The big test hybrid SUVs

Want a luxury sporting SUV with plug-in capability to limit the guilt? Not ready for full electric? Time for a heavyweight contest

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A luxury SUV you can charge up at home and use to trundle about silently is not a new thing. Porsche's first plug-in Cayenne arrived back in 2015, a Range Rover Sport fed by cable as well as pump was only two years later.

Others are available from Audi, Mercedes, Volvo, BMW, Bentl... you get the picture. Hybrids are now the biggest sellers in the range. They're low tax and - if used properly - cheap on petrol.

These two also pitch a curveball: they're sporty. Porsche genuinely believes buyers want the Cayenne to handle like a sports car. Range Rover believes different; that the appearance of sportiness is what they actually want, so what matters is attitude. The Sport is the Range Rover that hints the shotguns in the back are sawn-off.

Or it did. The edges, as we shall see, have been somewhat chamfered. And not just the visible ones. This all-new version is based on the same underpinnings as the new Range Rover. Same chassis, same running gear for this P440e that teams a 3.0 straight-six with an electric motor that draws power from a 31.8kWh usable battery.

The claim is 70 miles of EV range. The Porsche's 14.3kWh battery promises just 25 miles.

Porsche is waiting for its next big technological leap. Mercedes has brilliantly integrated hybrids with great range, and so now does Range Rover. The Cayenne must wait its turn while Porsche is busy with the Taycan, plus the electric Macan and Cayman.

Make your own mind up, but for us the Sport isn't as successful a piece of design as the Range Rover. It's anonymous and the fake vents jar. Both have what LR calls 'reductive' design treatment. It's a good line and accurately describes the clean, modernist appearance. But it doesn't reflect what's going on underneath.