Range Rover Sport P510e first drive

I know: doesn’t sound like a big difference, does it? Question is, then, whether the Sport is more like a different body style, rather than feeling like a relatively significant departure, as it used to be. And when it comes to those first impressions of the refinement as I roll up the windows, I would have to say there’s not a lot in it. Likewise inside.

There’s a big wedge of leather across the dash beneath an array of vents, big seats with flip-down armrests, digital instruments, the sticky-out Pivi Pro touchscreen and a bevy of clear heating and ventilation dials, plus Land Rover’s Terrain Response controller behind it. The Sport’s seating position is 20mm lower, while the Range Rover has a bigger steering wheel, with two broad horizontal spokes to the Sport’s three-spoke effort. But when we’re talking steering wheel diameters, you can sense we're talking details.

Materials and fit and finish are similarly good, then. Range Rover is trying to position itself in the luxury sphere, which is why Sport prices start at £80,325, the P510e PHEV is £108,600 and the V8 is £116,190. Mind you, I sat next to a Bentley executive at an awards do once where there was a luxury car award, and she didn’t think much of the idea that the Mercedes-Benz S-Class was considered for it.

Different market, different type of people: can you really be luxury if you also sell a car that rivals the Ford Focus? I can imagine a similar conversation about Range Rover, but it’s not holding back with the clean design, at least, if not all of the plush materials. Mostly it’s first-rate and the equal of the primary competitors: top-end BMW X5s and the Porsche Cayenne. It’s no Bentley Bentayga in here, but it’s not priced like one, either.

The Cayenne feels the most natural rival to me. The ‘big’ Range Rover is a land owner’s car. The Sport finds itself parked outside its owner’s business in the week and a shop or a gym at weekends, more like the Cayenne would. And the blend of both road-going dynamism and comfort and SUV-ability is where the positioning gets interesting. The Cayenne feels like a sporting road car first, an SUV second.

Should the Sport? Can it, even? In terms of ride quality and isolation, nothing else in the class gets that close. It feels like the vast majority of the imperious aloofness from the Range Rover has made it here intact. The speakers play anti-noise to assist the comfort levels. You could whisper what you think is silently to your partner about calling in at a fast-food joint and there would be whoops of joy from children in the back who overheard you. It’s so quiet. It’s also stable and long-legged, an easy motorway companion whether in its V8 form or as a plug-in hybrid, which I try later.

This combines a 32kWh battery with a 3.0-litre petrol engine and an electric motor for 503bhp, 18-20g/km of CO2 and a 70-mile electric-only range. Those quoted figures are as variable as any other electric or combusted ranges; Land Rover reckons at least 50 miles whatever the conditions. There are a bunch of mild-hybrid 3.0-litre petrols and diesels, too.

The PHEV – badged the P510e or the P440e in lower-powered form – is a stack heavier than the V8, at 2735kg. But it’s also the car in which I find the twistiest roads and for a car of this girth it’s very impressive. There’s only a little roll, something stabilising to lean into, and it turns with impressive confidence. It monitors the sat-nav system to know what kinds of corners are coming and will sharpen itself up for them. The Cayenne stays flatter and more confident, but there’s only so much I would want from an SUV, and this does plenty for me.

The V8, being lighter (albeit thirstier, at 24.1mpg and 266g/km) is fleeter of foot, although we’re talking degrees. It’s still 2.5 tonnes. I off-road in the V8 too. A warning light that needs an off-on reset aside (because what Land Rover experience is complete without one?

Early cars are due the latest software download, I’m told), it’s seriously impressive, finding traction up slopes and dangling wheels where it has no right to and going where rivals couldn’t go. And it’s here where the rear steer, which reduces the turning circle to under 11m, is felt most. It will go round trees and through gates like a much smaller car. And it can tow 3500kg (3000kg for the PHEV).

That it can do this while being quite so much fun on a good stretch of road, even in its heaviest form, is a genuine feat. If there’s one thing you can rely on from Jaguar Land Rover, it tends to be its cars’ dynamics, and they’re the standout again here.

Less sporting than the Cayenne it may be, but it’s still rewarding, and it will out-ride anything in the class. The Sport doesn’t feel as differentiated a model from the Range Rover as it once did (I suspect an upcoming SVR model would put more air between them), but I wouldn’t want to change the dynamic blend it has hit on. It gets the road car/4x4 combination just right.