INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
View PhotosThe 2019 Range Rover will be launched in India later this year"Just make it better", is a familiar refrain when you talk about
what Land Rover needed to do when upgrading its iconic Range Rover
The flagship SUV had already grown in size and opulence with the current generation, and now with the midlife upgrade on the 4th generation
car you get more luxury, tweaked looks and a brand new hybrid powertrain
I got a chance to experience all three when I drove the new car in the Cotswolds, England recently
Oh and I must add, was also driven around in one - since the global press drive included being chauffeured around in a long wheelbase Range
Rover, from the hotel to the magnificent Blenheim Palace where we picked up the cars we were driving
Yes those were regular wheelbase if you will, but were the hybrids, or more specifically, the Rage Rover P400e
So lets get the first thing out of the way - and allow me to tell you what has change don the car's exterior
The three-slat front grille is gone and replaced by a more imposing running mesh patterned one
It gives the car even more stature and makes the face look even bigger.The Range Rover borrows styling cues from the VelarThe bumper is
This makes it appear less heavy and feed more air to cool the brakes
The head and taillights are now LED
In fact European buyers can opt for a laser light headlamp unit
The LED DRL (daytime running light) has also become sharper and you get sequentially illuminating indicators now
Overall the car will immediately come across as having borrowed the best styling cues from its younger sibling - World Car Design of the
Year winner, the Range Rover Velar.The gill-like fins behind the front wheel arch and into the door now have four slots and are finished in
a dull metal that looks great
As does the new Byron blue exterior paint finish option on the car I was driving
There is also a new Rossello Red (deep red) option that's new now
Inside the cabin is where things get swankier than before
Yes that was possible apparently! In fact it is rather surprising how dated and dare I say basic the cabin of the 2013 current generation
Rangey now looks, when compared to the Velar's or indeed the facelifted car's!The gill-like fins behind the front wheel arch and into the
The Velar's Touch Pro Duo screens have been carried over
That means the central stack now gets the two touch screens, with the floating touch dials on the one below
The upper screen also has a tilt adjustment feature so you can get the viewing and access angle just right
The two screens house pretty much everything you need, and you can customise them to show whichever functions you'd like - on either
So from navigation to music to the Terrain Response system settings - you can say goodbye to buttons and dials and happily customise and
swipe away! You can even swipe one item from one screen to the other with a simple flick of your finger
But Land Rover needs to sign its deals with Apple and Google and get CarPlay and Android Auto into its cars soon - a sore miss still.The
seats are massively upgraded and have gone from business to first class! The seat backs are wider, plumper, and now have a massage function
that includes a hot stone option! Speaking of hot, ever conceivable part of the seat that you touch has optional heating - from the armrest
to the leg/calf and foot rests on the extended wheelbase version heating! Oh besides the usual seat warmers that are there too of course
There is optional gesture control to raise and lower the window mesh blinds at the rear, though there are buttons for that too
The massive panoramic sunroof is lovely when sitting at the rear
In fact, the extended wheelbase has now achieved what Land Rover wanted - to slowly move the Range Rover to Bentley or even Rolls-Royce
The current generation car when it came out in 2013 had already heralded that move up - and the arrival of the fourth Range Rover (Velar)
you - everything from this point onwards will be about how the car drives, but the car I mean is the P400e
And the reason I want to state that up front is because the hybrid isn't coming to India! The facelift will though - but on the engines we
have been used to - the V8 and V6 diesels/petrol
That said there was still plenty there to remind me what the Range Rover stands for, and to appreciate the car's overall capability once
The PHEV option (as Land Rover also calls it - or Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle for the uninformed) is also available on the Range Rover
But lets stick to the Range Rover shall we The part that has me impressed is how the hybrid's off-road and wading capability has not changed
So the addition of the battery pack in the car's boot floor has not meant any compromise in extreme off-roading or the 900mm wading depth
Approach and departure angles also remain the same on all types of powertrain options
If anything the instant torque is actually great as it allows for each wheel to be supplied with the juice it needs to get the best traction
So, having the electric powertrain on board makes this thing crawl nearly anywhere with more ease than the conventional Rangey!The Range
Rover with a 4-cylinder engine under the bonnet
After all no Range Rover had offered anything but a V8 as standard, and subsequently a V6 option until now
The 2.0 ingenium engine puts out 294 bhp, but combined output is 396 bhp, and you get a whopping 640 Nm of peak torque that's available
That makes the PHEV more powerful than the standard V6 variants, though lower than the V8 supercharged variants of course
The car can run in pure electric mode - eerily silently I may add - for 51 kms, and you can decide to save the electric power for use when
you want it exclusively, like for instance when entering a city centre
It gets so silent on electric mode in fact that the Land Rover engineers have added a strange buzzing noise the car emanates to alert people
in the area that it is coming, since they won't be able to hear any engine
Also neat! The car will go as fast as 130 kmph on pure electric mode as well
The car responds with surprising alacrity given its size and bulk, and honestly the performance can put many more powerful engines to shame
The drive is also stately and smooth, with nary a flinch except at higher speeds where the sheer weight of the car starts to play catch up
The electric plug-in socket is cleverly concealed in the front grille panel
Open the flap and plug it in
That is smart since you could just park nose-in to a parking slot with a charger, and plug-in without the hassle of getting the cables to
customer (is that a thing!) it will be the softness of the leather, the clarity of the speakers, the feel of the plush carpeting and the
firmness of the massage function that will matter the most
So from that point of the Range Rover will now only pamper you more
And all of that stuff is most definitely going to be on offer when the car debuts in India later in the year
Expect prices to stay sky high, but then that in itself is part of the allure to this buyer anyway, isn't it Since this is facelift season,
along with the flagship, the Range Rover Sport has also gone under the scalpel
I will give you those details in the next review, I promise.For the latest auto news and reviews, follow CarAndBike on Twitter, Facebook,
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