Range Rover Velar ready to roll

SOPHISTICATED, sleek and extremely desirable, the new Range Rover Velar has been revealed ahead of its public debut at next week’s Geneva Motor Show.
Up for grabs this summer with a starting tab of £44,830, the newcomer will slot into Land Rover’s luxury SUV line-up between the top-selling Evoque and larger Range Rover Sport.
And as you can see from our pictures, the Velar has a low-slung, aerodynamic style certain to attract suitors in their droves.
The car will herald plenty of features new to the brand, including the first of Jaguar Land Rover’s Ingenium petrol engines.

Advanced technology is pivotal to the Velar’s design, and the Matrix Laser-LED headlights are the most slender ever to appear on a production Land Rover vehicle.Buyers will also get flush retractable door handles, the option of 22-inch alloy wheels and a low drag coefficient to make it the most aerodynamically-efficient Land Rover ever produced.
Land Rover describes the interior as oozing “elegant simplicity, sophistication and refinement” with a pair of 10-inch info touchscreens dominating the dash, while the fascia has both a digital instrument panel and head-up display.
Leather-clad luxury graces the higher spec variants of what is in truth a spacious four-seater – there is a centre rear seat, but it’s more a 40:20:40 configuration.

Up front there’s a Sports-Command driving position and seats with 20-way adjustment plus heating, cooling and massage functions.
From entry-level, the Velar will be powered by the existing 180bhp 2.0-litre diesel claimed to return an average 52.5 miles per gallon and useful acceleration of 0-60mph in 8.4 seconds.
At the opposite end of the spectrum is a supercharged V6 petrol unit delivering 380bhp, fiery performance of 0-60mph in 5.3 seconds and an official fuel figure of 30.1mpg. It costs a princely £85,450 in flagship First Edition trim.
There are six powertrains in all, the all-new offering being the 250bhp 2.0-litre petrol version, which starts at £52,150.

Land Rover says it will be capable of returning an average 37.2mpg, reach 62mph from standstill in 6.4 seconds and top out at 135mph.
In common with all Land Rover vehicles, the Velar has all-terrain ability, using an electronic Terrain Response set-up, ground clearance is more than eight inches and there’s a 2ft wading limit.
A full suite of advanced safety systems include Autonomous Emergency Braking with pedestrian detection, Reverse Traffic Detection and Driver Condition Monitoring.
And if you’re wondering where the car’s name comes from, Velar was the codename Land Rover gave to the original Range Rover prototype back in 1969.