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- I recently tested a Range Rover HSE P400e — an expensive, luxury SUV with a nifty hybrid drivetrain.
- Range Rover is known for solid off-road performance, chic style, and for six-and-eight-cylinder engines and diesels — not drivetrains that get a boost from electric motors.
- But I found the small-displacement four-cylinder engine in this SUV, matched up with a hybrid system, to be an excellent piece of engineering.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Everybody wants SUVs, and some people want fancy, high-end utes. Their needs are being abundantly addressed right now by all the major automakers.
Customers who’ve always valued premium vehicles that can nonetheless hold up under extreme conditions and handle anything nature throws at them have for decades grooved on Range Rovers (and before them, Land Rovers). These trucks have snoot appeal, but don’t be distracted by their upper-crust boosters. We’re talking landed gentry here, and the land often didn’t have roads.
Range Rover’s problem is that it makes vehicles with big gas motors, and the ones that don’t fall into that category run in diesel. These are great drivetrains, but they’re out of step with a future in which sub-20-mpg vehicles could be effectively outlawed. So Range Rover and its engineers need to begin exploring ways to preserve the brand’s DNA while still preparing for day when 5.0-liter supercharged V8s simply won’t cut it.
The Range Rover HSE P400e I recently drove is an early effort. It poses a tough question: Can a small-ish hybrid engine get the job done for a Range?
Read on to find out if it can.
The 2019 Range Rover HSE P400e plug-in hybrid arrived at our suburban New Jersey test center wearing a handsome "Byron Blue Metallic" paint job.
Matt DeBord/BI
The Range Rover has been in the lineup since the 1970s; the fourth-generation has been around since 2013 and now has a hybrid option. Our tester had enough extras to take the sticker up to $109,000 from an already rich $96,000.
Matt DeBord/BI
Range Rovers are supposed to revel in their boxy glory, but this example of the core vehicle was made a bit flashier through the addition of some additional flash.
Matt DeBord/BI
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
See Also:
- The Ford Ranger is an excellent midsize pickup truck — here are its best features
- 7 of the most common ways people die while in transit
- The automotive industry has not reached ‘peak car’ as some Wall Street analysts suggest. Here’s what’s really going on.
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Source: Business Insider – feedback@businessinsider.com (Matthew DeBord)