QUICK CHARGE IT
Quick-charge capability allows the Range Rover Velar to make the most of its PHEV technology
There’s generally a strong line of demarcation between Land Rover 4x4 and Jaguar SUV products. but the exception is the Range Rover Velar, which is the most roadoriented of the Land Rover lineup because it’s based on the platform of the Jaguar F-Pace.
So where there’s an F-Pace plug-in hybrid vehicle (PHEV), the Velar can follow. Jaguar introduced a P400e powertrain in its revised F-Pace line-up last year, and now the same set-up is available in the Velar.
The Velar PHEV matches a
2.0-litre turbo-petrol four-cylinder engine with a 17kWh plug-in battery pack, giving a claimed
53km of pure-electric running – with the battery boost enabling impressive 0-100km/h performance of 5.4 seconds when required.
Our test car looks swish thanks to a couple of options like a black exterior package and 20-inch alloys, but it’s actually the entry SE model. By no means cheap at $139k, but still $10k less than the base Jaguar F-Pace P400e, which starts at $149,900. You can have an HSE version of the Velar for the same money but, honestly, the SE is pretty luxurious as it is.
There are two ways to look at the Velar P400e. The first is as a short-range EV. Land Rover has been quite clever in giving its plug-in system DC fastcharging capability (like a battery electric vehicle uses and still relatively rare for a PHEV); so while you’ll probably still charge overnight at home most of the time, when you have the opportunity you can also use a public DC station and recharge at a rate of up to 32kW per hour.
In other words, at max charge rate you can theoretically get the Velar battery close to “full” again in 30 minutes.
Given the price of petrol, even at an indicative recharging cost of
25c per kWh/25c per minute to park (about $10 for 50km), it still makes sense to charge at a paid public station if it’s convenient. Remember there are also still many free DC outlets in NZ cities at the moment and a lot of 22kW AC stations at shopping centres.
A silent Range Rover is superb for city use and the P400e still has plenty of power to keep pace with urban traffic, although it will kick into hybrid mode if you put your foot right down. You can select Hybrid, EV or Save (where it keeps the current state of battery charge) via the rather striking centreconsole touch screen. You switch between drive modes in the same place, but the screen and physical controls can also reconfigure themselves to be the climate centre – a clever touch introduced on Velar but since carried over to other Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) models.
The other way to look at the Velar P400e is as a hybrid. It’s much less happy in city driving in petrol electric mode, with sometimes staccato low-speed acceleration as it dithers between momentary pure-electric (which is still available even the battery is theoretically flat) and full hybrid operation.
Ideally you won’t be suffering that, as the concept of a PHEV is that you drive in pure-electric around town and save the hybrid stuff for longer/faster journeys.
On the open road, the Velar is brilliant. There’s a hint of gruffness from the four-cylinder engine, but it’s generally smooth and commendably quick. We managed
5.9l/100km on a 200km Saturday afternoon road trip that commenced with the battery depleted – admittedly mostly on motorways at smooth 100km/h, but still pretty impressive for a
2.2-tonne luxury SUV that was running on adaptive cruise control most of the time.
Exterior style is the main drawcard of the Velar in Range Rover world, but inside it’s also a real feel-good proposition, with dark tones and lots of leather. The upgrade to JLR’s new Pivi Pro infotainment system is welcome because the previous set-up was slow and a bit glitchy; this one’s pretty slick, although the wireless CarPlay did have its moments and a couple of crashes (oddly, the identical
system in the I-Pace we tested the week previous was faultless).
Land Rover still offers conventional petrol and diesel Velar models, so is there a real case for the P400e? In an increasingly electrified age, the P400e certainly makes sense from a future-proofing/residual value point of view, and although you won’t get a Clean Car Discount you’ll also avoid a fine thanks to that 68g/km CO2 figure.
The P400e doesn’t have the powertrain character of the same-price Velar D300 six-cylinder turbo-diesel, but the PHEV is also over a second quicker to
100km/h and a lot more efficient. Just keep that battery pack charged up for city driving.