‘My Range Rover caught fire – it's more common with diesels than EVs'

Telegraph

6 hours ago

In October 2024, cybersecurity professional Michala Hart took her three Labradors for their morning walk a little over a mile's drive from her Cambridgeshire home. When she returned to her car, fire was ripping through the 2020 Range Rover Vogue diesel.
'The fire started about 10 minutes after I parked. A farmer was loading grain in the farmyard near where I had parked and he noticed white smoke coming from the driver's side wheel. He walked over to take a look and the smoke quickly became black so he retreated and within a couple of minutes it was a blazing inferno, banging and cracking,' she said.
'I could see the smoke from where I was walking and thought it was the grain lorry the farmer was loading. Then the farmer appeared. He'd driven out to find me and said: 'I am really sorry but your car is on fire.'
'It took the fire brigade about 20 minutes to get to us and they took another 15 to 20 minutes to extinguish the blaze, so the whole fire lasted about 40 minutes. All that was left was a pile of ash. The lead fire officer said to me: 'It will be an electrical fault. It is common with these.''
For Hart it was a terrifying experience, but it could have been so much worse. She explained: 'Thank goodness it hadn't happened 24 hours earlier as I had the horsebox on the back with two horses on board. And thank goodness I hadn't parked with the dogs in the car. The blaze did confirm to me that this car had an electrical gremlin.'
The fire was the culmination of a series of electrical problems with her Range Rover. 'When the first fault developed, the vehicle shut down and I lost all power and steering. It came to a halt against a kerb on a roundabout. If I'd been travelling on a motorway or towing horses, the consequences would have been much worse. I questioned the suitability of the vehicle to be used for towing live animals.'
Hart had bought the Range Rover in July 2023. In November that year, it went to Jaguar Land Rover to have a new alternator fitted in an effort to cure its problems. The car was off the road for 106 days, during which time JLR provided a Land Rover Defender courtesy car.
She had a stressful back-and-forth experience with Land Rover customer service while waiting to get her car back – updates on the status of her vehicle were few and far between. 'No one would take ownership of the issue. The dealership I purchased the vehicle from disengaged as Land Rover Assist had sent the car to a different dealership when they recovered it. The dealership which had the vehicle for repair provided updates on a regular basis, but the updates were always that there was no update.'
When Michala finally did get her beloved Range Rover back, it burst into flames only months later.
Crucially, Michala's vehicle had a diesel engine. Electric car (EV) fires tend to make the news because of their intensity, but combustion cars that rely on burning petrol or diesel still account for about 99 per cent of car fires in the UK – in 2023, the London Assembly and Greater London Authority recorded 493 petrol cars and 138 diesels catching fire. At the same time, just seven EVs went up in flames.
Following the fire, the investigator from Hart's insurer concluded: 'It is my opinion that the vehicle had an underlying electrical fault that was not diagnosed and caused the fire. The severed and heat-damaged cable suggests this occurred either close to or within the junction box.'
A JLR spokesperson commented: 'Vehicle and client safety is our top priority, and our vehicles undergo stringent testing and are made with strict adherence to safety standards. While we recognise how difficult this experience must have been for the client, an investigation by JLR found the cause of the incident could not be established and the matter is now in the hands of the client's insurer.'
At the time of writing, Hart has still not received a pay-out from her insurer.
The experience was made even more disappointing because Hart had always aspired to own a Range Rover. 'Since I was a young girl growing up in a rural village and admiring Range Rovers, it was my dream car,' says Hart. 'I have been a Range Rover driver for 15 years and have always loved them.
'I tried a couple of times to leave the brand [she test drove models from Audi, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen] but got stuck in. They are far and away the best luxury workhorse available. This was my seventh Range Rover. I tow horses on a regular basis, own three labradors and use the car for what I believed Range Rovers were built for: to be a highly functional yet luxury vehicle.'
Despite her evident love of the brand, the experience has caused her to move away from it. She says: 'Given the history with the vehicle from four months after purchase, I had completely lost confidence in it, JLR and the network that is in place to support customers.
'I have heard of two or three that have had similar 'thermal events', as JLR refers to them. I will also be super nervous of driving any car that starts showing faults that cannot be identified or rectified, as happened to mine after the alternator repair.
'I deliberated over purchasing a [Land Rover] Defender. I was told they have a different wiring loom and configuration to the Range Rover, but I just couldn't bring myself to spend more money with JLR. I am now driving and towing with a Volkswagen Amarok. It is a compromise: it's a great truck. But it is a truck, not a luxury vehicle.'