Splashing out? Here’s the Velar, the ‘fourth’ Range Rover. It’s here this week and costs from €62,000

RANGE ROVER’S new SUV, the Velar, goes on sale here this week, and I can reveal that prices for the striking-looking machine will start from €62,240 ex-works.

This will be the fourth Range Rover on the market (the Evoque, Range Rover Sport and eponymous flagship are the other three).

Its arrival highlights just how much current and anticipated demand there is, and will be, for premium SUVs for the foreseeable future. They expect 500 people to buy a Velar in a full-market year.

They are making this new arrival, which they describe as “avant garde”, for people who want something larger than the current Evoque but something not quite as large as the Range Rover Sport.

It is being built in the UK and, as is now de rigueur, uses the brand’s lightweight aluminium intensive architecture to help reduce the kgs while increasing body rigidity.

Powering the new Velar are Jaguar Land Rover’s Ingenium 2-litre diesel engines with two different power outputs: 180bhp and 240bhp.

And there is a range-topping 3-litre V6 diesel in the line-up for Ireland. It develops an impressive 300bhp.

All models will have 4WD and automatic transmission as standard.

There will also be a specially equipped 3-litre First Edition.

On perusal of an extensive list of items in the car, it looks like there is a high level of specification and trim from entry level.

You’ll certainly have plenty of choice: there are several equipment levels, from Standard to R-Dynamic HSE.

And if that’s not enough, there’s a big spread of options.

Among the key elements of the interior are two high-definition 10ins touchscreens – described as “your window into the world” – that allow simple control of functions and infotainment.

There are also full Matrix-Laser LED headlights which, they claim, are the shallowest on a production Range Rover.