- Velar, the fourth member of the Range Rover family unveiled
After a few leaked pictures and more than a few teasers, the newest member of the Range Rover family has officially been unveiled. The new Velar (which means ‘To Veil’ or ‘To Cover’) is the forth SUV in the Range Rover family and sits snugly in between the Range Rover Evoque and the Range Rover Sport. The new Range Rover Velar will of course be making it to India next year with a possible 2018 Auto Expo unveil and should be priced around the Rs 70-80 lakh mark to go up against the likes of the BMW X5, the Audi Q7, the Volvo XC90 and even the Jaguar F-Pace and the Porsche Macan.
The Velar gets laser technology for its headlights combined with a very tell-tale signature Range Rover LED daytime running light pattern and a large cross mesh style grille. The Velar is also one of the most aggressive looking products that has been launched from Land Rover with its angular vented bumper and elongated side slit design elements that runs from the fender on to the front doors.
The Velar also gets a set of 22-inch wheels on the top of the line spec, which perfectly fills up the large wheel arches. Apart from being sporty and discreetly muscular, the Velar is also very efficient with its design with a drag co-efficient of only 0.32 which makes it the most aerodynamic Land Rover ever produced. The floating roof design that Land Rover has pioneered and the clamshell bonnet both make an obvious appearance on the Velar too.
The Velar’s roofline is also as raked as the one on the Evoque, which gives it an almost coupe-like stance as compared to the likes of the Sport, or the full sized Range Rover. Although the Velar has a shorter front overhang, the rear is slightly longer accentuating the length of the car. The Velar also gets completely flush mounted door handles that automatically retract at speeds up to 8 kmph and can even work with over 4 mm of ice on them.
But it is the insides of the Velar that truly impresses. If you thought Land Rover could do no better with its interior design, take one look at the new interior on the Velar! For starters, there are two 10-inch screens that are flush mounted into the Velar’s dashboard and activate when the car is started. The top screen is the conventional infotainment screen and features the likes of the media interface, reversing camera displays and navigation. The lower screen features controls for the climate control, seat heating and cooling and for the first time ever, the controls for the terrain response.
That said, there are still a few knobs that the Velar uses for easy adjustment of the climate control and they sit flush with the screen console and rise up dramatically when the SUV is started. The controls moving into the screen also opens up a lot of space and storage room in the centre console. The instrument cluster can be specified in two options. You can either get two analogue dials with a 5-inch TFT screen in the centre or a large 12.5-inch full digital instrument cluster. The steering wheel controls have also been replaced from conventional buttons to a set of capacitor based touch sensitive buttons that are backlit.
The seats themselves are electronically adjustable in 20 ways and features both heating and cooling in certain specs. The Velar also gets an option of a leather interior package or a premium cloth based interior instead. That said, the cloth used is a special microfiber blend that is made from recycled plastic bottles and will be combined with extremely high quality suede! The departure of a leather only interior to something classical like a cloth interior (and yet with a globally conscious approach) is definitely something we are looking forward to taking a look at.
Under the skin, the Velar is still a Land Rover. And this means that it will still go off-road with a relative ease and will still be offered with the Terrain Response 2 system that is offered on all modern Land Rover cars. Under the hood will be a 2.0 litre diesel engine with either 178 bhp/430 Nm or 237 bhp/500 Nm. The larger diesel engine will be a 3.0 litre motor with 296 bhp/700 Nm.
The petrol motor on the other hand will be a 2.0 litre Ingenium engine available in 247 bhp/365 Nm or 296 bhp/400 Nm. The latter is the most powerful petrol 4-cylinder petrol engine to ever be used in any Land Rover product. There is also a 3.0 litre petrol supercharged V6 with 375 bhp/450 Nm which will be equipped with a sportier exhaust note that has been specifically tuned for the Velar. All the engines are Euro 6 compliant and will be mated to the ZF 8-speed automatic gearbox.
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