Range Rover Electric makes off-roading a delight

The rocks at JLR’s Gaydon proving ground in the English Midlands looked like a good place to find out what the Range Rover Electric could do. We had crossed tarmac, sand, gravel and loose stones before reaching a steep climb and the sharp descent beyond it. The big SUV went up and down as if it was negotiating a Johannesburg speed bump.

Its off-road capability was off the charts. The rougher the ground became, the more absorbing it was to feel the vehicle pick its way through it. At no point did I feel that the next obstacle could be too much.

At the rocks, our speed dropped to a crawl. The vehicle had to keep its wheels in contact with the ground and keep moving as the gradient changed. The Range Rover Electric has electric motors at the front and rear, which deliver their torque without waiting for an engine to build revs or a gearbox to find the right ratio.

I chatted about the experience with Jason Walters, a senior technical specialist who has spent 26 years working on JLR’s off-road capability and signs off its performance on difficult terrain.

“You can get Rock Crawl without having to select low range with Range Rover Electric,” he said.

In a conventional Range Rover, selecting low-range gearing provides the slow-speed control needed, whereas the electric motors give that control as soon as the driver asks for it.

“The performance of the electric vehicles on sand is phenomenal,” Walters said. “You don’t have all that hesitation – having to build up your engine RPM, make sure you’ve got the right gear and do your speed matching – in the same way. With an electric vehicle you’ve just got a constant flow of seamless torque.”

I also used single-pedal driving on the course. Press the accelerator to move forward; ease off and the vehicle slows. On a rock climb, that allows the driver to adjust speed without continually moving a foot between accelerator and brake. The system works with Hill Descent Control, which takes over as the vehicle heads down a steep slope.

Walters spelled it out: “It means you can do all the acceleration and low-speed control just tipping in and tipping out of the pedal, and it will control your speed.”

I found the result especially enjoyable on the rocks. The vehicle responded to small changes, and the obstacles passed with little sense of effort.

The car has an unusually fast way of dealing with a slipping wheel, too. JLR calls the system Integrated Traction Management. It monitors the front and rear electric motors along with the wheels, then reduces power or applies a brake when a wheel begins to spin.

Walters said it can respond within 50 milliseconds. That means the effort is unnoticeable. Over the changing surfaces at Gaydon, I was more aware of the progress we were making than of the adjustments the car was making underneath us.

The battery runs beneath the cabin, lowering the centre of gravity by 88mm against the combustion-engine Range Rover. That helps a tall vehicle remain steady as it changes direction or climbs over uneven ground. JLR has also fitted twin-chamber air suspension, which can adjust how firmly it supports the body when the driver accelerates and how freely the wheels move when the going gets rough.

JLR has kept the familiar Range Rover cabin and exterior proportions. Rachel Hogg, the global product manager, said customers had given the team a straightforward instruction: “Make it the Range Rover we know and love today, just make it electric.”

The grille is closed to improve airflow, but the real changes are beneath the body.

“We’ve filed over 300 patents in bringing this vehicle to life, and that is all because we have designed and manufactured our own EDUs – our electric drive units – our battery pack and our thermal-management system,” Hogg said.

Inside, the absence of an engine creates an acoustic problem. Andy Hughes, Range Rover’s noise, vibration and harshness manager, said: “We’ve taken out the combustion engine in the front. We’ve now got two noise sources – motors front and rear – which again presents its own challenges.”

Hughes and Alex Jocelyn, a specialist in electrical systems that add or cancel vehicle noise, demonstrated recordings from near the motors and inside the cabin.

“What you can see from the data is that we’ve delivered…  improvement in overall cabin noise over the Range Rover V8, depending on the load case,” Hughes said.

I experienced this on rough sections: the car could be working hard to find grip while the cabin gave little away about the effort going on beneath it.

The motor mountings also help keep vibration out of the cabin. Hughes said: “We moved to a dual-isolation system in the front, which is now delivering the levels of refinement we expect.”

There is plenty of power available when the route opens up, but it was its ability to use that power gently that stayed with me. The rocks demanded care, and the Range Rover Electric made driving over them a delight.

This is Part 2 of a 3-part feature by ARTHUR GOLDSTUCK on the launch of the new Range Rover Electric and Range Rover Sports Electric vehicles at JLR headquarters in Gaydon, England. See the other stories here:

Range Rover takes flagship into EV era

Range Rover Sport Electric turns up the fun

* Arthur Goldstuck is CEO of World Wide Worx, editor-in-chief of Gadget.co.za, and author of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to AI – The African Edge”.