Volkswagen Multivan vs Range Rover Sport

What's the difference?

The Australian launch of the new generation Multivan was confined to the Life grade with the 2.0-litre diesel engine. Later in 2025 the Style grade will arrive bringing a hybrid powertrain and even more features. We’ll be able to test both more thoroughly once we have them in the CarsGuide garage.

From this first drive, however, it's clear that while slightly pricier than its Kia Carnival rival the new generation Multivan is more practical than ever, and now that it rides on a car platform, far better to drive.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with meals provided.

Range Rover proudly calls it its “most dynamic” model ever, and based on our first experience that’s most definitely true. Its ability to be genuinely exciting to drive on a race track is nothing short of remarkable for a brand whose history is all about off-road prowess.

On the road it shines just as brightly, with its potent engine and state-of-the-art suspension system working in unison to make for a stunningly dynamic large and luxurious SUV. And then, if you need to cut across a field or scramble up a slippery hill, it will do that too.

Range Rover’s claims of ‘breadth of capability’ is apt but arguably an understatement. I’d stop short of calling the Sport SV the obvious class-leader in the high-end, high-performance SUV market because it’s up against some seriously impressive rivals, but the Range Rover offers a broader range of ability than any of its competitors.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with travel, accommodation and meals provided.

As with all Volkswagens the redesign of the new-gen Multivan is more about refining than redefining. Just like the Golf hatch which has kept its look through eight generations the Multivan is recognisable and familiar but new and modern looking, too.

Smoother lines, a more heavily raked windscreen and a flatter bonnet make for a cuter snub nose. The new Multivan is less boxy than before even though it is still a box on wheels, just a sleeker, more adorable one. 

As mentioned, the Multivan comes in two lengths: the short wheelbase, which is 4973mm from the front bumper to the rear bumper, and the long wheelbase which is 5173mm long. Height for both is 1900mm.

Inside, the cabin is modern with large screens for media and driver instruments with a minimalist design to the dash, while the lack of a centre console frees up space. The sense of roominess is enhanced by daylight flooding in through oversized windows which can be taken a step further when combined with the optional panoramic (split panel) glass roof. 

There are nine body colours to pick from including 'Candy White', 'Pure Grey', 'Reflex Silver Metallic', 'Copper Bronze Metallic', 'Deep Black Pearlescent', 'Energetic Orange Metallic', 'Medium Blue Metallic', 'Mono Silver Metallic' and 'Starlight Blue Metallic'.

Range Rover is a brand synonymous with big, imposing and off-road capable SUVs, not dynamic and sporty vehicles. But in recent years the Evoque and Velar have added a new layer of style and a sleekness to the brand’s reputation.

The latest generation Sport is still a big and imposing two-tonne SUV, but it’s also definitely sportier to look at and the SV changes only add to that.

It only takes a moment looking at it and it’s clear this is an SUV that means business. The 23-inch wheels fill out the guards, the air-suspension can lower the body to the ground and the aerodynamic package, including the front splitter, make for a purposeful look.

The carbon-fibre bonnet can be finished with the centre section exposed, showing off the weave of the fibres, which is a nice touch, although fake vents on the bonnet and front fenders are a bit disappointing.

Practicality is the Multivan's greatest strength. Seven seats come standard and the rear five can be configured into numerous variations. If you like you could have those rear seats facing each other or you can just have a second row with a large boot area or you could have two in the middle row and two in the third row or whatever other variation you can think up. Yes, you can remove all five rear seats and now that they're 25 per cent lighter it’s easier to do so.

People space is excellent and at 189cm tall I found it possible to not only sit comfortably in the second row behind my driving position, but also behind that in the third row with plenty of leg and headroom.  

An optional multi-functional table is also available and this can slide on rails from the third row all the way up to between the driver and front passenger.

Second row cabin storage is outstanding. You’ll find drawers under the seats big enough for a pair of shoes, hidey holes and cupholders everywhere, seat-back tray tables and gigantic door pockets.

Up front is a double glove box, a dash-top storage bin, more cupholders as well as a multitude of pockets and small storage holes for bits and pieces.

For devices there’s a wireless phone charger and four USB ports.

You’ll also find three-zone climate control with air vents throughout the cabin and dark-tinted glass for the side windows. 

Finally, the power sliding rear side doors are huge and allow easy entry and exit to and from both rear rows.

Being able to leave the driver or front passenger’s seat and walk through to the second row is also handy and fun. Not while driving, of course, although it’s tempting.

There are two stand-out features in the cabin, beyond the standard high-level of luxury you expect from a Range Rover Sport. 

The first is the SV-specific steering wheel with illuminated paddles, which feels solid in your hands. But the second is by far the most interesting, the so-called Body and Soul Seats (BASS), which Range Rover has developed in conjunction with Coventry University.

Available with either genuine leather or ‘ultra fabric’ and a 3D-print knit trim, the seats look great on the outside but it’s what’s inside them that’s special.

There are four audio transducers integrated into the seat back which can vibrate to the beat of whatever audio track you’re listening to. The system uses AI to detect the lower frequencies and then work out which beats to transmit.

This is technology used by musicians, Coldplay’s Chris Martin reportedly wears transducers integrated into a vest when he performs, but Range Rover is confident it will add to the ownership experience.

It’s certainly an interesting technology and a demonstration across different music genres highlights the way the system adapts to individual songs, but it’s hard not to feel like this is more of a gimmick than something an owner will use every day. 

If you don’t like listening to music with it, the Body and Soul Seats also work with a ‘Wellness’ setting that features six audio pieces (designed by Coventry University musicians) - calm, soothe, serene, cool, tonic and invigorate.

It’s probably what you need to help settle your heart rate after you unleash the full performance potential of the Sport SV.

In the back seat there’s none of this technology but they do feature heating and ventilation as well as power recline functions. There’s also four-zone climate control, so every occupant can be comfortable.

To be blunt, the Range Rover Sport SV is one of those vehicles that if you have to ask, you can’t afford. Particularly in this case, as the model has launched in a single specification level, the Sport SV Edition One, which is priced from $360,800, plus on-road costs.

That puts it into the same financial category as the likes of the Aston Martin DBX ($356,512), Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT Coupe ($364,700) and Lamborghini Urus ($409,744) - especially when we discuss some of the pricier options.

For that price the Sport SV Edition One comes with exclusive branding on the front splitter, centre console, treadplates and puddle lamps as well as a raft of standard features likely to carry-over to the 2025 model year version.

These include carbon-fibre badges, forged 23-inch alloy wheels, digital LED headlights, a carbon-fibre bonnet, 16-way electronically adjustable front seats, Meridian 'Signature' sound system, 13.1-inch multimedia touchscreen, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and newly developed ‘Body and Soul Seats’ (more on those later).

But if you’re feeling really sporty, you can upgrade your Sport SV with lightweight carbon fibre wheels and carbon ceramic brakes.

These will cost you a staggering $16,130 and $13,500, respectively, but the wheels measure 23-inches and are the largest fitted to a production car (and are also Australian-made by Carbon Revolution in Geelong).

Unfortunately, for now at least, this is all a moot point because Range Rover Australia has already invited and sold all examples of the Sport SV Edition One, so you'll need to be patient and wait until at least 2025 to have the option to buy one.

At the moment there’s just the one grade of Multivan, the Life, and it's powered by a 2.0-litre four-cylinder diesel making 110kW and 360Nm. Transmission is a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic which sends drive to the front wheels.

Coming later in 2025 will be a petrol-electric variant but it will only be available in a more premium Style grade.

Sadly the wonderfully evocative supercharged V8 engine from the previous generation Range Rover Sport SVR is gone.

But, thankfully, in its place is a more powerful engine that’s exclusive to the Sport SV in the Jaguar Land Rover family.

It’s a 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 petrol engine with mild-hybrid assistance, which is actually built by BMW and based on the same powertrain as you’ll find in the M5, albeit with some specific Range Rover elements for more off-road capability.

It’s also more powerful than the old supercharged V8, making an impressive 467kW of power and 750Nm of torque, which is a 44kW and 50Nm improvement over the old engine.

It’s paired to an eight-speed automatic transmission, again with a specific SV calibration for improved performance. 

And, of course, being a Land Rover, it’s also got a four-wheel drive system with full off-road systems as well as an active locking differential.

Volkswagen says that after a combination of open and urban roads the Multivan Life should use 6.4L/100km. While on the launch the trip computer was recording an average of about 8.5L/100km, but we’ll assess fuel efficiency again when this VW comes into the CarsGuide road test garage. 

In theory, if you do use 6.4L/100km, the Multivan's 80-litre tank should give you 1250km of range.

The score for efficiency looks quite low here and that's because without having driven the Style grade and the hybrid powertrain all we have to go by currently is the diesel.

Despite all the extra power, thanks to the mild-hybrid system it’s more fuel efficient and produces less emissions than the old 5.0-litre V8.

Still, it’s all relative, and as you’d expect from a twin-turbo V8 SUV it’s still thirsty and uses 11.7-12.5-litres per 100km, based on European specifications.

The mild hybrid system uses a crank-integrated starter generator instead of a conventional alternator, providing a boost of up to 20kW and 175Nm of electrical power when needed, with the energy captured during braking and stored in a 48-volt lithium-ion battery.

The missing piece of the Multivan puzzle for me has been the way it drives. Past versions have been less 'car-like' than rivals like the Kia Carnival. It felt like a commercial van to drive, because essentially it was. But that's been fixed.

One of the biggest changes to this new-generation Multivan is the platform on which it's built. Volkswagen has decided to swap the truck-like platform from the past for the 'MQB' platform which underpins vehicles such as the Golf and Tiguan. 

Having spent a few hours driving this new generation Multivan around some great country roads during the launch I can testify that not only is the ride comfortable and composed but this van handles way better than you might imagine.

While the Multivan is in no way a sports car, good handling adds to the fun factor. It's easy to drive with light, accurate and direct steering, good acceleration and smooth gear changes from the transmission, great pedal feel under your feet and superb visibility from the high seating position and oversized windows all around.

That said, I enjoyed driving the previous generation Multivan. I loved its fun and easy piloting factor and the change in platform for this new-gen model makes the experience even more pleasurable.

Before driving the Sport SV you need to understand its highly complex suspension system that allows it to be so dynamically capable. Range Rover calls it a '6D Dynamic' system, because it can control the car left and right, up and down and corner to corner. 

To achieve this the system uses a combination of hydraulic interlinked dampers, height-adjustable air springs and pitch control, which makes it a semi-active suspension set-up similar to the set-up Formula 1 race cars used to boast. 

This allows the Sport SV to sit between 10-25mm lower than the other Sport models and with its clever suspension can actually sit flatter in the corner with less pitch and roll - which is the traditional enemy of high-riding SUVs when it comes to handling.

But the suspension is only part of the story, with the intelligent all-wheel drive, rear-wheel steering, torque vectoring and the active locking rear diff all combining to produce an SUV with incredibly impressive dynamic capability.

Put simply, there’s never been a Range Rover that deserved to be driven on a racetrack. The Sport SV changes that, and thankfully the company let us loose on the challenging Portimao circuit in Portugal to put the SV through its paces.

Range Rover management was quick to stress it doesn’t expect the Sport SV to be a race track regular for its owners, but driving it on track did highlight the extreme potential it offers. 

With such a powerful engine it should come as no surprise that the Sport SV hauled down the straight, hitting 233km/h at the end of the long front straight, but with speed still rising which suggests its 290km/h claimed top speed is accurate.

Even from those speeds and with 2560kg of SUV to slow down, with the carbon ceramic brakes it was no trouble whatsoever. Instead the braking was strong and consistent across multiple laps. 

The steering is the particular highlight, with the rear-wheel steering helping to turn the Sport SV sharper and more quickly than a big SUV like this should. 

But while it impressed on the circuit, we also experienced it on some great winding rural roads across Portugal and this is where it shone even more brightly.

This is an SUV that you’ll genuinely enjoy driving with its ability to carve through corners and blast down anything resembling straight road.

But to ensure it lives up to the Land Rover badge on the front, we also drove it off-road. Nothing too serious at first, just muddy ruts, across some water and over some rocks.

But then we were guided through a course that showed off its articulation potential, which is far greater than the average owner will ever need. 

However, to achieve this Range Rover removed the carbon-fibre front splitter, so it’s not the most off-road friendly model the brand offers.

The Sport SV comes generously equipped with safety gear, as you’d expect at this price point. There’s all the usual passive safety, including airbag coverage for all occupants, and plenty of active safety including adaptive cruise control with steering assist, remote park assist and 3D surround cameras - which are used for off-roading as well as parking.

As with the rest of the Range Rover Sport range, it has been awarded a maximum five-star rating from safety agency, ANCAP.

The Multivan is covered by Volkswagen’s five year/unlimited kilometre warranty.

Servicing is recommended every 15,000km or annually and will cost you between about $600-800 a year.

If you’re worrying about servicing costs, you’re probably shopping at the wrong end of the market, but as with the range-topping Range Rover model the price of the car is expected to include servicing for the first five years and roadside assistance for the same period.

It’s also covered by a five-year, unlimited kilometre warranty.

As with all Range Rovers the car will tell you when it needs a service depending on driving conditions. For example, if you hit the track or go off-roading it will likely need a visit quicker than if you're just commuting to and from work.