• Six drivetrains are available
• Two plug-in hybrids
• Excellent eight-speed auto

Petrol engines

The Range Rover Sport’s engine range is large, varied and excellent throughout. The designations provide useful information – the prefix letter represents the fuel, the three-digit number shows the horsepower rating, and the plug-in hybrids are suffixed with an ‘e’. All the engines are turbocharged and come with an eight-speed automatic gearbox and four-wheel-drive.

Petrol choices kick off with a straight-six mild hybrid unit, badged P400. It delivers smooth and punchy acceleration – the 0-62mph sprint takes 5.4 seconds – but you pay for it at the pumps with far heavier fuel consumption than the diesels. 

Next up is the P530. It’s powered by a BMW-sourced 4.4-litre V8 engine and is immensely fast – 0-62mph takes 4.4 seconds – especially impressive given the Range Rover Sport’s size and weight. We thought it a bit muted compared to the previous generation’s thunderous supercharged 5.0-litre V8 and it can be a bit jerky to drive around town, as if it’s not tuned properly to work with the gearbox.

But, if you’re after a high-performance SUV, you may as well go the whole hog and plump for the SV model. With 635hp, it dispatches the 0-62mph dash in 3.6 seconds and powers on all the way to 180mph. To mark it out from the P530, it has lowered suspension, huge 23-inch wheels and a more aggressive-looking bodykit. You’ll need a seriously focussed SUV like a Lamborghini Urus Performante or Aston Martin DBX 707 to go faster.

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Diesel engines

There are two diesels offered, badged D300 and D350. These are our pick of the range for the vast majority of drivers. They’re hugely powerful and muscular – heavy trailers barely cause a sweat to break – as well as incredibly smooth and refined. They even sound rather nice, though the noise is actually synthesised and piped through the stereo. Add in perfectly acceptable fuel economy for a car this size and either diesel is all the engine you really need. We’d argue they’re even better than the equivalent six-cylinder diesels found in the BMW X5 and Volkswagen Touareg, as well.

The D300 might be the entry-level Sport, but its 300hp still gets the car from 0-62mph in 6.3 seconds. And it rarely feels wanting in the cut and thrust of a motorway’s outside lane, thanks to its ample mid-range pulling power and responsive automatic gearbox. The D350 adds 50hp and cuts the 0-62mph sprint by more than half a second, but in practice it doesn’t feel that much more rapid or muscular.

Hybrid engines

There’s also a pair of interesting plug-in hybrids, badged P460e and P550e. They use a massive 38.2kWh battery pack, giving them over 70 miles of range in official WLTP testing. Our testing in the older P440e and P510e models (same engine/battery set-up, less power) pegged range at more like 50 miles in the real world, still enough to suit most needs.

The motors are paired with an inline-six petrol petrol engine which provides much better performance than the previous four-cylinder unit Land Rover used in its PHEVs, accompanied by a smooth and refined soundtrack that really suits the car.

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What’s it like to drive?

• Refined, soothing and comfortable
• Excellent body control
• Impressive cornering ability

The full-sized Range Rover is incredibly comfortable but the price you pay is that it leans over in corners like a ship in a storm. The Range Rover Sport offers a good 90% of that ride comfort, yet it corners incredibly flat, seemingly defying physics with the speed it can carry through a corner. We found the ride can feel a little bit busy on 22- and 23-inch wheels on certain surfaces. But, if ride quality is paramount, you can spec your Sport with 20-inch wheels.

There is one caveat – we’ve only driven range-topping cars so far. Certain features that aid cornering, including clever active anti-roll bars and rear-wheel steering, are standard only on the range-topping P510e, P530 and SV models. On lesser models, you need to spec the £5,330 ‘Stormer’ handling pack – we’ll report back when we’ve tried cars without the tech.

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The Sport’s steering is precise and feels quick, aided by the rear wheel steering. It resists roll for such a big car and grips well, but it never feels as agile or playful as a Porsche Cayenne, even in P530 guise. If that’s a dealbreaker for you, Land Rover can offer you the more driver-focussed Range Rover Velar, or you can go for the Sport SV.

But it’s not all about handling. Where the Sport really shines is on the motorway, effortlessly covering huge distances in impressively quiet comfort. It’s a fabulous car to drive across a Continent in, as one of our testers can attest after a road trip to the south of France.

We should also mention how the Range Rover Sport handles off-road. This is one of the finest off-roaders money can buy, with capability far beyond what most drivers will ever dream of using. The Land Rover Defender is more capable still, but even the most demanding driver will struggle to get the Range Rover Sport stuck anywhere outside of a serious off-road course.