Range Rover Sport P550e Autobiography long-term test: Apple CarPlay gets a welcome upgrade

Apple’s update to show an extra row of CarPlay icons works well with the Sport’s 13.1-inch touchscreen. There’s now much less swiping backwards and forwards. I’m also liking the built-in Pivi Pro system as it grows more familiar. I had started out preferring the car’s sat-nav, but after one too many occasions when Apple or Google Maps knew about a traffic delay that the car’s nav system failed to allow for, I’ve  reverted to phone-based guidance. 

Range Rover Sport P550e Autobiography: first fleetwatch

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A recent trip to France allowed the Range Rover Sport to fully show off its credentials

An Easter break to France meant a 600-mile round trip to properly acclimatise our PHEV Range Rover Sport to family life. The clear French autoroutes highlighted its ultra-comfortable cruising capability even better than the UK’s cluttered motorways do. Including the first 50 miles on the PHEV’s e-motor, we averaged just over 30mpg, which is decent for a 542bhp SUV across a mix of mainly 80mph autoroutes and a good dose of city traffic in Paris.

Range Rover Sport P550e Autobiography: first report

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Is our Range Rover Sport PHEV talented enough to make it a convincing alternative to an EV?

• Mileage: 1,802 miles
• Efficiency: 42.3mpg

I’ve graciously put my hand up and volunteered to take the key to the Range Rover Sport as a science experiment. As well as the obvious investigation into what it’s like to live with, I’m curious to explore the state of plug-in hybrid technology. Are PHEVs a halfway house to ease people into electric cars, or are they a compromise that leaves you struggling for the efficiency benefits a fully electric powertrain brings? 

Used - available now

2017 Land Rover

Range Rover Sport

82,000 milesAutomaticDiesel3.0L

Cash £25,000

View Range Rover Sport

2017 Land Rover

Range Rover Sport

115,090 milesAutomaticDiesel3.0L

Cash £14,995

View Range Rover Sport

2017 Land Rover

Range Rover Sport

84,648 milesAutomaticDiesel3.0L

Cash £15,800

View Range Rover Sport

2015 Land Rover

Range Rover Sport

107,350 milesAutomaticDiesel3.0L

Cash £12,790

View Range Rover Sport

I’ve run such cars in the past, but have been living day-to-day with various electric vehicles for the past few years. In the meantime PHEVs have gained bigger and better batteries, and the 20-ish-mile real-world range of pioneering plug-in hybrids such as the BMW 330e and Mitsubishi Outlander, is now up to a much more useful 50-plus miles. My car usage combines a sprinkling of longer work-related runs that would previously have required a public charge in an EV, alongside weekend jaunts to my son’s under-11s football matches, visiting family and friends and other assorted trips.

What I’m interested in is whether avoiding the time and cost of using public chargers on longer runs will be of more benefit than the occasions I go beyond the 32kWh battery’s range and have to use the engine?

The 3.0-litre turbo petrol engine is good, producing 542bhp and giving the 2.7-tonne luxury SUV a sub-five-second 0-62mph time. We let Land Rover choose the spec, because I couldn’t have justified almost £20,000 of options. The big one is the Velocity Blue gloss paint, at a shade under £8,000. Land Rover does also offers half a dozen metallic colours (at £895 each), or the base Fuji White cost-free option, while there are nine satin-finish alternatives, each priced at £9,995. 

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There are some of the 14 options I’m more pleased with than others. The gloss black 23-inch wheels don’t look oversized on the Sport, and don’t harm the ride. The £1,100 cost over the standard 22-inch alloys is reasonable, and although I’m hoping the £1,060 for a full-size spare is an unnecessary expense, it’s comforting to know it’s there.

The kids were equally delighted to see the rear-seat infotainment system (a pricey £3,700) and to discover in seconds that the Sport comes with in-car WiFi (£440). Both will get a work-out on an Easter family road trip. 

Early driving impressions are that the Range Rover Sport is going to be an adept long-distance cruiser, and it’s only taken a couple of journeys to find my way around the initially frustrating Pivi Pro infotainment system – controlled via a 13.1-inch central display. There’s a handy button on the steering wheel to switch between three levels of driver assistance, while I’ve set the adjacent favourites button to instantly activate the driver’s heated seat at the start of a journey. 

Land Rover’s latest cabins are devoid of buttons, with absolutely everything running through the touchscreen, which I’m not a fan of in any car – a volume knob and dials for the temperature are still things I pine for. Having to dive into screens to switch between driving modes isn’t particularly efficient or safe to do while on the move, and another example of where a simple button would be better. 

But the big touchscreen does display one of the clearest camera views I’ve ever used. The perspective is sometimes a little off when it comes to people or other cars, but the top-down view is especially handy when making sure you’ve managed to nestle what is a very big car within the white lines of a parking bay. 

We’re only just starting out on life with the Range Rover Sport PHEV, but the first couple of charges each returned just shy of 50 miles of electric-only running, which in cold weather was close enough to the official figure of 70 miles to provide optimism when warmer weather comes along. More miles will provide more clarity on range, which means I can start on the maths and see how it stacks up overall.

*Insurance quote from AA (0800 107 0680) for a 42-year-old in Banbury, Oxon, with three points.