The battle for dominance in the luxury electric car sector is set to commence as reports suggest Land Rover is considering a new battery-powered Range Rover to tackle Tesla’s massive success in luxury car sector. Reports also suggest that that the new Range Rover would probably be more of low-roofed crossover-style model than a battery-powered version of the current Range Rover.
It seems that this crossover could be sold in conventional petrol and diesel-powered forms, as well as a purely battery-powered versions. If Range Rover goes ahead with its plans to launch a new model, it will have to match Tesla Model S’s official range of 265 miles and then it will be considered as a competitor, something which is a difficult thing to do in the current Range Rover styling.
The new model, if given a go it will be all aluminium monocoque architecture, modified to host the battery pack. If we look at the pricing for today’s Model S, any Range Rover EV would have to cost as much as £90,000 or more. JLR will be taking a risk by investing in an electric crossover model, but Land Rover bosses have to take the rise and rise of Tesla seriously. Market analysts have suggested that “greenness” is now seen as an “indivisible part of a premium brand”, especially for customers with high incomes.
The Model S has already become the best-selling luxury model in some of the US’s most sought after postcodes and the car has recently started to outsell established models, such as the Audi A8 and the BMW 7-series, in Europe. That’s not all; China is also expected to become a huge market for EV’s as Chinese government sets out its plans to tackle it’s out of control air pollution problems.
