Range Rover P400e Autobiography - long term review

What you’re looking at here is a pair of hybrids. But which has the greater EV range, the Range Rover P440e or the Canyon Spectral:ON? Here’s the stats. The luxury SUV has a 31.8kWh battery, the e-mountain bike just 0.72kWh. the four-wheeled one develops 105kW of e-thrust, the two-wheeler just 0.6kW. As far as weight goes, we have to factor in the rider/driver. 24kg of bike plus 72kg of me is a total 96kg while Range Rover claims an EU weight (kerbweight plus 75kg of driver/baggage) of 2,810kg.

A momentary digression here. Weight. Range Rover’s telling porkies again. I’ve just weighed the P440e and with three-quarters of a tank of fuel, but without me, it was exactly 3000kg. Decidedly hefty. No, ridiculously so. The first car we’ve ever weighed to breach three tonnes. Unfortunately I don’t think it’ll be long before we weigh the next one.

Anyway, 3072kg with me. Which means the Range Rover has a battery 44 times bigger, is 175 times more powerful and 32 times the weight. By this stage you have probably forgotten the question we came in with. We were talking range. And actually they’re both similar. I’ve managed to beat my previous best of 48 electric-only miles, and get the Range Rover up to 54. But that’s not enough to better the bike, which achieved 57. Granted, it did need pedalling at the same time. And it didn’t have an internal combustion engine to call on when the battery went flat…

There’s not really a legitimate comparison here, but as hybrids both work very well indeed. The Spectral:ON is a doddle to use. Turn it on and you can choose between three power modes. Eco delivers pretty much all you need. But Boost brings what you want: the full 600 watts, well over double what I can do for any length of time, turning me into an instant Olympian and reducing 10 per cent inclines to level ground. Boost is a bit boosty and eager, but in other modes the Spectral:ON is uncannily good at knowing exactly how much it needs to contribute and responding immediately.

One more: the Spectral:ON is Canyon’s first bike to pair with the Connected app that allows you to see where the bike is and notifies you if it’s been moved when you’re not on it. It’s something we’ve seen from Rimac’s offshoot, Greyp, before, but is pretty novel for most push bikes. However, given the £4,889 cost of this carbon framed bike, it’s worth trying to protect your investment.

The Range Rover is so good in EV mode. The silence and waftiness really suits it, but 140bhp pulling along three tonnes (a power to weight ratio of 47bhp/tonne) means performance is glacial. And there’s no step in the throttle pedal, so a fraction too much gas and the engine fires up. More recently, the 3.0-litre straight six has been firing up far too often – it used to start in EV mode all the time, but lately it’s been refusing to go into electric until it’s been running for several minutes. Odd.

You might remember from the previous report that I was meant to be taking the bike with me to the Alps. But its 24kg weight means Canyon strongly recommends it doesn’t travel on the roof, and the long wheelbase hybrid Range Rover can’t be fitted with a towbar. Why? It’s to do with global certification and ‘desired vehicle mass targets’ – basically the product specification needed to homologate the vehicle. I don’t think it’s a big deal the LWB hybrid can’t have a towbar. Plenty of other Rangies can and this one is less suited to hauling than they are anyway.

For me it meant the bike had to travel in the car, which was not ideal on several levels. The Perlino cream leather upholstery could get muddy or marked, my back didn’t thank me for hoisting 24kg of bulky bike into the boot (although being able to lower the suspension via a button inside the tailgate was very handy) and the LWB’s wonderful Executive Class Comfort rear seats don’t even get remotely close to folding flat. They sort of indignantly tilt forward into an uncomfortable stoop. And take several minutes to get there.

You know as well as I do that Land Rover does several cars, most notably the Discovery, that are better suited to active lifestyle use. But I enjoy the contrast, of getting cars out of their comfort zone and seeing how they perform. The Range Rover coped pretty well for a car that’s intended to waft between gala dinners and red carpet premieres.

I don’t think the bike could turn its hand to that. Might be funny to don a suit and ride it, but it’s a toss-up about which would go first, the knees of the trousers or the collar of the jacket when I inevitably get hooked by a branch.