Land Rover Range Rover Sport Electric review

Unless you're the sort who craves the thunderous SV version of the V8, it's hard to argue the Sport isn't improved overall by the switch to electric.

For a start, it's quick. The 550bhp arrives when you ask – no pause for turbo boost or a downshift. It just obediently lunges towards the horizon at the rate you ask for. A 0-62mph dash is 4.5 seconds. Even that's not shocking, as the air springs and dampers clench up to prevent pitch.

Actually in Comfort mode it's just 500bhp, but frankly you'll hardly notice the difference most of the time.

If you want powertrain sound, there's a switchable sound that shapes itself according to speed and power. It's based on the F-minor chord, fact fans, and is classier than most of the kind. If you're driving on your own and have the stereo off, it adds a little to the involvement.

Otherwise, it's well hushed, especially in the road noise that often haunts big-tyred cars. Especially if you've the optional Meridian Signature sound system, which includes complex active noise cancellation to your headrest speakers.

Is it sporty in corners?

It's surprisingly capable. You might be sitting tall, but active anti-roll and variable-rate suspension strap the body and stop it rolling or pitching.

The ride is much better than most sporty big SUVs. Which can fool you into thinking it's mushy. It isn't. Well-arranged steering lets you curl neatly into a bend, and then it'll go through with quite some determination. It's for sure usefully more quick-witted and tied down than the big Range Rover.

There's real feel to steering – take it to a slow, coarsely-surfaced bend, lean in and push, and you get reassuring, organic messages from the tyres. In tighter corners, the four-wheel steering adds to a sense of agility. Precision is helped by a super-stiff body, tied together by the massive battery.

It's also remarkably stable. The steering stays straight even if troughs and cambers are trying to pull it off course. See a chance to overtake a dawdling van on a lumpy B-road and you can feel confident about not weaving half-way past. A Cayenne Electric has more grittiness in its ride and steering.

Switching to Dynamic mode tightens the damping, as well as adopting more aggressive four-wheel steering angles. But you get some jitter in the ride with it. In the Range Rover, TopGear stayed in dynamic mode almost all the time; in the Sport we switched between modes more often along similar roads.

Driving hard on some lovely upland roads, then turning into an off-road section, took consumption up to 1.9 mi/kWh, for what we'd call a worst-case range of 225 miles. More realistic treatment gave us the 2.6 mi/kWh needed for a 300-plus mile range.

When it's playing the Chelsea tractor in tight streets and car parks, the surround cameras and four-wheel steering make it way less clumsy than it might be.

Is it compromised by the off-roading part of its job description?

Well, if it didn't have all this off-road ruggedness, you wouldn't sit so high, and the lofty view out is part of this vehicle's appeal. In that sense it's moot. Also, while a combustion RR Sport needs a low-ratio heavy transfer case, the electric version doesn't because electric motors are so torquey at crawling revs.

The motors also react blindingly fast to traction control instructions, so overall this is a better and easier thing for off-roading. The air suspension gives you height options, and wading depth is 900mm – roughly the top of the tyres. Eek. Never say electricity and water don't mix.