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2023 Land Rover Range Rover Sport Is Another Design Triumph

This new SUV offers the same stellar styling and premium interior of the larger Range Rover, but in a slightly smaller and more affordable package.

Craig Cole Former reviews editor
Craig brought 15 years of automotive journalism experience to the Cars team. A lifelong resident of Michigan, he's as happy with a wrench or welding gun in hand as he is in front of the camera or behind a keyboard. When not hosting videos or cranking out features and reviews, he's probably out in the garage working on one of his project cars. He's fully restored a 1936 Ford V8 sedan and then turned to resurrecting another flathead-powered relic, a '51 Ford Crestliner. Craig has been a proud member of the Automotive Press Association (APA) and the Midwest Automotive Media Association (MAMA).
Craig Cole
5 min read

On Tuesday, Land Rover unveiled the beautiful new 2023 . Comprehensively redesigned, this SUV delivers all the off-road and luxury you'd expect, though now it's swaddled in the same magnificent styling as its larger sibling, the full-size .

Mini me

Land Rover designers are absolutely killin' it right now. The off-road-focused British brand's latest vehicles are some of the most eye-catching in the world, and not because they're dripping with swoops, creases and extraneous trim. The company's stylists know when to put their pencils down and step away from their sketch pads.

As you can see, the new Range Rover Sport's body is clean. Free of bric-a-brac, its surfaces are taut and nicely proportioned. Adding to the cleanliness are retractable handles, hidden waist rail finishers and laser-welded roof seams. Just like the larger Range Rover, this SUV features several strong styling cues including powerful shoulders, a tapering roofline and sills that rise toward the rear.

2023 Land Rover Range Rover Sport: A Visual Masterpiece

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Visually, there's a little bit more going on at the back of this utility vehicle. The rear has some eye-catching surfaces and the Range Rover wordmark is incorporated into a full-width piece of trim that incorporates the leeringly narrow taillights. Depending on what's under the hood, this SUV comes with single, dual or quad exhaust outlets. It's slippery, too -- this SUV's drag coefficient is just 0.29.

Funkmaster MLA-Flex

Aside from its design, the 2023 Range Rover Sport shares a host of other bits with the lager Range Rover, including its underlying structure. Built on the automaker's mixed-metal architecture (MLA-Flex in Land Rover parlance), this vehicle has 35% higher torsional stiffness than its predecessor, a significant increase that should improve everything from driving dynamics to refinement to crash safety.

Dimensionally, the new Range Rover Sport is slightly longer and wider than before and the wheelbase has been stretched a few inches to provide more passenger and cargo space. The Range Rover Sport will only be offered with room for five, so if you were hoping for a third row of seats, unfortunately, that's not in the cards.

2023 Land Rover Range Rover Sport - structure
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2023 Land Rover Range Rover Sport - structure

This is the structure that supports the new Range Rover Sport.

Land Rover

Next-level luxury

The Sport's cabin borrows heavily from its big brother. The interior is available in multiple colors and with premium textiles and other materials. Leather alternatives are offered, too, though both Windsor and semi-aniline cow hides are still on the menu.

Keeping you comfortable for hours at a stretch, 22-way adjustable seats are available. These chairs also offer heating and ventilation, they can give you a massage and feature winged headrests. The aft accommodations offer 1.2 inches of additional legroom than before, which is always a good thing.

As for tech, there's a familiar Pivi Pro infotainment system, just like what you get in other Jaguar Land Rover vehicles. This multimedia array is displayed on a gently curving, floating display that clocks in at a generous 13.1 inches. Naturally, Android Auto and Apple CarPlay are supported, and both smartphone-mirroring systems can connect wirelessly. A 13.7-inch digital instrument cluster augments the central touchscreen. In keeping with the times, the Range Rover Sport's Electrical Vehicle Architecture 2.0 supports over-the-air software updates. This allows 63 of SUV's electronic modules to be updated remotely to improve reliability or add new features.

A cabin air purification system is offered, too. It can significantly reduce odors, bacteria, allergens and even the COVID-19 virus. For your listening pleasure, a 29-speaker Meridian Signature sound system with a new subwoofer design and up to 1,430 watts of power is also available.

Naturally, the new Range Rover Sport comes with or offers plenty of advanced driver aids. This includes amenities like automatic emergency braking, a 360-degree camera system, lane-keeping assist and road sign recognition. Front and rear parking sensors are available, as is a Wade Sensing water-depth meter and a ground-view camera system.

2023 Land Rover Range Rover Sport - interior
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2023 Land Rover Range Rover Sport - interior

There's plenty of luxury in this redesigned SUV.

Land Rover

The power(train) of choice

Giving drivers plenty of choice, a wide range of powertrains will be offered in this next-generation SUV. The entry-level P360 SE trim features a turbocharged mild-hybrid Ingenium 3.0-liter inline-six that delivers 355 horsepower and 369 pound-feet of torque. That should enable the Range Rover Sport to hit 60 mph in around 5.7 seconds. For drivers that want a little more, the P400 SE Dynamic variant takes that same basic engine and turns the wick up to deliver 395 hp and 406 lb-ft of twist. The added oomph shaves about 0.3 seconds off the 0-to-60 run.

Next, we have the P440e Autobiography, a plug-in hybrid drivetrain that -- you guessed it -- is also built around a 3.0-liter, turbocharged I6. It's good for 434 hp and a whopping 619 lb-ft of torque. The 31.8-kilowatt-hour battery pack offers up to 48 miles of electric-only range, a seriously impressive figure for a plug-in hybrid version of what is a large, heavy SUV.

For speed freaks, a 4.4-liter twin-turbocharged V8 rated at 523 hp and 553 lb-ft is offered in the P530 First Edition model. It's potent enough to rocket the new Range Rover Sport to 60 mph in just 4.3 seconds, which is seriously quick. Oh, and if you're wondering, no matter the engine, an eight-speed automatic transmission is standard.

Finally, just like its big brother, in 2024 a fully electric Range Rover Sport will be introduced, but that's all we know right now. It's coming and it won't burn any fossil fuels, so stay tuned for details about this battery-powered SUV.

Trail-ready technology

Providing the off-road capability drivers expect from a Land Rover is a shotgun blast of technology. Of course, all-wheel drive is standard across the model range, though every version of the Sport also comes with a clever Dynamic Air Suspension system that uses navigation data to preemptively adjust for upcoming turns. Adaptive, twin-valve dampers are also offered. They adjust up to 500 times per second to help reduce body movements while driving.

Adaptive Off-Road Cruise Control debuts on the new Range Rover Sport. With four settings, it allows users to set their desired crawl speed, so the vehicle handles braking and acceleration duties, allowing the driver to focus on steering around obstacles and not getting high-centered.

2023 Land Rover Range Rover Sport - rear
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2023 Land Rover Range Rover Sport - rear

The 2023 Range Rover Sport is expected to start arriving at dealerships this fall.

Land Rover

Giving this SUV the agility of a small car, four-wheel steering is available. It enables the back tires to turn up to 7.3 degrees out of phase with the fronts to enhance low-speed maneuverability. At higher speeds, the wheels turn in-phase for enhanced stability.

Beyond all that, the super-fancy First Edition model also gets a feature called Dynamic Response Pro, an active roll-control system. Using the vehicle's 48-volt electrical system, this technology applies up to 1,000 lb-ft of torque at each axle to keep the body flat in corners.

Available this fall

The 2023 Range Rover Sport distills all the elegance, luxury and off-road capability of the standard Range Rover into a slightly smaller and more affordable package. This base, P360 SE version of this SUV starts at around $84,000 including destination fees. The P400 SE Dynamic version kicks off in the low $90,000s, the plug-in hybrid P440e begins at roughly $105,000 and ultra-swanky P530 First Edition grade kicks off around $123,000.

This SUV will be manufactured alongside the larger Range Rover in Solihull, England. You can reserve one of these luxury SUVs right now through the manufacturer's website, though deliveries are not expected to start until the fall, roughly September or October.