2027 Range Rover spied – Land Rover’s luxury icon sharpens up
The fifth-generation Range Rover is due a mid-life facelift soon. We’ve spied it
You could argue either way, that designing and developing a mid-life update for the Range Rover could be both easy and difficult. On the one hand, the Range Rover as it stands is an excellent car. There’s not a lot that needs to be changed and so the job of facelifting and updating can be a light-touch exercise. On the other, you’ve got to change something and fixing that which isn’t broken often leads to breakage – change for the sake of change is rarely welcome. What little we can tell from the spy shots of this car however, seems to suggest the upcoming Range Rover facelift will be a relatively mild nip and tuck.
Few styling details are visible beneath the light layer of camouflage at the front and rear. The lights, usually one of the main signposts of a car’s mid-life rejuvenation, look like they’ll be getting updated signatures. It looks too like there could be new lighting nestled in the lower flanks of the reprofiled front bumpers. The module for the Range Rover’s ADAS systems also appears to have changed position, likewise the number plate which on this prototype at least, sits below rather than above it.
The rear of this prototype features lights as per the current model, with the Range Rover script missing from the bar between them. Could we see the updated Range Rover adopt a light bar? Hopefully not. We can also see that the monolithic surface language of the current car survives, the massaged slab sides remaining uncorrupted by new lines.
In fact, the vertical door trim of the current model is difficult to make out through the disguise, though that’s not confirmation of its deletion – being a non-functional styling piece, the prototype has no need to have it poking through. Definitely set to survive, the distinctive Range Rover floating roof.
The biggest mechanical change coming to the Range Rover lineup will be the addition of the electric model, though the timing of this is curious. Set for introduction this summer, it seems the Range Rover Electric will debut ahead of the upcoming facelift, based on the styling of the current car.
That means whenever the facelift is introduced – potentially as early as 2027 – the Range Rover EV will still be new-ish, but look old. It’s well known that the Range Rover Electric has been subject to significant delays while Land Rover perfects its drive systems and massages its range figures.
As for combustion options? Wisely, JLR has chosen to keep the Range Rover offering diverse, adding an electric model rather than making the lineup all-EV. That means that like the current lineup, the updated Range Rover will be available with a range of hybrid and combustion powertrains, refined for compliance with Euro 7 emissions standards.
It’s difficult to tell whether this prototype is the electric version or a combustion or hybrid variant. What we can just about see through the disguise at the nose is grille detailing not dissimilar to the prototype we tested last year.
Contrary to what you might expect, the Range Rover and Range Rover Electric will share zero componentry with the upcoming Jaguar GT. The new all-electric luxury car will be an entirely bespoke product with all new hardware, from the battery and motors, to its chassis and suspension. Not even Land Rover’s 6D suspension system will carry over.
