Shock new mid-size Range Rover to get EV power and stunning design
Mid-size SUV will end the four-year wait for a new JLR model and our exclusive images preview how it could look
A groundbreaking, mid-size electric Range Rover will go public in early 2026, bringing JLR’s four-year new model drought to a spectacular end. This Range Rover EV – not to be confused with the electrified version of the flagship Range Rover, which comes to market at a similar time – will introduce a fresh design language and tech plumbed into a brand-new vehicle architecture known as EMA (Electric Modular Architecture).
Think of it as a pure-electric 4x4 to sit alongside the current Velar, which will continue in production at JLR’s Solihull plant. But the EMA-based car will not be called Velar, underlining its differentiation, and it’ll be built on a revamped, hi-tech production line at the Halewood factory on Merseyside.
The electric Rangie, which is set to rival the new BMW iX3 and Audi Q6 e-tron, will be similar in size to the existing Velar. However, if you can't wait for it arrive next year, you can buy a new Range Rover Velar via our Buy a Car service. Alternatively, used Range Rover Velar models are available from as little as £16,000.
Where will the new Range Rover EV be built?
JLR has pumped £250million into Halewood to prep it for EMA, adding a new electric body-assembly building and ensuring the circa 4.8m-long SUV can be trimmed and painted on revised production lines. The company has boosted its paint shop’s capacity to deliver more contrasting roof colours, for instance.
The facility will paint a car that introduces a new-generation Range Rover design. Photos of prototype test vehicles reveal a form that’s even sleeker than the Velar’s. The relatively low roofline slopes dramatically downwards and the glasshouse is thin relative to the sheet metal, creating a coupé-SUV look. Industry whispers say the design – which ups the ante for Range Rover modernism and minimalism – is quite distinct from the Velar’s.
It’s a dramatically different vehicle under the skin as well. “EMA is our next architecture for medium-size vehicles,” said former JLR CEO Adrian Mardell when the firm announced the chassis in 2023. “Originally conceived to be hybrid, it’s now only going to be fully electrified. At least three different vehicles, maybe four, will come off the EMA platform.”
But much of what goes into EMA – the battery, electric drive units, thermal management system and clever software – emanates from the flagship Range Rover Electric. Sources say the size of hardware will shrink on smaller SUVs, but its fundamentals will “plug and play” across the range.
The batteries – initially to be prepared in the Midlands but later assembled at JLR parent company Tata’s £4billion Gigafactory in Bridgwater, Somerset – are a case in point. The prismatic cells fit snugly together, enabling them to be packed into rectangular modules and scaled up in batches to create a range of powerpacks. Their ‘cell-to-pack’ design cuts some of the framework housing the battery, which saves weight and cost, and enables more cells to be crammed into each module.
But unlike some Teslas and BYDs, the pack is not ‘cell-to-body’, where it doubles up as the floor structure to shave off more mass and boost rigidity.
Batteries, range and charging
The upcoming Range Rover Electric has a 118kWh battery: the EMA SUV will need downsized battery packs of around 100kWh and 80kWh if it’s to match the long and standard-range offers of premium rivals. These should endow the mid-size EV with ranges comfortably topping 300 and 400 miles, aided by sophisticated thermal management. JLR reckons its new system offers a 40 per cent efficiency boost over its first EV, Jaguar’s 2019 I-Pace. It can recover heat at –15 degrees Celsius to warm the cabin, and clever software continuously evaluates and manages battery temperature, bringing it to the optimum level for charging.
And the 800-volt electrical system should enable ultra-rapid DC peak charging of 350kW, to top up the battery from 10-80 per cent in as close to 20 minutes as possible.
JLR says its electric motors were developed in-house, after scouring suppliers for 18 months and failing
to find tech suitable for both low-speed off-roading and high on-road efficiency. The Electric Drive Units (EDU) are permanently excited synchronous motors, linked to a highly efficient, heat-resistant silicon carbide inverter that rapidly switches the battery’s direct current into AC for the EDUs, then reverses to harvest energy from regenerative braking.
One EDU spinning each axle – with a combined output of 542bhp and 850Nm of torque – provides the optimum propulsion for the flagship Range Rover, the engineers say. Such high outputs would be near the top end of the EMA performance spectrum.
It’s not clear yet whether the EMA Range Rover will be strictly all-wheel drive, or whether JLR might introduce a long-range, single-motor version which would dovetail nicely with the car’s sleek, road-biased silhouette. Carefully honed aerodynamics will help extract every mile of range, and a single-pedal driving mode will maximise regenerative braking.
No off-road compromises
Nonetheless there won’t be any compromise with the brand’s off-road performance. The Range Rover Electric has the firm’s customary Terrain Response to optimise the all-wheel drivetrain and chassis to tackle sand, grass, gravel and snow, plus crawl over rocks, and wade to the combustion car’s 900mm depth.
Since the advent of the electric development programme more than five years ago, JLR’s engineers have been excited by the precise control offered by electric motors, which can instantly deliver high revs, with braking at each individual wheel to control slip. The firm’s Integrated Traction Management software can detect and eliminate slip 100 times quicker than a mechanical system, with an EDU’s fast response so much better at getting on and off the power than a combustion engine.
An all-new electronic architecture, bristling with sensors and computing power, is critical to this off-road performance. And it will bring on-road benefits too, with the Electric Modular Architecture primed for Level 2+ assisted driving. That will likely include hands-off motorway driving and sophisticated autonomous parking support. Connectivity enables Over The Air (OTA) updates and features to be added to the car.
EMA is said to be optimised to maximise interior space and comfort despite the sloping roof, with the driving position offering Land Rover’s trademark commanding view.
Production is scheduled to start in spring 2026. The current Velar – with its petrol, diesel and plug-in hybrid engines – costs from £55,000. Expect its EV cousin – with its tech and electric drivetrain – to come in closer to £65,000.
Since the pandemic, JLR has been quietly prepping for a new-model offensive. The exciting introduction
of EMA means things are going to get very loud, very soon.
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