It’s what you’d expect from a Land Rover
When I started up the 2025 Land Rover Range Rover Sport Autobiography PHEV, the first thing I noticed was the rich leather seats, the large, clear, and responsive touchscreen, and the fact that both the driver and the passenger had a dedicated armrest (even though there’s a large, deep, and very comfortable center console for your elbow). The rear seats were spacious, the windows were large, and there was tons of headroom. No wonder Range Rovers are used by the royal family. It’s ultra luxe, but quietly–it doesn’t have anything unnecessary, it’s styled just right to show others it’s not just any SUV, but it’s not ostentatious and bloated with expensive materials to drive up the price (looking at you, Rolls-Royce).
Kristen Brown
Instead, it’s packed to the brim with useful features, especially for off-road and on-road comfort or performance, elegantly styled, and has—quite literally—the most comfortable ride I’ve ever experienced. Seriously. The chopped up, patchy, half-alive roads and freeways of the San Francisco Bay Area were nothing for the Range Rover Sport PHEV, and when I started to feel myself getting a bit too relaxed, I could put ‘er in Dynamic Mode and experience the wonderful marriage of the hybridized, 542-horsepower inline six and the eight-speed transmission. It’s truly a master of both worlds–it can be fast if you want it to be, and a smooth criminal, too. For $129,680 MSRP, it seems almost too low. But can it work when you pack it full of sticky-handed, spill-happy, dirty shoe-wearing toddlers? Here’s how my week went.
My kids fell asleep every time they rode in it, and that’s not by accident
You’d never guess that the SUV weighs over 6,000 pounds, and that’s because of the impossibly smooth ride. It stands on 22-inch wheels, and my tester was fitted with Pirelli Scorpion all-season tires, which did an excellent job keeping he cabin free of road noise. But the real magic is in the suspension. It’s adaptive, with dampers that work tirelessly to keep the ride soft and quiet. I felt it in action–when I was on a particularly bumpy section of highway heading toward Hayward, California, it took seconds for the dampers and air suspension to catch on and smooth everything out.
Kristen Brown
The chassis, according to Land Rover, has been improved to be more rigid with loads of sound dampening–even in the windows–so wind noise doesn’t make its way into the cabin, too. Even with the sunroof shade open, you couldn’t hear anything unless you were using the Meridian premium sound system. Even if I was a bit heavy on the accelerator (which is impossible not to, by the way, consider yourself warned), the ride stayed smooth and quiet. In this car, it would be a legitimate excuse not to know how fast you were going, because everything is so quiet. You could be going triple digits and truly not know.
Kristen Brown
Because it was so polished and solid, no matter the road condition, my toddlers fell asleep in it every single time. Even if we were driving to the grocery store, my normally crazy kids were sound asleep within minutes of being strapped in. It was a blessing and a curse. When they were being grumpy and rowdy because they woke up too early, strapping them into the Range Rover was a quick and easy cure-all. However, if I didn’t want them to nap because it was late in the afternoon and I didn’t want them to fall asleep late, it became exceedingly difficult to keep them awake. I wish I had one of these to review when my 3-year-old was colicky. I would have had the most peaceful week of my life.
Everything is there to install car seats, but fixed headrests are a serious drawback
Installing the lower anchors was a breeze, and the higher ride height with large doors that open wide made getting their car seats into the car easy. The Kneel feature, which toggles the ride height to automatically lower when the car unlocks, made it even easier. The tall ceiling and plentiful legroom in the second row meant I didn’t have to contort myself to secure the seat, which I appreciated. What was difficult, though, was securing the top tether on the back of the seat. Ideally, I’d take the headrests off the rear seats so the top tether is more secure. When rear headrests are left in, the seat sometimes won’t sit flush against the back of the seat. Even though the Range Rover allows the driver to electronically fold the rear seats from the center screen, and you can even put it in chauffeur mode to scoot and fold the front passenger’s seat, the rear headrests, which are incredibly large, can’t be removed.
Kristen Brown
But I didn’t figure that out until I spent an embarrassing amount of time trying to figure out if there’s a way to do it. I looked on YouTube, I scoured the forums, and I even dug through the owner’s manual. The manual said there should be buttons on the side of the headrest, only to figure out that there isn’t a button on my tester. I ended up calling my local dealership and asking. The model I had has a sliding button on the door panel, which makes it so the passenger can raise and lower the headrest, but they cannot be removed. This also makes it frustrating if you need to fold them, because if the passenger’s seat is pushed backward because the person is tall, the seats can’t fold. If you removed the headrest, you could, but you can’t. So, as far as child-friendliness, points are docked because you can’t remove the headrests.
The Range Rover Sport isn’t a three-row, but there’s enough space for one
Trust me, I’m not saying that the Range Rover Sport should be a third row, though a third row is an option. I feel like it’s best as a two-row, because that leaves more space for the second row. The second row is one of the most comfortable places to be, especially since those seats come with fast, effective heaters and ventilators. The climate control settings are easy to manipulate for older passengers back there, but for littles like mine, rear climate controls are just as easy to change around from the front screen. Because there isn’t a large screen back there, passengers can look out of the large, tinted windows and enjoy the world around them.
The trunk offers 31.9 cubic feet of cargo space, which isn’t bad. It’s more than enough space for a stroller, even a double stroller, as well as everything else you’d need to comfortably haul and the items you’d need for them. There’s plenty of space for my weekly Costco haul, too. As I live in an area where car break-ins are unfortunately common (there was evidence that the rear right passenger’s window was replaced from an earlier incident), I loved the fact that it came to me with a tonneau cover. That way, if you had golf clubs or bags from your shopping haul downtown, they wouldn’t be as visible.
Kristen Brown
My toddlers loved the panoramic sunroof that was thankfully tinted, because it helped break up the dark, black interior with some sunlight, and even with it open, the rear seats were quiet. Since it’s a hybrid, you didn’t hear any engine noise in the rear, unless you wanted to. When you do hear the exhaust note, it’s quite nice for a turbocharged, hybridized 3.0 inline six. When driving it in Eco or Comfort mode, the ride back there feels like a massage, or like you’re floating. No wonder my kids fell asleep every time.
The hybridization adds to the smoothness and helps families save
I went on and on about how smooth the ride is, and while a large part of it is because of the adaptive suspension and airbags, a lot of credit should go to the hybrid engine, too. When it’s fully charged, the battery can haul the heiffer up to 51 miles in EV mode. Which, for most people, is plenty of juice to run daily errands without burning up that precious, expensive premium-grade fuel. The Range Rover Sport I tested came with an empty battery, so I had to use the home charging cable that came with the car. It charged for over 24 hours, and I was able to get about 38 miles on the EV battery before it blew the circuit breaker, but even with 38 miles, I was able to go to the grocery store, take my kids to their aunt’s house, and back home–all without burning a drop of gas. If I were able to charge it at home as most PHEV owners do, I’d essentially own an EV–but then have the gas engine to back it up in case I can’t charge it, or I need to go further than 51 miles.
Kristen Brown
Because the engine is a hybrid setup, even after the battery ran out, it’s still smooth and quiet. Starting and stopping is controlled by the hybrid battery, so it’s always effortless and smooth. Starting from a stop is even better because of the instant torque that comes from the battery (it helps that way in Dynamic mode, especially). Since the battery ran out fairly fast, I got to experience a lot of the mild hybrid side of things, and it’s still pretty effective. I was able to get an average of about 34 mpg on the highway, 25 in the city, and around 29.4 mpg combined. Not too shabby at all for a heavy British SUV with a sporty personality. More mileage means less time at the pump, so it doesn’t cost as much to drive every day. However, I can’t speak for insurance or maintenance costs, which are likely substantially higher than you’d pay for a Honda Civic.
If your family suffers from allergies, they’ll love the air purifying feature
At first, this seemed like a gimmick, but my oldest daughter inherited her sensitivity to pollen and smoke from her mother (sorry, kid). While I was rummaging through the Range Rover’s settings, I noticed a setting called “Air Purity.” When I opened it, there was a screen that showed the air quality on the outside, and how the HEPA filters installed in the HVAC system are working to purify the air, and then it would read what the air quality is inside the cabin. On a “foggy” day while driving, my husband’s phone alerted him that it was a Spare the Air day. The Air Purify system confirmed it: the AQI had a score of 73 PM2.5, and once it passed through the filters, the AQI inside the car was a clean 7.
Kristen Brown
Before we left, my daughter’s little nose was stuffy and red, she was sneezy, and visibly uncomfortable. After realizing that the Range Rover Sport PHEV was actively cleaning the air before it got to my daughter, I turned around to see her breathing easily, her nose was no longer red, and she wasn’t squinting to see out of itchy eyes. She was miles more comfortable than she was before, and as a parent, that makes all the difference. I could see it being especially handy in spring, or if a wildfire were nearby. It actually inspired me to get an air purifier for her room. So, thanks, Land Rover.
The interior settings were easy to find, except for the HVAC controls
There are very minimal buttons and knobs in the Range Rover Sport Autobiography PHEV, which means all of the vehicle and most of the driver settings are buried in the screen. The drive modes, sound system settings, and other settings are easy to find and manipulate. However, if you need to switch up the climate control settings, it’s infuriatingly difficult to figure out. If you’re driving without a passenger, it’s even worse, since there are so many screens and things to tap to get everything just right. Setting the temperature involves making sure you’re adjusting the driver’s side and not the passenger’s side, making sure you’re not accidentally tapping the fan speed, or that you’re not redirecting the air flow to where you don’t want it. It’s the same story with the settings for the rear.
Kristen Brown
Speaking of air flow, the vent settings are equally annoying. The amount of air that’s allowed out of each vent is electronically controlled instead of the manual wheel in most of today’s new cars, so you have to make sure that each one is open. Then, when that’s settled, when you set the fan speed to full blast, the air that comes out is barely a whisper, unless you set the heat to the highest possible temperature and then set it to Auto and Max A/C. It was 48 degrees outside when I was trying to figure this out, and my two toddlers were freezing, so for the 15 minutes it took me to figure it all out, they were crying about it the whole time.
While driving, the heating caught up, and it very quickly became a sauna. Lowering the temperature while driving is annoying, as syncing it to the rear controls takes a few more steps than it should. I tried using the voice assistant, but naturally, it didn’t work. It took me a few minutes between looking at the screen and the road to lower the temperature and make everyone comfortable. Not a good look for a luxury, tech-forward SUV.
All large SUVs should come with Land Rover’s all-wheel steering
I knew it came with an intelligent 4WD system (which Land Rover calls “4xi”, which is basically all-wheel drive until you lock either the center or rear differential). But I noticed that the large barge was surprisingly very easy to steer on tight turns, and it was especially easy to parallel park. I thought to myself, “Are the rear wheels steering, too? I feel like that’s the only way this is possible.” I was backing into the driveway to charge it, and I happened to look into the side mirrors, and sure enough, as I turned the steering wheel to the right, I saw the rear wheel turn in, sharpening the turn. Not only does it improve performance and make it more fun to drive on twisty, curvy roads, but it also makes it easier to park in tighter spaces, too. It’s the size of a yacht, but it drives nimbly like a Miata–and anything that makes a car easier to live with is a win in my book.
Kristen Brown
Amazingly enough, though, the Land Rover Defender doesn’t come with all-wheel steering. Land Rover says it’s reserved for more “premium” models (as if the Defender isn’t premium), like the Range Rover Sport. Personally, if more large SUVs came with all-wheel steering, it would make them easier and more fun to drive. I loved it so much, even driving to do something mundane brought me so much joy. All-wheel steering makes it easier to argue that better maneuverability makes it safer to drive, since its agility makes it easier to get around objects in the road if you have to.
Final thoughts
The Range Rover Sport Autobiography PHEV is a sport luxury SUV that has its feet (or I should say tires) in a few different worlds. On one hand, it’s a luxury vehicle, with a premium sound system, a posh and gorgeous interior, with a sporty streak because of the turbocharged hybrid engine, and an intelligent four-wheel drive system, all-wheel steering, and the family-friendly Air Purify feature was a big win in my book. But it seemed like every plus was met with an equally potent minus.
Kristen Brown
It was easy to install the seats, but the non-removable headrests made the process frustrating. The technology was appreciated, but the user interface was confusing and had me resorting to Google to figure things out. All the settings and controls are on the front screen, but they’re a bit of a pain to get your bearings with. So, it’s a great car, but there would be some growing pains with long-term ownership. Would I recommend it to families? Sure, if they’re okay with the possibility that young kids won’t appreciate it (and therefore won’t be careful).
