Jaguar Land-Rover has announced the new 2017 Range Rover Sport which will be making its Australian arrival somewhere within the first quarter of next year with a starting price $90,900.
A first for the luxury SUV, the new base model (dubbed SD4 HSE) is equipped with JLR’s new 2.0-litre Ingenium diesel engine while a new infotainment system and some semi-autonomous driving features will benefit the whole range of new Range Rover variants.
Despite being a smaller engine than what we’re used to seeing in the British luxury SUV, the new Ingenium four-pot turbodiesel delivers enough oomph (179kW/500Nm) to propel entry Range Rover to 100km/h from rest in just 100km/h. Apart from the rear badge, units with this engine will receive a single twin exhaust instead of the separated pipes given to those with larger engines.
For petrol power, a supercharged all-aluminium V6 petrol engine powers the mid-pack versions of the SUV and is a first time we’ve seen this engine in a Range Rover, pumping out roughly 250kW and 450Nm before the higher-ranking tiers where the 5.0-litre supercharged V8 lump takes over propulsion duties. As we’ve covered before, a the most powerful version generates 410kW.
There is also the tried and true 3.0-litre V6 turbodiesel engine that goes as high as 264kW if augmented by a hybrid system and a 4.4-litre diesel V8 returns too to top off the options for diesel engines.
Of course, the 2017 Range Rover gains the latest in infotainment from JLR, now featuring a 10-inch central touchscreen with the InControl Touch Pro interface, giving the drive a more modern and streamlined user experience while intelligent software is able to interact with a companion smartphone app to control vehicle parameters and offer up real-time journey recommendations.
A new feature called Low Traction Launch is debuting in the 2017 Range Rover, which JLR is categorising as semi-autonomous, which intelligently manages torque levels sent to all-wheel drive system based on variables such as available grip and the vehicle’s laden weight and distribution.
There are also a towing assist feature, autonomous emergency braking as standard, and an intelligent speed limiter which uses their newly-developed traffic sign recognition capability, alerting the driver to the limit or automatically adjusting the cruise control settings to match.
For more on Range Rover vehicles, including pricing and specifications, check out our Showroom.
