Land Rover is looking to steal sales away from the BMW X6 and Mercedes-Benz GLE Coupe as well as the Porsche Macan with a new coupe-SUV that will go under the Range Rover brand.
A new report from Autocar that also includes the renders you see here claims that the British company will revive the ‘Velar’ nameplate that was used on secret prototypes of the original Range Rover in the late 1960s.
The Velar moniker was trademarked almost a year ago, along with the I-Pace and I-Type names, which are already used on two Jaguars, an EV crossover concept and a zero-emission racer that competes in the FIA Formula E Championship.
Returning to the Range Rover Velar, it’s expected to slot between the Evoque and the Range Rover Sport featuring sportier profile with a sloping roofline. It will be based on JLR’s aluminum-intensive architecture, shared with the Jaguar F-Pace, and like the latter, it will place more focus on delivering performance in urban rather than off-road settings.
The engine lineup will likely include four- and six-cylinder petrol and diesel engines, along with a possible supercharged V8 in the range-topping SVR. Moreover, previous reports indicate a possible all-electric variant that could join the lineup at some point, though a hybrid, based on the 3.0-liter V6 diesel used in the current Range Rover Sport, sounds more likely.
The report from the British magazine says that Land Rover will drop the curtain for the new Range Rover Velar in less than a month’s time at the Geneva Motor Show in March.
Renderings used with permission from Autocar
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