Range Rover Electric: the secrets behind testing a new EV

Before any new car goes on sale, it has to be tested.

Everything from how a car drives, handles, electronic and physical systems, even down to the efficiency of the heating and ventilation, all elements of the car have to be checked multiple times before it can be signed off ready to arrive in showrooms.

Teams of engineers from car companies will drive hundreds of thousands of miles in prototype cars, testing every element in every weather condition and in every kind of location. It is, frankly, back-breaking, covering tens of thousands of miles and taking thousands of hours before it goes on sale.

And with EVs, all of that is even more critical – something that is underlined with these latest pictures of the forthcoming new fully-electric Range Rover.

The Range Rover prototype in question was pictured in Dubai, being tested in the deserts of the United Arab Emirates and in temperatures of more than 50 degrees C. The efficiency and performance of the car itself are tested to ensure that the entire four-wheel drive system is reliably temperature controlled and built to provide longevity while also optimum range.

“A hot climate is one of the most challenging for any battery electric vehicle, because of the need to cool the cabin and optimise battery performance at the same time,” said Thomas Muller, Land Rover’s Executive Director of Product Engineering.

“The additional challenge of driving on sand requires controlled low speed torque, so our specially developed traction control and thermal management systems work in harmony to ensure power delivery is unaffected. Our tests have shown that in this climate, repeatedly driving the equivalent of 100 metres uphill on fine sand, the Range Rover Electric matches the performance of its ICE equivalents; in some instances, even surpassing them thanks to the introduction of these new features.”

As well as those prolonged desert driving sessions, the Range Rover’s thermal performance has also been tested with several city-driving cycles (the low speeds reducing air flow) and several off-road testing sessions as well.

You’d expect this last one of all Land Rover products of course, but a new torque management system for the Range Rover Electric which can distribute drive to each of the wheels in as little as one millisecond (one hundred times faster than the blink of an eye), gives improved traction control even when driving on fine sand.

Drivers will get the chance to try the new Range Rover Electric out for themselves when orders open for the new car in 2025.