Range Rover has put the GT, its first model on JLR’s new EMA electric platform, through a final sign-off drive, saying the car will be the most aerodynamic and lowest-slung model in the brand’s history.
The company released a 90-second video on its official YouTube channel on Monday showing camouflaged prototypes on public roads in Belgium and Germany before arriving at the Nürburgring.
“We’re here at the Nürburgring Test Center for a sign-off drive on Range Rover GT,” an engineer says at the start of the video.
The video gives no power output, battery size, range, price or reveal date. Range Rover said in July that more details would follow “later this year.”
Lowest and slipperiest Range Rover
“This is the lowest center of gravity Range Rover that we’ve ever produced,” one of the engineers says in the video.
He said the team wanted “the plushness of a Range Rover” while making the car enjoyable to drive on country roads. “It’s kind of that duality of purpose that we focus totally on,” he said.
Another engineer said the GT is “the most aerodynamic Range Rover that we’ve ever produced.”
That brings “huge benefits” in lower wind noise and a quieter cabin, “but also obviously it gives us a huge benefit to range as well,” the engineer said. Range Rover did not give a drag coefficient or a range figure.
The low center of gravity claim sets a new mark within the family. Range Rover said in September that the Range Rover Sport Electric‘s center of gravity sits 73 millimeters lower than the plug-in hybrid Range Rover Sport.
Built for long distances
The test route ran through Brussels and across Germany to the Nürburgring, according to the video.
“Range Rover GT is a grand tourer. That means it needs to be able to eat up the miles in comfort and in style,” the first engineer says.
City driving in Brussels was meant to check that the suspension and damping offered comfort in town while staying “quite controlled over speed bumps,” the second engineer said.
“When you get out of the car, having driven hundreds of miles, it will feel like you’ve just been down the road,” the first engineer says.
The company also pushed back on the idea that the lower body limits the car off road. “Don’t let the car-like proportions of the car fool you into thinking that it’s not immensely capable off-road,” he said. “We fully expect it to be class-leading amongst its peers.”
The prototypes in the video wear the gold and black contour camouflage Range Rover showed in July, with “Range Rover GT” lettering on the doors. One is filmed at a charging station.
What is Known
Range Rover confirmed the GT as the fifth member of its family on July 22, alongside the Range Rover, Range Rover Sport, Range Rover Velar and Range Rover Evoque.
It will be the first all-electric Range Rover on JLR’s new Electrified Modular Architecture (EMA), the company said. It will be built at Halewood, in northwest England, alongside gasoline and hybrid models.
The GT will launch as a fully electric vehicle, with a full hybrid version planned “later in the lifecycle,” Range Rover said.
“The Range Rover GT will redefine the grand-touring segment,” said Martin Limpert, Managing Director of Range Rover, in July. He called it “the most car-like, yet unmistakably capable, Range Rover ever created.”
Range Rover showed the interior in July, with a single central screen, a driver display instead of a traditional instrument cluster and a concealed air vent running the width of the cabin. It also claimed “class-leading second-row legroom.”
Third electric Range Rover
The GT will be the brand’s third fully electric model.
JLR opened orders for the Range Rover Electric in early September and for the Range Rover Sport Electric four weeks later. Both use a 118.5 kWh battery, two 260 kW motors and an 800-volt architecture, with up to 550 PS (542 hp).
JLR quotes WLTP ranges of up to 372 miles for the Range Rover Electric and 378 miles for the Sport.
Those two models arrived about two years behind the plan JLR set out in 2021, which called for the first of six all-electric Land Rover variants in 2024. JLR had also said the first EMA model would come from the Range Rover family, “launching in 2025 and built at Halewood.”
JLR’s sister brand Jaguar unveiled its own four-door electric GT, the Type 01, on October 7, with orders due to open in early 2027.
