The fourth member of the continuously expanding Range Rover family is the Velar that has been partially revealed before it celebrates its debut in full at next month’s Geneva Motor Show.
Named after the first Range Rover prototypes of the 1960s, the Velar occupies the space between the existing, entry-level (starts from around $41k) Range Rover Evoque and the larger (priced from $65k) Range Rover Sport in the brand’s lineup.
While no prices have been released yet, if Land Rover splits the difference at around $50k, then it could compete against the Porsche Macan and possibly even both the BMW X4 and X6.
The single teaser image shows a bird’s eye view of the rear, revealing a panoramic glass roof that takes up more than three-quarters of the top, horizontal, instead Range Rover’s usual vertical tail lamps, plus a faraway peep at the widescreen infotainment system.
Naturally, Land Rover Chief Design Officer, Gerry McGovern, has plenty of superlatives for the new model: “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.”
While nothing else was revealed about the Velar, it’s not much of a secret that it’s closely related to the Jaguar F-Pace sharing the same aluminum-intensive IQ platform developed with more emphasis on performance rather than off-road capabilities.
It is understood that the Velar will offer a mix of four-cylinder and V6 engines found in the smaller Evoque and the larger Sport, with a high-performance V8 and a frugal plug-in hybrid also likely.
Land Rover said it will tell us more about the Velar on March 1.
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