Range Rover Plugs the Hole in its Line-up

The craze for SUV’s seems to be gathering momentum with today’s official announcement from Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) of an all-new model to be shoe-horned into the Range Rover line-up, slotting in between the Evoque and the Discovery Sport. The new vehicle, called the Velar, is supposed to bring an ‘avant-garde’ feel to the line-up, with “new dimensions of glamour, modernity and elegance” to the brand; well, at least according to Chief Design Officer, Gerry McGovern.

In many ways, Range Rover invented the luxury SUV and soft-roader car segment. Nowadays, for just about every automaker, you need to have a number of SUV’s in your line-up to be able to compete globally, but not all soft-roaders have been created equal, and the new Velar promises to bring on-road manners with pure off-road pedigree.

There really are not a lot of details about the Velar in the marketplace now, but it is going to be a little bit bigger than the Victoria Beckham-styled Evoque, which is seen as a small SUV, and Discovery Sport, which is seen as a mid-sized SUV. So perhaps the Velar will be in the not-small-but-not-big SUV category, if there is one that is.

As the Velar is from the JLR stables, we can but assume that it may well have a lot in common with the F-Pace and come in the usual combination of two- or four-door five-seater combinations destined to compete firmly with the likes of the Merc GLC or BMW X3 or maybe even the Porsche Macan.

The official launch is 1 March and by that time we do expect to have a lot more information, including the minor details such as what powertrain options will be available, but it is a fair bet that engines and transmissions similar to the F-Pace will abound, and the 2-litre 247hp Ingenium family of engines will be featured; we will also probably find the 3-litre 340hp V6 in some high-spec variant of the Velar.

Of course if JLR has the nerve to put its 5-litre supercharged fire-spitting 550hp V8 into a super-sporty version, you will get no complaints from us.