Land Rover Spackles the Gap Between the Range Rover Sport and Evoque With the Velar

February 22nd, 2017 10:47 AM

Land Rover has confirmed Velar as the name of Range Rover’s new luxury crossover, positioned to rival Porsche’s Macan.

While Velar sounds hand-picked to hang in the air and mimic the vowel placement of the Macan, Land Rover has used it before. According to the company, the name is derived from the original Range Rover prototypes from 1969, dubbed Velar as a way to disguise or veil them. Although why any vehicle before the Defender would need a secret working title is rather baffling when the company called almost every product it made before 1983 either “Range Rover” or “Land Rover” — sometimes tacking on a generational identifier, like “Series III.”

Still, any tieback you can make to your heritage is a win when it comes to marketing. Velar also fits Range Rover’s premium image and borderline sensual naming strategy that started with the Evoque. These are names that would work just as well being whispered by a model in a perfume advertisement; they just so happen to also be the names of two British sport utility vehicles.

“We call the Velar the avant garde Range Rover. It brings a new dimension of glamour, modernity and elegance to the brand,” Land Rover’s Chief Design Officer, Gerry McGovern, said in a statement.

That probably means it won’t be as enjoyably good off-road as it is on the pavement and in parking lots.

The Velar will be the first of Land Rover’s ilk to use JLR’s iQ/D7A all-wheel/rear-wheel-drive platform that is currently being used on the Jaguar XE sedan and F-Pace SUV. Engine options will likely be dependent upon market, with the Ingenium 2.0-liter turbocharged diesel four and 3.0 liter supercharged gasoline-burning V6 a near guarantee no matter where you live.

A good way to see what else might be on offer for your home country is to check and see how you can equip the current Jaguar F-Pace.

It will be priced — and sized — somewhere between the $41,800 Evoque and $65,650 Range Rover Sport. The assumptions is that it’ll be offered with a panoramic sunroof and appear as the above teaser photo suggests, however, that ultra-clean buttonless interior looks to be straight out of a concept car. What we’re seeing may not be a finished product. Full details of the Range Rover Velar will be announced next month.

[Image: Jaguar Land Rover]

#Crossovers #LandRover #LuxuryCrossover #RangeRover #RangeRoverVelar #SUVs #Velar

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Spike_in_Brisbane on Feb 22, 2017

I cannot pronounce the baby Porsche station wagon's name without saying the whole thing.......... Mac an' cheese.

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SuperCarEnthusiast on Feb 26, 2017

Always wanted a Range Rover that was around 186" in length! Maybe this is the one!

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DenverMike When was it ever a mystery? The Fairmont maybe, but only the 4-door "Futura" trim, that was distinctively upscale. The Citation and Volare didn't have competing trims, nor was there a base stripper Maxima at the time, if ever, crank windows, vinyl seats, 2-doors, etc. So it wasn't a "massacre", not even in spirit, just different market segments. It could be that the Maxima was intended to compete with those, but everything coming from Japan at the time had to take it up a notch, if not two.Thanks to the Japanese "voluntary" trade restriction, everything had extra options, if not hard loaded. The restriction limited how many vehicles were shipped, not what they retailed at. So Japanese automakers naturally raised the "price" (or stakes) without raising MSRP. What the dealers charged (gouged) was a different story.Realistically, the Maxima was going up against entry luxury sedans (except Cimarron lol), especially Euro/German, same as the Cressida. It definitely worked in Japanese automaker's favor, not to mention inspiring Lexus, Acura and Infiniti.
Ronnie Schreiber Hydrocarbon based fuels have become unreliable? More expensive at the moment but I haven't seen any lines gathering around gas stations lately, have you? I'm old enough to remember actual gasoline shortages in 1973 and 1979 (of course, since then there have been many recoverable oil deposits discovered around the world plus the introduction of fracking). Consumers Power is still supplying me with natural gas. I recently went camping and had no problem buying propane.Texas had grid problems last winter because they replaced fossil fueled power plants with wind and solar, which didn't work in the cold weather. That's the definition of unreliable.I'm an "all of the above" guy when it comes to energy: fossil fuels, hydro, wind (where it makes sense), nuclear (including funding for fusion research), and possibly solar.Environmental activists, it seems to me, have no interest in energy diversity. Based on what's happened in Sri Lanka and the push against agriculture in Europe and Canada, I think it's safe to say that some folks want most of us to live like medieval peasants to save the planet for their own private jets.
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MaintenanceCosts There's no mystery anymore about how the Japanese took over the prestige spot in the US mass market (especially on the west coast) when you realize that this thing was up against the likes of the Fairmont, Citation, and Volaré. A massacre.