Range Rover launches first fully electric model

Range Rover has unveiled its first fully electric model after delaying the planned launch for a year. The Range Rover Electric will be built at JLR’s plant in Solihull, in England’s West Midlands.

The launch represents a major change in JLR’s electrification programme. The company said it has up-skilled 10,500 workers for electric production, including about 9,000 employees in Solihull and another 1,500 across the region.

JLR’s Electric Propulsion Manufacturing Centre in Wolverhampton now produces battery packs and electric drive units alongside internal-combustion engines. Martin Limpert, Range Rover’s managing director, described the new model as the product of a decade of “considered engineering.”

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considered engineering

The electric rollout follows a difficult year for the Coventry-based carmaker. Profits fell to £66 million in the first quarter after a fire at a key supplier in Norway. JLR is also restructuring and said fewer than 300 roles would be eliminated, less than a year after a cyberattack stopped production for more than a month.

The company previously said new product launches would leave “JLR in good shape whilst acknowledging the continuing geopolitical, inflationary and regulatory challenges the industry faces”.

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JLR in good shape whilst acknowledging the continuing geopolitical, inflationary and regulatory challenges the industry faces