Ti Drives: 2026 Range Rover Electric

That great automotive engineer Richard Parry-Jones helped popularise the 50-metre test. That is, you can sense whether a car is good or not within your first 50 metres, rather than needing to explore its limits on a test track.

As my professional hero when I was studying mechanical engineering at Birmingham in the late ’90s, I’ve long taken what he said as gospel. And I was thinking of the late legend before I’d even reached the gates of the Scottish castle where the launch of the Range Rover Electric was taking place.

As the soft-close doors whirred shut, there was silence. And unlike a conventional petrol or diesel powered Range Rover, nothing disturbed this after I thumbed the start button, selected Drive and pulled away. No noise, vibration or harshness (another term first popularised by RPJ). It was like I’d plugged in noise cancelling headphones. And the waft, oh the waft! Even across the grizzled driveway of an old castle, it was like a flying carpet, pliant and serene.

Less than 50 metres later, I knew I was in for a good day. The great man would have been impressed.