RANGE ROVER SPORT

Is our Range Rover Sport PHEV talented enough to make it a convincing alternative to an EV?

- Paul Barker

I'VE graciously put my hand up and volunteered to take the key to the Range Rover Sport as a science experiment.

As well as the obvious investigation into what it's like to live with, I'm curious to explore the state of plug-in hybrid technology. Are PHEVs a halfway house to ease people into electric cars, or are they a compromise that leaves you struggling for the efficiency benefits a fully electric powertrain brings?

I've run such cars in the past, but have been living day-to-day with various electric vehicles for the past few years. In the meantime PHEVs have gained bigger and better batteries, and the 20-ish-mile real-world range of pioneering plug-in hybrids such as the BMW 330e and Mitsubishi Outlander, is now up to a much more useful 50-plus miles. My car usage combines a sprinkling of longer work-related runs that would previously have required a public charge in an EV, alongside weekend jaunts to my son's under-11s football matches, visiting family and friends and other assorted trips.

What I'm interested in is whether avoiding the time and cost of using public chargers on longer runs will be of more benefit than the occasions I go beyond the 32kWh battery's range and have to use the engine?

The 3.0-litre turbo petrol engine is good, producing 542bhp and giving the 2.7-tonne luxury SUV a sub-five-second 0-62mph time.