2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5 vs 2026 Land Rover Range Rover Sport

It would appear to be the calendar, not the competition, that has the Ioniq 5 due for a mid-cycle refresh. We liked it when it burst onto the scene as an angular oddball in a sea of soft-lined sameness, and it has only improved over the last few years.

Verdict: Hyundai makes minor but welcome changes and avoids tweaking the many things that were working well, successfully making a good thing better.

A base-model Range Rover Sport costs about the same as a mid-tier trim of any other midsize luxury SUV. Land Rover plays in the big leagues, which require a minimum of $85,000 or a lease payment approaching $2,000 per month. Even with such immense outlays, the Range Rover Sport is Land Rover's second most-popular model in the U.S. and far surpasses the Velar, the Evoque, and the Discovery. This is the lens from which we evaluate the Range Rover Sport. The particular 2026 model we tested—the SV Carbon—is also the fastest, most extreme vehicle the company has ever made, providing further context for its roughly $200,000 MSRP. At that price, the choices narrow to a new Porsche Cayenne Turbo, or a lightly-used Aston Martin DBX or Lamborghini Urus.

Verdict: Anywhere it goes, the Range Rover Sport is at the top of its class.