A Week With: 2025 Land Rover Range Rover Sport Hybrid Autobiography

With its formal look, elevated driving position and luxurious accoutrements, one might be tempted to think the 2025 Land Rover Range Rover Sport Hybrid Autobiography is just another hifalutin luxury SUV.

While the gracefully styled Range Rover does indeed possess those qualities, this Rover is far more than just than the sum of its visual traits.

Now in its second decade, the 2006 Land Rover Range Rover Sport brought forth a new paradigm for the highly regarded marque when it was introduced in June 2005. High performance and agility on pavement became line items in Range Rover’s portfolio of attributes for the first time.

What’s more, the Range Rover Sport manifested these newfound capabilities without sacrificing the comfort, smoothness and offroad prowess so closely associated with the Range Rover nameplate. This was groundbreaking stuff for the renowned marque. Twenty years later, the Range Rover Sport formula remains undiluted, as the model continues to ably fly the high-performance banner for the legendary brand – even with a plug-in hybrid powertrain.

Powertrains and Fuel Economy

The 2025 Land Rover Range Rover Sport Hybrid Autobiography with which I spent a mid-October week was powered by the P550e twin-turbocharged version of the marque’s 3.0-liter inline 6.

Supplemented by an electric motor, the powertrain gleefully served up 542 horsepower and 590 lb-ft of torque. All four wheels were driven by an 8-speed automatic transmission through a twin-speed transfer case.

According to the good folks at the EPA, one can expect a combined city/highway fuel economy figure of 21 mpg. Moreover, they say the Range Rover Sport Hybrid can accomplish some 53 miles of travel on the electric motor alone. Both figures were ably borne out over the course of my week with the Rover.

Interior Accommodations

As plush as it is capable, the Land Rover Range Rover Sport Hybrid Autobiography offers one of the finest interior treatments extant. In true British style, sumptuous leathers and woods graced the cabin.

Remarkably, while that description might conjure images of an overwrought, “gentleman’s smoking lounge” the reality is quite the opposite. The look was tastefully minimalist, actually bordering on austere. The interior treatment’s streamlined architecture – embellished with fine materials choices — masterfully telegraphed the Rover’s palatial nature while simultaneously evoking an air of restrained sophistication.

A ‘floating” 13.1-inch infotainment display was the focal point of my Rover’s center console. Aside from that, the Range Rover’s center stack was button free. Tastefully elegant, the minimalist look was a welcomed sight.

Comfort, Convenience & Safety Tech

With seatbelts for five, the Ranger Rover Sport offers its most comfortable passenger experience when accommodating four. Leg, shoulder and of course, head room were more than adequate at all of the primary seating positions. On the comfort front, the only complaint registered over my week with the Hybrid Rover fell under the category of ingress.

The lovely, gracious and ever so appreciative Mrs. Me, standing at 5’4”,  found clambering up into the Rover — even with the air suspension system’s lowest “access” setting activated — a bit challenging. To accommodate her, I picked up a collapsible step stool (in black and gray to match the Rover) at Home Goods for $5.99. This solved that problem in an elegant fashion. Plus, it looked really cute (according to a couple passersby) when I opened the door and placed the step stool for her to get in.

On the tech side, the touchscreen monitor provided an interface for all of the Rover’s comfort and convenience features, as well as its off-road terrain controls. Many of those features could also be activated by voice. Wireless CarPlay and Android compatibility were standard, as well as Amazon’s Alexa digital assistant.

Additional standard features included a nav system, wireless smartphone charging and SiriusXM satellite radio. The Range Rover Sport Hybrid Autobiography also had the Meridian 3D Surround Sound System with noise canceling.

Driving Impressions

However, if a noise cancelling audio system could ever have been said to be a superfluous feature, it’s when one is installed in the 2025 Land Rover Range Rover Hybrid Autobiography. Granted, the sound quality was absolutely captivating, but the Rover was practically sound studio quiet in operation, especially when it was running on the electric motor alone. Along with that quiet came preternatural smoothness.

This, in turn, was enhanced by the mesmerizing fluidity the Rover’s steering, braking and throttle responses exhibited. Idyllically ensconced within its rarefied environs, day-to-day excursions in the Ranger Rover Sport were like being transported in a bubble of serenity.

As an example, the freeway I must travel whenever departing my northern California home is cursed with an overpass that sank a bit over the years after the roadway was completed. I habitually slow down and change lanes when approaching it in my Boxster because the car felt like it had been hit with an RPG when – previously unaware of the irregularity — I went over it at speed. Had I been driving the Land Rover Ranger Rover Sport Hybrid that day, I would still be unaware of its existence. That’s how good it was at insulating me from the vagaries of the road.

On the other hand, giving the 6,200-lb SUV full throttle from a standing start, I saw it spring to 60 from rest in just under five seconds. I also saw it hit 100 mph from a dead stop in just over 12 seconds. The plug-in Hybrid Range Rover Sport is wicked fast — for its size. Meanwhile, it attacked the road like a well-sorted sport sedan when I found myself alone on a stretch of serpentine asphalt.

Through it all, the Rover’s demeanor was like, “Hey brother, it ain’t no thang …” regardless of the circumstances within which it was operated. And, while I didn’t take this particular example over any challenging offroad terrain, I have done so in enough of its siblings to know the Range Rover Sport will go anywhere its full-sized relations will go and bring you home again. Even with the speed and agility with which the Rover is blessed, it remains 100% a Range Rover.

In Summary

Now, with all of that said, the 2025 Land Rover Range Rover Hybrid Autobiography does have a rather significant Achilles heel. Cross shopping against its rivals from BMW, Lexus and Volvo reveals the Rover to be at a sharp price disadvantage. The corresponding models from those brands start in the low to mid $70,000 range, while a Range Rover store will expect you to be comfortable in the high $90,000 range.

In fact, when all was said and done, the price as tested for the 2025 Land Rover Range Rover Hybrid Autobiography I sampled was almost as long as its name at $129,680. Now, with that said, viewing a Lexus and a Volvo in the same light as a Range Rover — those two will come up short when it comes to cachet. The BMW is a closer match, but it lacks the offroad cred of the Land Rover, as do the Lexus and Volvo.

Now granted, the vast majority of people buying any one of these SUVs is likely to never see a dirt road, let alone a rugged two-track. But then again, a lot of people buy cars for what they think they’ll do, even if they never have any intention of asking them to do it. So where does that leave the Range Rover Sport? If sheer prestige, accompanied by speed, handling and a palatial interior treatment are what you’re after, you can do far worse than the 2025 Land Rover Range Rover Hybrid Autobiography.

(Now, if only they would shorten the freaking name…)