2022 Land Rover Range Rover P530 SE LWB

The Range Rover is one of those vanishingly rare cars that defies the industry’s traditional product cycle. The current model arrived in 2012 and even in these unpredictable times it’s still hitting the spot with its high-end client base. But then you see the new one – only the fifth generation in 51 years – and you realise that there are some things even the Range Rover can’t out-run forever. Namely, the march of technology and connectivity, and more pressingly the need to future-proof it as climate change ceases to be a debate and becomes a genuine existential emergency.This is an all-new car in every aspect with a critical reappraisal of its place in the world. Key here are two plug-in hybrids, badged P440e and P510e (that equates to a 434 and 503bhp power output respectively). These combine Land Rover’s 3.0-litre six cylinder petrol engine with a 105kW battery feeding an electric motor with a useable capacity of 31.8kWh, to deliver ‘up to 62 miles’ of pure electric driving with CO2 emissions around 30g/km. We’d say 50 miles in the real world is more plausible. Land Rover reckons that typical Range Rover customers will be able to complete 75 per cent of their journeys without ever bothering the internal combustion engine. Not quite a ‘get out of jail free’ card, but a big improvement.Unfortunately we won’t be driving the PHEVs for another six months. So it is that the all-new Range Rover arrives powered by a pair of diesels – making 296bhp and 345bhp respectively – and two petrols, good for 395bhp and a 523bhp (and 553 torques). The latter is a twin turbo petrol V8 (sourced from BMW), whose intake has been reconfigured to enable a 900mm wading depth, plus a few other robust mods. Seriously, has anyone ever taken their Range Rover into a chuffing river? A fully electric model, meanwhile, will arrive in 2024. That’s even less likely to go swimming up the Severn.