Range Rover Sport SV (2024-) Review

Introduction

As a technical achievement, the Range Rover Sport is pretty spectacular. Capable of being everything from an overgrown hot hatchback to a high-riding luxury limousine while still possessing spectacular off-road capability, it’s all things to all people. But Land Rover clearly decided its star performer needed another string to its bow, so it set its Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) department to work, tasking it with building a replacement for the fire-breathing old Range Rover Sport SVR.

The result is the new Range Rover Sport SV, and it’s billed as the finest example of the breed, combining all its talents into one product. Bandwidth is the word used most often by Land Rover’s engineers when they talk about this car, which is supposed to retain all the Range Rover Sport’s talents while adding more race track performance. It may be an answer to a question nobody was asking, but if Land Rover gets it right, this could be a spectacular technical tour de force. So has the British brand pulled it off

At a Glance

Externally, the Range Rover Sport SV doesn’t really look all that different from the standard Range Rover Sport. 

Sure, there are some new gills, vents and exhausts, and it looks a fraction more muscular, but it’s recognisably the same car as the entry-level diesel. It just has a bit more meat on the bone.

It’s the same story inside, where the overall design is similar, save for the sportier seats and the carbon-fibre trim. A few SV badges give the game away, but overall it feels like the luxury SUV the Range Rover has always been, complete with a massive central touchscreen and lots of smart, upmarket materials. Even the fabric upholstery options are tactile and beautifully made.

But where the SV differs from other Range Rover Sport models is under the skin. There’s a 4.4-litre V8 engine from BMW under the bonnet, and Land Rover has tuned it to produce 635hp, which gives the SV unhinged performance figures. It doesn’t always feel as fast as the numbers suggest, but the pace is there alright.

More impressive, though, is the ride and handling. The clever suspension keeps the massive SUV almost completely level in corners, yet also allows for ample comfort on long drives and permits impressive off-road capability, although you do have to remove part of the front bumper to avoid scraping the car’s nose. Nevertheless, the breadth of capability is incredible, even from a Range Rover Sport.

Key Features

Obviously, great emphasis will be placed on the SV’s engine and performance, but the real draw of this car is not its straight-line speed. Instead, it’s the impressive breadth of capability provided by the 6D air suspension system, which does a brilliant job of keeping the SV level in any situation. Whether you stamp on the brakes or the accelerator, or throw the car into a corner, the SV stays completely flat and level.

Normally, such talents come with stiff and unforgiving ride quality, but that isn’t so in the SV. Yes, the big alloys mean there are a few jolts in town, but at any kind of speed the SV cushions the bumps beautifully. And it’s still an incredible off-road vehicle, with the ability to traverse all kinds of terrain with ease.

But of course, the straight-line speed is also incredible. Though the engine may not quite have the blood and thunder we were hoping for, the performance figures are hugely impressive. Getting from 0-62mph takes less than four seconds, and at full chat the SV will do 180mph. Maybe the size, comfort and refinement means it doesn’t feel that fast, but the numbers flickering away on the dashboard match up to the figures, as does the blurriness of the landscape through the side windows.

Performance & Drive

Unlike the old SVR, which was fitted with Land Rover’s cacophonous 5.0-litre supercharged V8, the new SV gets a completely new engine derived from a BMW unit. It’s the same 4.4-litre, twin-turbocharged engine you’ll find in the M5 Competition and the X5 M Competition, but it has been breathed on by Land Rover’s Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) department to give it a massive 635hp.

That goes to all four wheels via an eight-speed automatic gearbox, permitting the massive Range Rover Sport to get from 0-62mph in less than four seconds. Two tenths less, in fact. And the car gets on to a top speed of 180mph.

That’s quite impressive pace for such a big car – even with the lightest options on board, the SV weighs around 2.5 tonnes – but it somehow doesn’t feel that rapid. That’s partly because the car is so big and comfortable, but it’s also because it’s so refined. That V8 engine makes a healthy burble when you push it, but it never feels as raucous as it might. For some, that’ll be a positive, while others might prefer something a little more vicious in its soundtrack.

Either way, there’s no arguing about the way the SV drives. Although it’s a big and heavy car, it comes with what Land Rover calls 6D air suspension that’s designed to keep the car flat and level in corners and under braking, while also allowing enough movement for comfort and to allow axle articulation over rough surfaces.

The thing is, the SV doesn’t just promise all that; it delivers. The suspension is absolutely majestic on the motorway, where the SV almost glides along, and you only really notice the road surface beneath you when you slow to urban speeds. There, the massive wheels and low-profile tyres mean a few bumps make their way to your backside, but even then the SV is impressively subdued and refined. It’s unquestionably a proper luxury SUV.

Yet despite that, it handles like a heavy hot hatchback. Admittedly, the standard Range Rover Sport was already approaching those levels anyway, but the SV ramps it up a notch. There’s no real hiding the considerable bulk, but Land Rover has managed it beautifully, and in its sportiest setting the SV barely leans at all in corners. It just stays almost completely flat, and with ample grip and precise steering, it’s surprisingly enjoyable to drive fast. It isn’t quite a sports car, but it’s getting there, and it’s certainly much more engaging than you might expect.

And even in those sporty modes, the car remains supple on the road, which means you don’t have to choose between handling and comfort like you would in a Lamborghini Urus. As with the Aston Martin DBX707, you can get both from the SV. What an Aston won’t give you, however, is the same off-road capability as the Range Rover. Don’t get us wrong, the DBX isn’t bad considering how brilliant it is on the road, but the SV wipes the floor with it on the rough stuff.

While it’s true the handbook tells you to remove the delicate front splitter before doing any serious off-roading – that gives you much better ground clearance – and that requires the wielding of a screwdriver, the SV is unstoppable once you’ve done it. It gets all the same features as the standard Range Rover Sport, plus the clever 6D suspension, and that means it just takes everything in its stride. And with the immense grunt of that big old engine, there are few cars better over rough terrain.

Running Costs & Emissions

If you’re looking for a cheap-to-run Range Rover Sport, the SV might not be the version for you. That 4.4-litre V8 guzzles fuel like it’s going out of fashion, and an official economy figure of 23.6mpg will be pie in the sky for those who want to use the car’s performance regularly. Realistically, you’re probably talking about 20mpg or so, and that isn’t going to make anyone except the petrochemical companies rich.

Still, if you’ve got a fuel card, things might not be so bad, right? Wrong. With CO2 emissions of 271g/km, the SV falls easily into the top rate of Benefit-in-Kind tax for company car drivers, and with a list price that starts at more than £170,000, you’ll be paying through the nose to run one of these.

Interior & Technology

As with the SV’s exterior design, the cabin might feel a bit subtle to some customers, but there are signs of the sporting intent. For a kick off, there are the SV logos such as the one in the steering wheel that’s actually the SV mode button, and there are the carbon-fibre inserts in the dash. There are sportier seats, too, and you get some model-specific badging on the infotainment system and digital instrument display.

Speaking of which, you get both as standard in the SV, and they use Land Rover’s latest technology. That means they’re more or less the same as those you find in the standard Range Rover Sport, and they work pretty well. The instrument display is particularly good, with its clear if slightly unimaginative displays, which put all the information you need exactly where you need it. Sometimes, you don’t need to reinvent the dial. Or something.

The head-up display is a triumph, too, although the touchscreen is a little less successful, but only a little. The massive display is beautifully bright and clear, which makes it look really fresh and modern, but some of the icons are a little unclear and that makes it a bit fiddly at times. Once you’re used to it, though, it should prove fairly easy to use and navigate, while it works brilliantly with the Apple CarPlay technology.

We do, however, have one or two very small concerns when it comes to quality in there. By and large, the materials on show are fantastic, with some really soft leather and a clean, minimalist design. But the buttons on the steering wheel feel a bit low-rent compared with those on a Porsche Cayenne, and the gear lever feels absurdly cheap, which spoils the overall impression of high-class quality slightly. Perhaps they’re minor foibles, and the SV feels pretty solid overall, but they feel like irritating oversights that could (and should) have been remedied without too much trouble.

Practicality & Boot Space

Because the Range Rover Sport SV is, when all’s said and done, merely a Range Rover Sport, it has exactly the same practicality credentials as any other model in the line-up. Well, almost. The interior space is just as plentiful as it is in the lowlier models, with ample space for four adults and even enough for a fifth at a pinch. Well, on a short journey, anyway. There’s no option of seven seats, but in a car like this, that third row would be cramped anyway, so it’s no great loss. And at 647 litres, the boot is a match for the rest of the Range Rover Sport range, while there’s two glove boxes to choose from up front, ensuring stowage space is more than adequate.

But while the headline figures may be the same, there are some other aspects to consider. Chief among these is the slight inconvenience of off-roading, which requires the driver to remove part of the front bumper to allow enough ground clearance. Apparently, it’s a job that requires six screws to be taken out, and we can’t imagine it being much fun in the pouring rain. By the same token, the big wheels will be a liability on rough surfaces, and the carbon ones particularly may see drivers living in fear of kerbs.

Safety

The SV model inherits the same five-star Euro NCAP crash test score seen in other models, achieved with strong scores across the board. With more than 80% for adult occupant protection and child occupant protection, as well as safety assistance tech, the car attained the top rating with relative ease.

And all that safety assistance technology is there to help make sure drivers don’t have to find out how safe the SV is. Autonomous emergency braking is there if the driver’s concentration lapses and the car needs to prevent an accident, while blind-spot monitoring is there to warn drivers of vehicles in the hard-to-see areas over their shoulders. There’s a 3D surround camera to help prevent parking bumps, and there’s cruise control, as well as lane-keeping assistance technology.

Options

For the time being, the Range Rover Sport SV is only available in Edition One form, but the early examples of that are already sold. More models are in the pipeline, although Land Rover still hasn’t announced what they’ll be just yet.

However, we do know all SV models are likely to come with a huge amount of standard equipment, including the massive central touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity, as well as big alloy wheels, a reversing camera, and automatic climate control. Leather may not feature as standard, though, because Land Rover has developed a 3D-formed fabric alternative that’s designed to be more environmentally friendly. However, leather will almost certainly be offered as an option.

Also likely to feature is Land Rover’s new Body and Soul Seating (BASS, which is perhaps the worst backronym you’re likely to hear all day). By transmitting pulses of energy through the seat in time with the music that’s playing, it’s supposed to relax the body while also maintaining a level of alertness. When we tried it, it just made us nauseous.

Land Rover is also likely to offer carbon-ceramic brakes for track use, and carbon-fibre wheels, which will exist partly for aesthetic reasons and partly to keep the car’s ample weight down slightly. The 23-inch carbon wheels on the Edition One car also had the top trump of being the largest carbon wheels on any production car, so they’re likely to stay for gloating purposes at least.

Rival Cars

This high-performance version of the Range Rover Sport has some pretty big names in its sights, and that means more than just the go-faster versions of the Porsche Cayenne, the BMW X5 M Competition and the Maserati Levante Trofeo, although all of those cars are very worthy rivals.

No, the Land Rover is trying to mix it with the likes of Aston Martin, Ferrari and Lamborghini, with their DBX, Purosangue and Urus models respectively. While all three have their merits, the DBX (and particularly the DBX707) represents the biggest challenge for the SV, offering an unfathomable level of comfort as well as impressive performance and handling.

But while all the Range Rover Sport SV’s rivals are impressive cars in their own rights, the Land Rover has the off-road credentials that few others can match. Were it our money, though, the car we’d seriously consider as an alternative would be the Porsche Cayenne Turbo E-Hybrid, which doesn’t have the off-road ability of the Range Rover Sport, but uses hybrid power to offer better economy and more power, as well as comparable on-road performance.

Verdict & Next Steps

While the old Range Rover Sport SVR may have been more characterful than the new Range Rover Sport SV, that’s the only area in which the breed hasn’t been improved. From off-road capability to track performance and from loadspace to luxury, the new SV model is a remarkable achievement, and one that can very easily go up against the likes of the Aston Martin DBX and Lamborghini Urus. As do-anything cars go, it doesn’t get much better than this.

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**Score based on Select’s unique meta score analysis, taking into account the UK’s top leading independent car website reviews of the Range Rover Sport SV.

**Correct as of 09/05/2024. Based on 9 months initial payment, 5,000 miles annually, over a 48 month lease. Initial payment equivalent to 9 monthly payments, or £8,455.50 (Plus admin fee) Ts and Cs apply. Credit is subject to status.