Land Rover announces the introduction of the fourth member of the Range Rover family with a couple of teasers. The new Range Rover Velar will be unveiled on 1 March 2017.
The origin of the Velar name (pronounced vel-ar) dates back to the first Range Rover prototypes of the Sixties. When development engineers needed to hide the true identity of the 26 pre-production Range Rovers, they chose the name Velar, derived from the Latin velare meaning to veil or cover.
Land Rover Chief Design Officer, Gerry McGovern, said: “We call the Velar the avant garde Range Rover. It brings a new dimension of glamour, modernity and elegance to the brand. The Range Rover Velar changes everything.”
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The Velar will be positioned between the entry-level Evoque and the larger Sport in the Range Rover family. It shares its underpinnings with the Jaguar F-Pace, and that includes the Jag’s aluminum-intensive IQ platform. The Velar will be more urbane than the Sport in its outlook, and more premium than the Evoque.
Focus will be more on on-road dynamism, rather than out and out off-road prowess. As for the appearance, it’ll go the coupe-SUV way, but we reckon it’ll pull off that demeanour better than the BMW X6 or the Mercedes-Benz GLE Coupe.
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The Range Rover Velar will offer a mix of four-cylinder and V6 engines from the Evoque and the Sport, with a high-performance V8 powered SVR version hopefully joining the range at a later date. That said, a frugal plug-in hybrid also likely.
Full details of the Range Rover Velar will be announced on 1 March 2017.
