In all of the massive, unprecedented success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there is no element that is more satisfying and gleefully enjoyable to watch than Tom Hiddleston’s performance as Loki.
Playing the Norse god of mischief, Hiddleston has taken the character from out-and-out villain to reluctant hero, to comedy sidekick, back to villain, and back to less-reluctant hero. Never mind a story arc, this is more like a series of arcs, each one more impressive than the last.
The new Range Rover Sport strikes me as being a bit Loki-esque. The original 2004 model was blocky, bluff, and with a supercharged V8 positively villainously naughty. Successive models dialled back the overt naughtiness a bit, but the Sport was gaining a reputation in recent years for criminality in the climate sense. Big, expensive, heavy, and fitted with generally profligate engines that was hardly surprising, and anything this sybaritic was an easy – and possibly justified – target for those protesting the impact of posh SUVs on the environment.
Now though, that has been somewhat tipped on its head. You get the sensation that if the new Range Rover Sport could, in the fashion of Hiddleston, do a swish-turn on its heels and flash a disarming grin at the camera, it would. It’s not that there’s not still some naughtiness in its bones (you can, after all buy a 530hp turbo V8 version…), it’s that the naughtiness has now been balanced with a touch of saintliness.
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The old Range Rover Sport could be had with plug-in hybrid power, but it was pretty short on electric range and still ruinously thirsty if you dared to drive it long distances. To change that script, Land Rover has taken away the old four-cylinder turbo engine and fitted instead a 3.0-litre turbo straight-six unit.
That sounds like a retrograde step, efficiency-wise, but it has been paired with a 105kW electric motor and a whopping (by PHEV terms) 38kWh battery mounted under the floor. Charge that battery fully – and hilariously you can charge it at up to 50KW from a public rapid charger, enraging every Nissan Leaf owner in a 50km radius – and the Range Rover Sport P510e has a claimed electric range of up to 113km. The same goes for the more affordable (slightly) and less powerful (much) P440e. Both badges refer to the car’s total power output in horsepower.
If the old Range Rover Sport PHEV was an ecological figleaf, this is the whole darned tree. That range is pretty realistic – certainly you should manage 90km with a modicum of care, and Land Rover claims that’s enough for owners to cover 75 per cent of their regular mileage on battery power. We have to wait till 2024 for a fully-electric Range Rover Sport (and the bigger Range Rover EV too) but this is suddenly, theoretically three-quarters of the way there.
It really does work, too. Start a journey with a full battery (if you can afford one of these, you can presumably also afford the home charger and driveway space to go with it) and you can achieve some remarkable fuel economy. We drove 140km from the wilds of central Spain into the middle of Madrid, driving in hybrid mode. By doing so, we ensured that the car’s computers would automatically save enough battery charge to be able to drive around town on zero-emissions power and when we reached our downtown destination after 140km of mixed mountain, motorway, and urban roads, we’d averaged 5.6-litres per 100km. That’s really impressive for one so large and heavy (2.8-tonnes!).
Get petrol and electric power performing together and it’s bloody fast, too. Against the clock, the mighty 530hp V8 version is faster to get to 100km/h but the P510e’s stopwatch reading of 5.4 secs is still far more than quick enough. When you do wake up the petrol engine, it also responds with a delightful straight-six snarl.
In corners, the Sport’s combo of stiffer twin-chamber air springs (compared to the single-chamber items on the bigger Range Rover), specially-developed Bilstein dampers and sharper steering mean that it’s almost hot-hatch like at times. Certainly, nothing this tall and hefty should be able to corner like this, and the Dynamic Response Pro active anti-roll system is properly physics-bending in how it keeps the Sport’s body level even in fast corners. Star Trek’s Mister Scott would have a fit…
Inside, all is calm for the most part. The cabin is essentially identical to that of the larger Range Rover so you get two impressive 13-inch digital screens and a distinct lack of physical switches. It all works quite well, though – certainly better than the screens of many competitors. The seats are about as comfortable as it’s possible to be when not actually lying down, and there’s decent space in the back seats too. Alas, there’s no seven-seat option any more. If you want that you’ll have to upgrade to the hugely expensive long-wheelbase Range Rover, or be sensible and get a Defender instead.
One option to avoid is saying yes to the vast 23-inch alloy wheels. Gorgeous they are but they ruin the low-speed ride quality and seriously detract from the Sport’s ability to cosset and comfort as you swish about. Smaller wheels would make far more sense. Off-road? No owner will bother, I suspect, but the Sport can still mix it with the mountain goats and fell ponies when it comes to agility away from the tarmac. Pointless but somehow reassuring.
Just like Loki, the Sport has a bigger, beefier brother in the shape of the more overtly luxurious Range Rover (for which read; Thor). While the bigger car is the more generally impressive, the Sport is most definitely more fun, and given that for the same €142,000 price as the bigger Range Rover P440e plug-in, you can have this more powerful P510e hybrid in the Sport, well… I know which I’d choose.
I just can’t wait for that moment when I swish into a car park with an electric charger, soaking in the hatred from those of an environmental bent and – Loki-like – subvert all expectations by hooking up to a charger and topping up my reserves of zero-emissions kilometres. The Range Rover Sport PHEV isn’t quite where we need to get to, motoring-wise, but it’s a massive (and massively enjoyable) step on the right road from villain to hero.
