First Look At The Range Rover Velar

Can you believe it has been forty-seven years since Land Rover first launched the original Range Rover? In addition to the flagship, the company have since added Discovery and Evoque models and have now swiftly followed up with the introduction of the fourth member of the Range Rover family, The Velar.

Design Confidence

With the family resemblance now filtering through the entire model line-up, the Range Rover Velar adds yet another dimension of modernity and elegance designed to segue neatly between the Evoque and the Range Rover Sport models. As you might expect, Velar offers levels of luxury, refinement and all-terrain capability unrivalled in the already crowded mid-size SUV segment. It certainly appears that the company have, in a sense, reinvented the Range Rover. Again.

According to the usual company hyperbole, the Velar leads the way in terms of design, usable technology and new materials. It’s a looker alright yet still retains Land Rover’s now legendary ability to go anywhere and do anything.

On the outside the design is beautifully balanced, from its powerful proportions to its continuous waist line through to the tapered lines of the rear. The generous wheelbase contributes significantly to its elegance while helping to provide a spacious interior and refined handling. The large alloy wheels look fabulous it has to be said, enhancing the Velar’s considerable presence.

Advanced technology is to the fore. The full-LED headlights are slender and the flush door handles (they deploy smoothly from the body work when the car is unlocked) emphasise the overall shape and contribute to a low drag coefficient from only 0.32. For a vehicle that started with all the aero qualities of a house brick, the Velar is the most aerodynamically-efficient Land Rover ever produced.

Minimalist Interior

Look inside the Velar and you are immediately struck by the elegant simplicity and refinement. Switches are kept to an absolute minimum and the whole is designed to help create a calm passenger sanctuary, in the words of the company.

The latest technology has been engaged fully to create the new Touch Pro Duo infotainment system which is the centre-piece of the SUV’s interior. Touch Pro Duo features two 10-inch high-definition touchscreens integrated seamlessly behind secret-until-lit surfaces. These slim displays work intuitively in harmony with the cabin architecture while adding an overall sense of modernity in line with with the vehicle’s exterior design.

The luggage compartment volume is an impressive 632 litres including a reduced-section spare wheel (standard in the UK). Of especial interest are the seats. Covered with a sustainable (we are told), premium textile seat material as an alternative to leather, the ‘Dapple Grey’ material was developed with Kvadrat, a European manufacturer of high-quality design textiles, and is complemented with Suede cloth inserts in Ebony or Light Oyster.

The Drive

The light, stiff, aluminium-intensive body, together with double-wishbone front and Integral Link rear suspension provides the perfect basis for agile handling, refined ride comfort. It also delivers exceptional levels of crash protection having been developed to meet the most demanding crash test regulations worldwide, say Land Rover.

Safety kit includes six airbags, and a suite of advanced driver assistance systems including Autonomous Emergency Braking with pedestrian detection, Adaptive Cruise Control with Queue Assist (optional) and an Adaptive Speed Limiter.

It’s a Range Rover so of course the Velar features a the usual sophisticated all-wheel drive system and could add four-corner air suspension, (available on 300PS Diesel and 380PS Petrol engines). The tradition for class-leading ground clearance and wading ability also comes with Land Rover’s unmatched suite of traction technologies including Terrain Response 2 (optional) and All Terrain Progress Control (optional).

There’s a range of six petrol and Ingenium diesel powertrains – from 178bhp to the monster 377bhp V6, all matched to the smooth-shifting ZF eight-speed automatic transmissions and all-wheel drive with Intelligent Driveline Dynamics. Range Rover have done it again with the Velar. Available to order now and why not?

Geoff Maxted

DriveWrite.co.uk