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COOL NEW VELAR IS FLUID AND QUIET

The Range Rover and Land Rover ranges can be a bit confusing. Where, for example, does a Discovery Sport sit in relation to an Evoque? Or a Discovery in relation to a Defender? There’s a lot of crossover in price and function.

I’ve never quite got my head around the purpose of the Range Rover Velar. It’s meant to be more road-focused than its siblings, but that’s the role the Jaguar F-pace occupies.

Now the Velar has added appeal, especially if you’re a business user, because it’s available with a plug-in hybrid powertrain. We’ve just tested it on the roads around Malvern and, interestingly, on JLR’S off-road test centre at Eastnor Castle.

What we have under the Velar P400e’s bonnet is JLR’S fourcylinder, two-litre petrol engine which, in this application, produces 300PS.

Connected to this is a 141bhp electric motor which in combination with the petrol engine produces a total of 400PS (hence the P400e badge). Hidden away is a 17.1kwh battery pack which Land Rover claims gives the Velar PHEV an electric-only range of 33 miles. That might be tricky to achieve but we managed 20 miles without too much difficulty.

The Velar is the least 4x4ish Range Rover you can buy. It doesn’t have a low-ratio transfer box and it doesn’t have the same extreme wading capabilities of its other family members.

That said, it’ll leave behind most other SUVS off-road. The new Defender is almost as impressive on-road as off but it isn’t as sophisticated, fluid and quiet on the road as the Velar. And the Velar, when whirring along in electric mode, really is serene. It’s worth eking out the electric range for as long as possible because it delays the moment at which the petrol engine chimes back in.

It’s a pity the ride quality doesn’t match that of the Range Rover or Range Rover Sport. It doesn’t help that the addition of the batteries brings the weight up to 2,233kg, or that our test car was riding on huge 21-inch wheels.

There have been a few external tweaks to the Velar’s styling but you’d never notice, and not much has changed inside, either. That’s good news because the Velar’s interior is impressive anyway. There’s a new steering wheel and gear selector but, importantly, the car is now fitted with JLR’S Pivi Pro infotainment system.

This provides very crisp graphics, logical layout and ease of use. Even the voice recognition system seems to work better than most. It also has integrated Spotify (a personal favourite), the ability to pair two phones and it can receive over-the- air updates.

Even though the Velar is road-focused as mentioned, it’s impressive off-road. Even in electric mode. You’d think that climbing up muddy hills would gobble battery power but, in fact, because there’s usually a lot of coming down again, power consumption is modest in an off-road environment. What EVS really hate is sustained high speeds on motorways.

If you do big mileages and can’t make use of the tax advantages offered by a plug-in hybrid then I’d stick with one of the cheaper dieselpowered Velars. Otherwise, the P400e is a refined and very appealing addition to the range.