RAVE ROVER!
Ben Oliver kick starts our new number plates pullout – with the hottest model of 2017
THE new Range Rover Velar made its motor-show debut in Geneva last week – but it was first revealed to the world earlier this month at a glitzy event at London’s Design Museum.
Among A-list celebrities and royalty in attendance were Jimmy Carr, Rob Brydon, Piers Morgan and Zara Phillips – along with models Poppy Delevingne and David Gandy.
It felt like an occasion organised by the fashion industry, not the motor industry. But the event reflected Range Rover’s shift
from mud-splattered transport for the county set to global fashion brand. Like a Hermes handbag, the Range Rover Evoque has even been faked in China.
The new Velar embodies this shift and is the most important, exciting model the British car industry will launch this year.
Fuelled by strong design, a desirable image and a slew of new models, the Jaguar Land Rover group has seen its sales triple since 2009 to nearly 600,000 vehicles last year.
Land Rover, which includes Range Rover, accounts for 80 per cent of those sales.
The new Velar has the power to keep Land Rover growing, just as JLR boss Ralf Speth lent his support to a proposed £100million package to bolster the British car industry after Brexit.
Range Rover alone contributes £10billion to the UK economy, but it could grow further. There is a gap in its line-up between the Range Rover Evoque, starting at £30,000, and the Range Rover Sport, from £60,000.
The Velar will plug that gap, starting at £45,000 but with the priciest versions topping £90,000 with options. It is aimed squarely at Porsche’s riotously successful Macan mid-size luxury SUV and is intended to capture a whole new group of buyers.
Range Rover claims that it had 40,000 expressions of interest before the Velar was revealed.
Under the skin, the Velar is closely related to Jaguar’s F-Pace crossover and will be built in the same Solihull plant following a £1.5billion investment.
It uses the same lightweight aluminium construction and offers four- and six-cylinder petrol and diesel engines. The most powerful produces 380 horsepower and propels the Velar to 60mph in just 5.3 seconds. A 550hp V8-powered SVR version will follow.
The Velar introduces some neat new tricks. The ultra-slim headlights are made possible by new matrix-laser technology, and the elegant body sides aren’t spoiled by door handles because they pop out only when needed.
Inside, Land Rover has addressed fierce criticism of its old-fashioned in-car infotainment systems with a slick design. Two large pinch-and-swipe touchscreens control most of the car’s functions, often using the two clever physical dials that seem to float over the lower screen.
The Velar also reintroduces wool to luxury car cabins. Prewar cars often used wool upholstery, and the state limousines of the British Royal Family and Japanese imperial household still do because it is cooler and quieter to sit on than leather.
For the Velar, Range Rover has adapted a New Zealand wool blend used in high-end furniture and offers it as an option instead of leather. It costs the same.
But if the Velar is the success that JLR and the motoring press are suggesting, it will be largely down to Land Rover’s Coventryborn design director Gerry McGovern, not the cars’ famed mud-plugging ability. As one rival acknowledged, ‘they sell all those Range Rovers in China because of the way they look, not how good they are off-road’.
The new Velar will be less capable off-road than previous Range Rovers, with lower ground clearance and no low-range ‘crawler’ gear for traversing boulders or hauling heavy trailers. But that’s unlikely to affect its popularity.
McGovern says: ‘The Velar is modern, elegant and compelling. It’s glamorous, and making Range Rover glamorous is something that I’ve been accused of.
‘Well, I’ll take that. You go to London, to New York, to every major city in the world and you’ll see Range Rovers now.
‘We’re moving from the jungle, to the urban jungle.’
The door handles miraculously vanish