Range Rover hints at sports car plan
Range Rover, a brand synonymous with SUVs, is planning to build a sports car, taking the ultimate revenge on the countless brands that have invaded what used to be its space, according to Land Rover’s enigmatic chief design officer, Gerry McGovern.
Speaking to journalists in Utah at the launch of the vitally important new Discovery, and immediately after the sneak-peek of the all-new Range Rover Velar was released, McGovern was asked whether the brand would consider building a traditional passenger car. ‘‘Why not?’’ he exclaimed. ‘‘If you look at other brands they’ve come into the SUV territory, why couldn’t Land Rover, and Range Rover particularly, go into that territory?’’
The move should be no less shocking, of course, than sister brand Jaguar producing the hugely successful F-Pace, which uses Land Rover components. Jaguar could soon be repaying the favour.
‘‘The thing about Range Rover, as a brand it has massive equity, it has equity comparable to certain fashion brands, not because it’s fashionable but in terms of the (sales) margins,’’ McGovern added.
‘‘I’d argue that Range Rover, as a brand, is peerless, there’s nothing else like it, and we’ve proven it with things like the Evoque, and we’ll prove it again with the Velar, that we have the ability to stretch and to have much greater resonance in the market place.
‘‘I think there are lots of opportunities.’’
Range Rover is set to introduce a fourth model named the Velar.
Switching to the Velar, McGovern was keen to retain some mystery before the launch of Range Rover’s all-new model, which will sit between the Range Rover Sport and the Evoque, but he insisted it was ‘‘not a coupe’’, and rejected comparisons with the BMW X6 and Mercedes-Benz GLE Coupe.
‘‘This will blow the spots off the lot, that’s all I’m saying, wait until you see it,’’ he enthused.
‘‘People can criticise the hell out of me but this brand is on fire. What will be the proof of the pudding is how these cars sell, and when you see Velar, you’ll be quite surprised by it, you really will. It really is a master class in a modernist, less-is-more approach.
‘‘The Velar is a new type of Range Rover for a new type of customer, and I think it will really change the perceptions of what the brand is about.
‘‘And it’s being done in a very unique way. There might be things that are comparable in terms of its overall size, but there’s nothing like it, in terms of what it is.’’
McGovern also confirmed that the name of the new Range Rover is pronounced ‘‘vel-are’’ and that its name comes from a Latin term meaning ‘‘to veil, to hide, to disguise’’.
‘‘It was a name given to the first Range Rover prototypes. Before Range Rover, there was no such thing, so you didn’t have to camouflage the car, just change the name,’’ he said.