Five plug-in hybrid luxury SUVs

Monday, 19 August 2019

Is it possible to have a large luxury SUV and actually do your bit to help our environment? These five big, luxurious plug-in hybrid SUVs say yes and you won't even have to suffer from EV range anxiety to do it. Oh. And they're all pretty fast too.

Range Rover Vogue/Sport P400e

A massive Range Rover with a tiny 2.0-litre engine? Laughable, right?

Who says you can't reduce your impact on the planet and still enjoy a massive luxury SUV? Not these five.

Well, hold that laughter, because the the P400e's 2.0-litre pumps out an impressive 221kW on its own. Combine this with an 85kW electric motor and you get a combined system output of 297kW and 640Nm.

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This compares rather favourably indeed with the diesel V8 version's 250kW/740Nm, and it is even quicker than the rumbly big diesel.

True, you don't get the big diesel V8 rumble, but you do get sublimely silent cruising when using the big Rangie's pure electric mode and some stupidly low consumption figures (2.8L/100km). Providing you remember to plug it in, that is…

Porsche Cayenne Turbo S E-Hybrid

Someone forgot to tell Porsche that hybrids are boring economy vehicles and the German manufacturer went and made some of its fastest and most expensive performance variants hybrids. Embarrassing, right?

Actually, the only person embarrassed about the Cayenne Turbo S E-Hybrid is the bloke in the 911 Carrera the big SUV just smoked at the lights, thanks to its ferocious 3.8 second 0 to 100 time.

The Cayenne Turbo S E-Hybrid packs a V8 petrol turbo/electric motor combo with a combined system output of 500kW/900Nm. It can travel at up to 135km/h on electric power alone and sips fuel at a combined rate of just 3.9L/100km.

Bentley Bentayga Hybrid

The Bentayga Hybrid has all the accelerative drama of some of the others on this list (bar the mad Porsche Turbo), but with some serious luxury piled on top.

Bentley claims 330kW/700Nm combined, with a 0 to 100 sprint of 5.5 seconds, but of course, being a Bentley, there is also almost unlimited customisation and huge amounts of options available to make your massive luxury lounge on wheels not only remarkably quick, but also insanely luxurious.

Bentley hasn't revealed any official fuel consumption figures yet, but it won't be too far off the Porsche Cayenne E-Hybrid's numbers of 3.2L/100km, given they share a remarkably similar (funny that) V6 hybrid powertrain.

Volvo XC90 T8

Volvo's PHEV SUV has been around for a while now, but it is still at the sharp end of the performance/efficiency equation when it comes to big, comfy SUVs.

With 298kW of power and 640Nm of combined system output, the T8's powertrain is unique in the segment by featuring a 'twincharged' 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol engine that packs both a turbo and supercharger.

It can belt to the legal limit in 5.5 seconds and sips fuel at a combined rate of just 2.5L/100km. As with all the vehicles here, that is only if you use electricity on a regular basis - drive it like a normal hybrid (ie: without charging it often) and you will still see diesel-like figures though.

The all-new GLE will get a plug-in hybrid version that Mercedes says will have an all-electric range of up to 100km.

Mercedes-Benz GLE 500e

Mercedes isn't wanting to be left out of this large SUV fuel sipping party and, we it hasn't quite got a big-boy GLS PHEV up and running yet, its latest offering is a plug-in version of the all-new GLE - the 500e.

While details of the new version are still scarce, the previous car had a combined system output of 325kW of power and 650Nm of torque, with a combined fuel consumption of 3.3L/100km.

There aren't any performance figures yet, but given that the old model hit 100km/h in 5.3 seconds, we expect something sub-5 seconds there. Oh, and Mercedes has said the 500e will have an all-electric range of 100km as well.