First electric Range Rover will cost buyers more than $264,000

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The Range Rover Electric can travel 599km on a single charge in testing conditions.

The Range Rover Electric can travel 599km on a single charge in testing conditions.

PHOTO: JAGUAR LAND ROVER

  • The first electric Range Rover starts at £154,070 ($264,000), priced high to test demand among wealthy buyers, with a 599km range and fast charging.
  • Jaguar Land Rover plans to produce 12,000-15,000 units soon, using the same factory lines for electric and combustion models, supporting UK manufacturing.
  • JLR faces challenges like a cyberattack and tariffs but aims to grow in the US market and launch new electric Jaguar models by 2026.

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LONDON – Jaguar Land Rover Automotive’s (JLR) first electric Range Rover will start at £154,070 (S$264,000), a price tag that will test wealthy buyers’ appetites for a battery-powered sport-utility vehicle.

Orders are now open for what is one of the most expensive electric SUVs on the market and almost £50,000 more than the standard combustion-engine version.

The Range Rover Electric can travel 599km on a single charge in testing conditions, and goes from 10 per cent- to 80 per cent-charged in 22 minutes.

The new model will gauge the high-end market for a large electric vehicle amid uneven demand for battery-powered cars, including among luxury automakers. It is priced similarly to the electric Mercedes G 580, and not far off ultra-luxury combustion models like Bentley Motors’ Bentayga.

“We think that it’s competitively priced, and we think it positions Range Rover effectively in the US market,” chief operations officer Nigel Blenkinsop said in a Bloomberg TV interview.

The company aims to produce between 12,000 and 15,000 units in the next five to six months, he added. It sold close to 200,000 Range Rover vehicles in 2025.

The EV will start at US$138,000 (S$175,000) in the US with the entry-level trim.

The range is not the best in class for an electric SUV. For example, BMW AG’s iX3 can travel as far as 800km on a single charge in testing conditions.

The high price sets it further apart from cheaper SUVs coming out of China that are taking Britain by storm.

Chery Automobile’s Jaecoo 7 has quickly become one of Britain’s most popular models, earning itself the nickname the “Temu Range Rover” for being a discount version of the British car.

JLR, owned by India’s Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles, will be able to mitigate any swings in demand as the electric version is being made on the same production lines at its Solihull plant in the West Midlands as the combustion and hybrid Range Rovers.

That is a boon for British manufacturing at a time when there is uncertainty around the car industry after Brexit and with costs remaining high. BMW’s plans to move production of the electric Mini to Oxford from China are up in the air.

Around 9,000 factory workers in Solihull have been trained for the electric age, JLR said, as well as a further 1,500 in the West Midlands region.

The company’s Electric Propulsion Manufacturing Centre in nearby Wolverhampton is producing the battery packs and electric-drive units.

Getting the model out of the factory doors will be a relief for JLR after Britain’s largest carmaker suffered in 2025 a crippling cyberattack that shut down its plants for weeks. The company has also had to contend with higher US tariffs and a slump in demand in China.

Under new chief executive P. B. Balaji, JLR is putting even more emphasis on the US, its largest market.

As part of that push, the manufacturer plans to create hybrid versions of the Range Rover and Defender without a plug. The Defender, a rugged SUV that was rebooted in 2019, is made in Slovakia.

The new Range Rover Electric can reach 96kmh in as little as 4.3 seconds, and can accelerate from 80kmh to 120kmh in as little as 2.7 seconds.

It is not the only debut JLR is planning in 2026. It is also reviving the Jaguar brand with a new fully electric lineup, with the first car being unveiled later in 2026.

The initial video teaser drew criticism, including from US President Donald Trump, for its use of expressionless models and the lack of cars. BLOOMBERG

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