But if you can find the estimated £125,000 you’ll need to buy one, there’s still a good chance you’ll miss out. Land Rover has over 60,000 expressions of interests for the 542bhp EV, and though not all of those are guaranteed sales, you can expect a lengthy wait if you delay ordering until the covers come off.

So assuming you don’t want to wait, or to pay a speculating deposit-holder wildly over the list price for the privilege of skipping the queue, or maybe just don’t think buying a proto-EV from a brand still trying to shake off a terrible reliability record sounds too smart, you’re going to need a plan B.

It’s early days for luxury electric SUVs, in Europe at least. US buyers have more choice in the shape of the Rivian R1S, Lucid Air and Cadillac Vistiq, some – possibly all – of which could cross the Atlantic in the next few years. America can also still buy the Tesla Model X, which is no longer available in the UK as a new car in right-hand-drive form. But there are various choices, and if you want one with a badge that packs the same kind of old-school luxury weight as the Range Rover’s, a Mercedes dealer is a good place to start.

The electric G-Wagon, or G580 with EQ Technology to give its full, clunky name, looks at first glance much like the G you could buy in the 1970s back when the Range Rover still had a hose-out interior. But don’t be fooled by the military-chic body, external door hinges and flat ‘aerodynamcs? what’s that?’ windscreen. Under the skin is a quad-motor drivetrain that metes out 579bhp to all four wheels, gets the brutalist box to 62mph in 4.7sec and lets it perform tank turns on the spot.

Anything a Range Rover can do in the muck, the EQ can match, including wading through close to a metre of water – it copes with 150mm more than even the combustion Gs can handle. And it has arguably even more street presence than the Brit SUV, but then so it should for £154,870. At that price the 280-mile range (despite a colossal 116kWh battery) and puny 415kg maximum payload (which nixes most towing adventures) look poor. The brakes are also disappointing, even if the rest of the dynamic package is far better than you’d expect given the 3085kg kerbweight and Etch A Sketch design.

If the G-EV doesn’t do it for you (and reports of flat sales in Germany suggest you won’t be alone), Mercedes has another electric SUV to tempt you. The curvy EQS is nowhere near as statuesque as the Range Rover, but there’s no arguing that it knows how to put on a show inside.

Tech geeks will love the pillar-to-pillar Hyperscreen triple-display digital dashboard, which is standard along with a third row of seats and dual motors whether you go for the £129,480, 355bhp EQS 450, or step up to its £139,480, 537bhp EQS 580 big brother. Let loose for the pricey £200,870 and unambiguously titled Mercedes-Maybach EQS 680 First Class SUV and you swap that third row for individual aircraft-style chairs.

Every EQS impresses with its comfort, quiet, and interior quality, but Mercedes’ problem is it’s asking top dollar and other E-SUVs are almost as slick, better to drive and cost tens of thousands less. One of those is BMW’s iX.

Compared with a Range Rover the biggest electric BMW is a foot shorter and boot-face ugly to most eyes, despite a recent facelift. You’re also restricted to five seats because it’s a closer match in size to the Range Rover Sport than the real Range Rover. For the same reason the boot is a modest 500 litres, and for reasons best known to BMW there’s no frunk for your charging cables.

So why do we think the iX could be one of the best cars BMW currently makes? One reason is the iX is quieter than a Maserati showroom. Another is that it’s as adept as the Range Rover at smoothing bumps – though only when equipped with the air suspension that’s optional on the entry-level xDrive45 and mid-spec xDrive60 models, and standard on the speedier but slightly less supple M70.

And if the upcoming electric Range Rover could learn a thing or two about refinement from the iX, it shouldn’t stop taking notes there. The iX feels agile for such a big car, and while it was always rapid, the recent refresh gave it endurance to match. Even the base 402bhp £75,405 xDrive45 hits 62mph in 5.1sec, and a 30 per cent bigger battery gives it a 374-mile range.

It’s the pick of the iX line-up, though with a Range Rover-sized budget you could afford to upgrade to the £93,205 xDrive60 (537bhp, 4.6sec, 426 miles) or blow £114,305 on the xDrive M70 (650bhp, 3.8sec, 366 miles), which we wouldn’t advise. But all of this is moot if you don’t like a design that is not only polarising, but about to be rendered old hat by the Neue Klasse BMWs filtering through over the next few years.

Hitting most of the same markers as the iX, while avoiding being hit with the ugly stick, is Volvo’s EX90. This American-built, Chinese-backed Swedish-ish SUV gives off a classier, less shouty vibe than the BMW, though the German crushes it on a bang-per-buck basis. The new entry-level, single-motor model costs £82,660 but needs 8.4sec to reach 62mph.

You’ll need to throw another £7k at your dealer to step up to the 402bhp Twin Motor powertrain that drops the 62mph time to 5.9sec. Or you could fully torch your wallet to the tune of £99,460 and plonk yourself in a posh Ultra-grade EX with the optional 510bhp Twin Motor Performance set-up.

But the most expensive Volvo ever is still no faster than a base iX, and can only match the BMW’s 375-mile official range despite packing a large 107kWh battery. The BMW’s also infinitely more fun when you’re in a mood to hustle, and more comfortable when you’re not.

An elegant interior helps soften the blow of the EX’s £100k price, but the control interface relies too heavily on the portrait touchscreen for our liking, and although the EX has the third row of seats missing from the iX, there’s less room back there than in the similarly-sized but less expensive Kia EV9.

Wait, a Kia? I know what you’re thinking. We started out talking about Range Rovers, and you were willing to let it slide when we lowered the tone to BMWs and Volvos, but a Kia? Come on! But that’s the thing about electrification: it’s been an incredible leveller, emboldening traditionally non-premium brands like Kia to push into luxury territory, confident that their EV technology and cutting-edge designs make a vehicle like the EV9 a viable rival to BMW, Mercedes and Land Rover SUVs.

That said, the EV9’s £65k jumping-off price is still going to raise a few eyebrows, even if it’s half what Land Rover will charge for the electric Range Rover. And in reality you’re probably going to want to spend another £8k-£12k for the GT-Line or GT-Line S because the 197bhp single-motor base model’s 9.4sec 0-62mph time makes even the EX90 look like a Rimac Nevera.

Go for one of those pricier dual-motor EV9s and you’ll trim the range from 349 to 313 miles, and slash the sprint time to 5.3sec. And more importantly you double the base 9’s 258lb ft to make light work of hauling the masses of luggage you can fit in a boot that’s 45 per cent bigger than the EQS SUV’s.

Human cargo – seven bodies by default, six in the top-spec GT-Line S – also has plenty of space to stretch out, but the relentless grey plastic saps some of the joy from the onboard experience. If you’re already struggling with the idea of a Kia being a credible £80k luxury car, the EV9’s interior ambience isn’t going to help sway you in the Korean company’s direction.

That’s a real shame, because the EV9 looks almost as imposing as a Range Rover from the outside, and its 800-volt electrics and 350kW charger compatibility –letting you fill to 80 per cent from 10 in less than 25 minutes – is a match for anything in the class.

But the EV9 isn’t the only kW-slurping, social-climbing electric SUV from Korea. Its Hyundai Ioniq 9 cousin packs most of the same hardware into an even more futuristic body with an even more spacious 908-litre boot and even bigger battery.

There’s more tech, too, including active noise cancelling, acoustic glass, 100-watt USB ports and lay-back relaxation seats for rows one and two. Shame Hyundai stuck with steel coils rather than the air springs buyers deserve on an EV likely to be in the £70k-£85k range.

The EV9 and Ioniq 9 use the same E-GMP platform, but while every UK Kia comes with the 99.8kWh underfloor power pack that’s optional in some markets, the Ioniq 9 ups that to 106kWh, and promises 385 miles between charges.

Base cars slum it with a single 215bhp motor slotted between the rear wheels, but for true Range Rover-style waftability you’re going to want to splash out for the Long Range AWD (308bhp, 6.7sec to 62mph, 372 miles) or the Performance AWD (429bhp, 5.2sec, range tbc, but probably 320 miles). Want more? Judging by the recent appearance of a £82,185 Kia EV9 GT, a 502bhp flagship Ioniq 9 N could be along in a year or two.

Waiting might be your best option. Before too long there will be a Porsche Cayenne Electric (we discounted the Macan Electric here for being too small), a Bentley electric SUV built around the same VW Group platform, and, of course, the Range Rover EV itself.

But until then, if you can live with five seats and a face only a mother could love, you could do worse than BMW’s iX. And if three rows of seats is a deal breaker, Volvo’s EX90 is the closest match to a Range Rover’s style and prestige – but it’s the unconventionally attractive Ioniq 9 that gets us charged up.