagship Range Rover product to perhaps be cost-effective to run daily.

Though is this really something worth griping about?

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