The version of the Electric Range Rover is being developed for the launch next year and the car is currently being tested in the hot weather, both 50°C heat and 90% humidity in the UAE after being tested in the Arctic Circle. Together with off-road evaluations, the emphasis is made on extensive investigations into thermal management system which is said to have exceeded expectations in achieving superior customer comfort.
Advanced Torque System
Major cars for testing out the terrain are going up against Big Red, a 300ft sand dune named in Sharjah’s Al Badayer desert, to check effectiveness of the EV’s new Intelligent Torque Management system. This sophisticated system replaces the normal ABS-based tractions control, improving off-road performance by managing the power between each electric motor, whereas the time it takes to cut torque reaction is from about 100 milliseconds to a millisecond. JLR records show that when the test was repeated five times in a row, all the automobiles were as efficient as before, without a single drop.
Durability on Arctic Circle Testing
During the extreme conditions, Thomas Müller, Product Engineering Director explained with examples of heat and sand that while managing A/C and driving the EV, power management becomes an essential factor. He pointed out that these integrate the new traction control and thermal management systems to deliver clean efficiency to the electric Range Rover so that it will perform on par with or even better than ICEs when undertaking sand climbing tests.
Even in the prototypes that were tested in the Arctic Circle for instance the Range Rover EV prototypes, the manufacturer paints them in full naked to particularly demonstrate the solidity of these first iterations, according the JLR. Continuing the previous design language and painted in black with no trace of matte finish on the body that might differentiate the EV variant of the vehicle, the prototype looks like the latest 2022 ICE Range Rover.
To that end, JLR was careful to point out that the EV’s ‘modernist design language’ still bears with it the bloodline of previous Range Rover models, as if hinting at little more than stepping stones to the plug-in hybrid, V8, straight-six models.
Manufacturing and Hydrogen Powertrain
JLR announced that the Range Rover Electric model would be equipped with an assembled battery made at JLR’s facility itself along with the electric drive unit that is incorporated on an 800V charging system. Specification of this model will not be disclosed but it’s said to offer the same ‘go–anywhere’ punch as ICE version in terms of towing ability, wading of 850mm of water and better all-territorial ability of the car. On the performance front, it could have a twin motor solution and produce an output of up to 523 bhp, at par with the V8 model they hope to provide better four-wheel-drive and torque vectoring for off road.
Subsequently, the 5th generation Range Rover Electric will be manufactured alongside the mild hybrid and PHEV models in Solihull, the initial battery sourcing from other suppliers will shift towards the batteries to be manufactured at Tata Motors’ planned Gigafactory in Somerset. More crucially, the MLA platform can also accommodate hydrogen powertrains, thus paving way for a Range Rover FCEV.
Although details on the Project Zeus hydrogen scheme are limited, Land Rover tried a hydrogen-powered Defender, seeing hydrogen as an enabler of battery-electric techs in its bid for zero-emissions-by-wire by 2036.
