LoginThe Electric Range Rover Is Getting A Little Brother
- Land Rover is testing its new compact EV at the Nurburgring.
- The Range Rover Velar is built around JLR’s new EMA platform.
- It debuts in spring 2026, months after the big Range Rover EV.
JLR was stung by its experience selling the unreliable Jaguar i-Pace and is determined to get its next EVs right. And there are plenty of them on the way – the brand has promised to launch six electric models by 2026. The first of those is the full-size Range Rover EV, which goes on sale later this year, but the electric Velar won’t be far behind.
Expected to make its debut in spring 2026 as a MY27 SUV, the Velar is currently hot-lapping Germany’s 12.9-mile (20.8-km) Nurburgring track in prototype form, having last been scooped by our spy photo team in snowy Arctic conditions back in February.
Related: 2027 Range Rover Velar EV Is Coming For The Macan Electric
Although no one at Land Rover really expects buyers to hit the Ring, these testing sessions are crucial to finding out how the chassis and brakes handle the heft of a battery pack that’s got to be around 100 kWh (like the Macan) in capacity, and thus, not exactly featherweight, and whether the electric setup can survive extreme use.
Disguise on the rear end still has us wondering whether Land Rover will junk the Velar’s rear window, but we can at least make out the slim LED lights front and rear, narrow window aperture in the side view and a set of wide fender lips. The doors also appear to have switched to a frameless glass design to enhance the coupe feel.
The profile isn’t hugely different to the current combustion Velar’s but the EV is all-new under the skin, where you’ll find the company’s new EMA architecture. Not even the $150,000+ Range Rover EV gets this advanced platform, which allows over-air updates and could allow charging speeds higher than the 270 kW its rival from Stuttgart can swallow.
Other electric Land Rovers destined to use the EMA building blocks include the next Evoque and a baby Defender that is likely to replace today’s Discovery Sport. JLR said in 2023 that EMA would be electric-only, but we wouldn’t be surprised if that policy has changed given the slowdown in EV takeup in some key countries, including the US. In any case, even if it has switched plans to include hybrid tech, it hasn’t announced anything just yet.
