While travelling through Death Valley in Eastern California, Carscoop reader Perry D. stumbled upon a convoy of Land Rover prototypes including the compact five-door Range Rover Evoque and the full-size 2013 Range Rover luxury SUV.
We’re not sure what the camo’ed up Evoque test cars with the swirly-whirly disguise were doing in Death Valley as the five-door model was unwrapped at last year’s Los Angeles Auto Show and is bound to go on sale in the States in October.
However, unless they had a supporting role, one possible explanation is that Land Rover’s engineers were testing the baby Range Rover with a different powertrain setup.
Things are clearer when it comes to the 2013 Range Rover, which we’ve spied in several occasions with the same exact camouflage while testing in Europe.
The British firm’s flagship model is expected to land towards the end of 2012 or early 2013 and will be significantly lighter than the current model thanks to the aluminium chassis and an alloy body shell.
The new Range Rover will be offered with a revised engine lineup of V6 and V8 diesels, and V8 petrol units, the latter in both naturally aspirated and supercharged formats, matched to Land Rover’s 8-speed automatic transmission.
More importantly, Land Rover is said to be developing plug-in hybrid variants paired up with diesel and gasoline engines, as previewed by the Range_e concept shown earlier this year.
Along with the Land Rover models, Perry also spotted a couple of Chevrolet Volts (one of which had a “press” sticker) that don’t look any different than the ones that are for sale.
Thanks go to Perry D. for the scoop!
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