While the UK auto industry headlines focus elsewhere in the Geneva motor show halls, the Range Rover Velar is an important unveiling for the home industry.
The Velar is a truly British car, designed at Jaguar Land Rover’s Gaydon studios and to be built in the JLR plant in Solihull, Birmingham. Its Ingenium powertrain range, meanwhile, will come out of the recently-constructed engine plant near Wolverhampton in the West Midlands.
JLR sales have been mushrooming in recent times, Land Rover registrations alone up by close to 20 per cent in 2016, and the Velar is expected to further boost this progress.
Targeting Porsche rival
Sitting between the existing Range Rover Evoque and Sport lines, the Velar will be expected to widen the Land Rover brand’s customer base and attract buyers away from the Macan of rival Porsche.
The car sits on the same platform as the F-Pace SUV that has already proven a major success for sister company Jaguar, and will be offered with a six-strong powertrain range. The name comes from the development of the original Range Rover of 1970 – the title Velare, derived from the Latin velare meaning to veil or cover, was given to the 26 pre-production examples of the Range Rover produced.
Sales of the newcomer start in July, with the Range Rover Velar priced from £44,830 to £85,450.
