The Range Rover Sport’s plug-in hybrid variants have a lot going for them but as this recent test reveals, they are far from the most agile vehicles.
To put the SUV through its paces, km77.com performed both a slalom test and the moose test. This particular review featured the P510e which gets a 3.0-liter straight-six engine, a 38.2 kWh battery pack, and a 141 hp electric motor. It delivers an impressive 510 hp between 5,500 rpm and 6,500 rpm as well as 516 lb-ft (700 Nm) of torque between 1,500 and 5,000 rpm. The example tested was sitting on 23-inch wheels with Pirelli Scorpion Zero All-Season tires.
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Considering that the SUV tested tipped the scales at a hefty 6,680 lbs (3,030 kg), it performed reasonably well in the slalom, completing the course in 26.1 seconds, making it slightly quicker than the 26.3 second time of the Range Rover SWB P440e PHEV previously tested. Things didn’t go so smoothly in the first test, though.
In the first attempt at 77 km/h (47.8 mph), the SUV understeered dramatically and the driver had no hope of keeping it between the cones, running over five of them. Various other efforts were also made at 71 km/h (44.1 mph) and 70 km/h (43.4 mph) but the Range Rover Sport continued to experience understeer and didn’t pass the test. The highest successful speed recorded was 69 km/h (42.8 mph).
See the test in the video below.