The big question that follows every mention of driving a new Range Rover is, “Would you buy one?” The answer is, “Hell yeah!” (if spending $98,000 on a new car was in the cards pour moi…which it is not). But I have to tell you, for the folks who have those cards, this is an SUV worth your time.
Range Rover Reductiveness
For starters, just look at the thing. It radiates fanciness. Everyone I talked to who laid eyes on it was left impressed with its style. That reaction where eyebrows are raised, lips are pushed out, bodies are leaned back, and heads start nodding slowly. All acknowledging the same thing - the 2026 Range Rover Sport is a looker. Turns out, there’s more to that expensive vibe than mere Land Rover badges.
The British automaker refers to it as “reductive” and “monolithic”, the latter of which resonates more easily with me as it does indeed seem carved from a single block of metal. To make it happen, the Rover Sport rocks a clamshell-style hood that wraps over the front fenders, versus the typical seams that run across the hood in mainstream vehicles. Slim lighting elements get into the reductive end of things, which is punctuated by deployable flush door handles and hidden waist rail finishers. Very sleek. Tight overhangs and fat 22” rims bring a muscular pose, and a large roofline spoiler stretches out the lines. I like.
A Hybrid Hot Rod
Something else I like is the hot rod hybrid performance of this Range Rover. You can get it with a 3.0L straight-6 or 4.4L V8, both strapped with turbos, but the variant I drove added a plug-in hybrid system to the boosted six. With 454 horsepower and 487 lb-ft of torque on tap, this 6,000-plus pounder was absolutely riotous when pushed. It was a bit herky-jerky at low speed tip-in, when the all-electric mode transitioned to hybrid propulsion, and the big Brembo brakes had me struggling to stop smoothly, but man, when power is required, the PHEV does not disappoint.
And fear not, fearers of vehicles with a plug! As with any PHEV, you can drive the Range Rover Sport PHEV without ever plugging it in. But I would. Because if you do, some 50 miles of battery-powered range are on tap. For our household, that would translate to far fewer gas station stops, as at least 80% of our driving is around-town kid-related activity. Granted, it’ll take 30 hours to get a full charge using a regular household outlet, making the installation of a Level 2 station worthwhile. But I saw 26 mpg in mixed driving, so you’re looking at a relatively fuel-efficient luxury hauler either way.
What Sarah Says
My wife, Sarah, is the polar opposite of a car person. Look to this section for her unfiltered thoughts on the car of the day.
“These seats are amazing – so comfortable! I could literally sleep in them, and we should buy this car for the seats alone. This also has the least obnoxious lane keeping system so far!”
Luxury Is A Given
On the luxury front, it turns out that Land Rover’s Windsor leather not only sounds fancier than my Ford Explorer’s leather, it actually is. Buttery soft and covering gloriously deep layers of cushioning, the Range Rover Sport has thrones, not seats. Thrones with heating, cooling, and power reclining - in the back, and of course, the front. Surfaces are slathered in soft-touch stuff, no hard plastics here, thank you very much.
Neat touches include the heated windshield, an absolute game-changer on frosty New England mornings, and old-school twist-adjustable front armrests that Land Rover has been installing for decades. I did find the driving position a bit awkward with the digital instrument panel canted up and a steering wheel that I wished would go lower. I know, the struggle is real when dealing with a power-adjustable steering column sprouting a heated wheel, but hey, it can’t all be perfect.
Missing Those Buttons
If I’m going to whine, I’d like to also kindly request that Land Rover add at least a couple of physical controls to the 2026 Range Rover Sport cabin. As it stands, everything requires poking and swiping the Pivi Pro touchscreen. Large, at 13”, and quick to respond, this approach is nonetheless distracting and, for my feeble mind, tricky to master.
Range Rover’s Off-Road Wizardry
Something that gets no complaint is the epic level of off-road-oriented chassis technology packed into this Rover. Sporting a fully adjustable air suspension, you can ratchet it up to 10.7” of clearance for looking cool - and driving off-road - or drop it down to 8.2” for highway cruising. Four-wheel drive is, of course, standard, and the Terrain Response 2 system takes the hard work out of determining which settings are best suited to the conditions at hand.
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Stick your head under the side mirrors and you’ll see an array of 4 sensors, including one that measures the depth of water you chose to wade through in real time. Land Rover says the Sport can handle just about 36” of wading. Though I desperately searched for an opportunity to put this to the test, I couldn’t make it happen. I was, however, impressed with the clarity of the cameras used to stitch together a virtual view of what’s under the front of the vehicle - which would come in handy on the trail - and the many bits of off-road-relevant information available on the central screen.
You can see the current status of the driveline, suspension movement at each corner, vehicle pitch and roll, altitude, and your current compass heading. Whether or not the folks buying these Land Rovers ever put their six-figure SUVs in a position where such information would be critical is open to debate. But it remains pretty neat that the automaker takes the time to make it happen.
Is This Hybridized 2026 Range Rover Sport Worth A Look?
The current menu of variants in Land Rover’s top SUV series is deep, ranging from the mega-buck Range Rover to the $50,000 Evoque. This Sport version sits in the second position and has a lot to like. The Land Rover badge is nice, but it’s the knock-out good looks, burly powertrain, high-end touches, and usable electric driving range that left me most impressed.
About the author: Niel Stender is an automotive journalist. More of his work can be found at muckrack.com/niel-stender