The company’s roadmap shuffling comes as hype builds for the electric Range Rover, due later this year. More than 16,000 interested buyers have already signed up to the waiting list ahead of the official market launch in the coming months.
JLR remains tight-lipped on precise technical specifications but has revealed certain elements of its make-up, which will be carried over to the electric Range Rover Sport shortly afterwards.
Chief among these attributes is a four-wheel drive powertrain that will give the same “go-anywhere” capability as the combustion Range Rovers – including the ability to wade at depths of up to 850mm.
It will also give straight-line performance that is “comparable” to today’s V8, which tops out at 626bhp in the new Range Rover Sport SV ) to give a 0-62mph time of just 3.8sec – almost as quick as the Aston Martin DB12.
Emulating this broad spread of abilities is crucial to the success of the new electric Range Rovers, said Mardell, hinting that the cars could even be slightly delayed to allow engineers to refine the package.
“That’s essential for us, and if that takes a few more months to get to that point, then the team will be allowed to get to that point, because we can’t put these wonderful new products in the marketplace that loses some of the magic that we have in those vehicles today,” said Mardell.
