Video: 2025 Range Rover Sport Autobiography PHEV Review

Let's check out some of the reasons this is such an excellent luxury vehicle, and, 'cause nobody's perfect, some of the things that could be improved upon. (gentle upbeat music) The 2025 Range Rover Sport Autobiography starts at just over $120,000 for the Plug-In Hybrid version, about $4,700 more for the Twin Turbo Gas V-8 version. But this, as tested, comes to $128,865, and it's worth nearly every penny of that. The luxury experience inside the Range Rover Sport Autobiography starts with these incredibly high-quality materials. Everything feels great, everything looks great. The front seats are incredibly comfortable, highly adjustable. You have heat, ventilation, and massage functions. A lot of these amenities carry over to the backseat as well, which has a power reclining feature. You have heated outboard seats, your own climate controls, tons of room as well. And on top of that, the luxury experience is about peace and serenity. And this is one of the quietest interiors I have been in. Part of that has to do with the optional laminated glass on the side windows that this vehicle is equipped with. It's only a $450 option and it is worth it. That quietness and smoothness carries over to the powertrain as well. This is a Plug-In Hybrid, which gives you the advantage of all-electric driving, the quietest form of driving, but you do have just really incredible power figures, too. You have 543 horsepower, 590 pounds-feet of torque, a zero to 60 time in what Land Rover says is 4.7 seconds. None of that matters for the luxury experience. This is about how smooth, and quiet, and refined the powertrain is. You can't tell when it switches from electric to gas power, unless you're looking at the tachometer and see the revs creep up. It is that smooth of a transition, which is not something we can say about every Plug-In Hybrid we've driven. On top of that, the all-electric mode is, as I said, very, very quiet, very smooth, enough to hustle this vehicle around on all-electric power alone. For an EPA estimated 53 miles, I've gotten in and seen more estimated range. It does go down pretty quickly if you drive at highway speeds, but that is available to you. But again, all-electric driving is so smooth, so quiet, so powerful that it can hustle this three-ton SUV from a stop all the way up to highway speeds, and keep you going. And that's just another part of the equation because this also has one of the most comfortable rides I've had in a vehicle in a long, long time. The Autobiography comes standard with an adaptive air suspension that keeps things smooth, regardless of road surface. When I picked up this car from one of my colleagues, he compared it to a Maybach, and I think that's pretty fair. It's just so comfortable, regardless of road surface, except for one issue, and that's impact harshness, and that's one of the things we can improve upon and it's actually very easy to do. So let's get into some of the weaknesses that the Ranger Rover Sport Autobiography has. So, how do we fix impact harshness on this particular Range Rover Sport Autobiography? Simply don't get 23-inch wheels. The Autobiography comes standard with 22-inch wheels. There are also three different sets of 23-inch wheels you can choose from, including these, which have a very cool bunch of carbon fiber inserts. You don't need them. This isn't a sports car, this isn't a performance car despite the high horsepower and torque figures. I want comfort and cushioning. So get the 21-inch wheels that are also optional. These, plus the full size spare in the back, will run you over $4,000 in options, and you can save most of that money and still have a full-size spare in the back with the 21-inch wheels. So go for that and you'll probably have a more comfortable route. Much harder to fix is this whole area. So, it starts with a 13.1 inch touchscreen display, and this model was redesigned for the 2023 model year. When the screen also came out in the redesigned Range Rover, I was pretty okay with it. It's a lot better than what used to be available, but at this point, it's 2025. Having everything within a screen is both the norm for a lot of manufacturers and very, very frustrating. There's just so much going on and there are helpful shortcuts and things like that. And a thing I really appreciate about this screen is that it does provide haptic feedback. So, when you want to select something, you have to long press, it gives you some feedback, that's good. You can't really accidentally press something and make it happen. So, if I'm just going like this, it'll scroll through the screen, but I'm not accessing all these apps right now. Great, but let's connect to CarPlay. And now, this is just a regular touchscreen, so boom, no more long press, no more feedback. I'm not saying this is a Range Rover issue necessarily, I'm sure Apple has a lot to do with this, but I would prefer some consistency. Very frustrating. On top of that, this is just a fingerprint magnet. And storage within the cabin is just very, very weird and inconvenient. There's a little down here under the cup holders for some reason. So, you can access this, there's a USB port here, but if you have a drink, you gotta pull it out and then do this. That's just frustrating. And then rather than more storage down here, you have this little cooler, which, pardon the pun, is cool, but isn't really that convenient. And on top of that, this isn't really that much of a luxury feature at this point. You can get something like this in a Toyota Sienna. So, I would really like to see some more high-quality buttons. Range Rover is great at materials quality. Give me some good switchgear for things like the climate and audio controls. Get rid of this piano black for something a little bit more upscale, maybe some wood, I don't know. But if we can just do something about here, this would be probably a flawless luxury experience as is not 100% perfect. Lastly, and this isn't really a knock on the Range Rover Sport's luxury credentials, but Sports in the name, and this just doesn't feel like a sporty driving SUV. If you want something like that, even in a Plug-In Hybrid, go for something like the Porsche Cayenne. It's fine that this isn't sporty, but if that's what you're looking for, this isn't gonna do the job for you. The 2025 Ranger Rover Sport Autobiography Plug-In Hybrid is a fantastic luxury vehicle. It's comfy, quiet, powerful, and expensive, but it's worth it. If it's your aspiration to own one, I wish you the best of luck. You won't be disappointed. For my full review, head to cars.com/news.