Wolverhampton, England—One can argue about whether or not Range Rover invented the luxury SUV category, but there’s no question that since the first Range Rover went on sale in 1970, the brand has made itself the standard that other luxury SUVs have to measure against. But what if Range Rover built something that wasn’t an SUV? That’s exactly what it’s doing with the new Range Rover GT.
Spy shots have been circulating for at least a year of what was believed to be an all-electric replacement for the Range Rover Velar. It turns out that was a misapprehension; the heavily camouflaged prototypes were examples of the Range Rover GT being tested at the Nürburgring and the Arctic Circle.
Range Rover still isn’t ready to reveal an uncamouflaged GT, but the car you see is much less disguised than the boxy-looking prototypes seen in earlier spy shots. The Range Rover GT will be the first vehicle from Jaguar Land Rover to use the new EMA flexible platform, which has been designed, like the MLA platform that underpins the Range Rover, to be powertrain-agnostic.
At launch, the Range Rover GT will be a full battery electric vehicle, but the company has plans to add a hybrid EV version to the mix as well. “We have spent the last few years working obsessively on the fundamentals of the GT formula, reinterpreted in a sophisticated, uniquely Range Rover way,” said Martin Limpert, managing director of Range Rover.
“The result is the most car-like, yet unmistakably capable, Range Rover ever created, now possible on our electrified EMA architecture—complementing our existing powertrain portfolio to deliver a complete set of options for every customer need. Its blend of effortless EV performance, first-class long-haul refinement and all-terrain capability is pure Range Rover; while its calming interior previews our vision of a modern grand tourer,” he said.
EMA is the company’s third electrifiable platform, the others are the already mentioned MLA, used by Range Rovers, and the JEA platform being developed by Jaguar for its forthcoming Type 01. Like the Range Rover GT, the Jaguar is also a four-door grand tourer, which should debut later this year.
Range Rover showed Ars the GT’s interior, which is a clear departure from the cabins of its SUVs. It’s gone ultraminimalist, at least at first glance—it still satisfies safety regulators in Europe and elsewhere that require physical controls for certain functions.
I was delighted to see that Range Rover’s designers eschewed the idea of a third screen for the front passenger; the main instrument display and the infotainment touchscreen are both OLED screens, and Range Rover has made the head-up display standard for the GT.
More details about the GT, including what it actually looks like underneath that camo, should be forthcoming later this year.
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