Range Rover has teased its mysterious new Velar – the luxury SUV for the “avant garde”
Range Rover has unveiled its latest luxury SUV with a single, mysterious photograph – dubbing it the "avant garde Range Rover".
The Velar is designed to fill the "white space" between the Range Rover Evoque and the Range Rover Sport, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), which owns the brand, said today.
It added the new addition is derived from the original Range Rover prototypes created in 1969, with "a new dimension of glamour, modernity and elegance".
Its name, pronounced "Vel-ar", is derived from the Latin velare, meaning to veil or cover.
Range Rover has been deliberately mysterious about the vehicle: it said it is designed "for every terrain" and uses a "visually reductive approach and pioneering consumer technoogy". It also uses sustainable materials and advance engineering to help Land Rover meet its environmental targets.
But the real unveiling will take place on 1 March – so SUV fans will have to wait until then to catch a proper glimpse.
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Defending against the Defender
There's a good chance the new SUV will go head-to-head with a rejig of one of its ancestors, the Land Rover Defender, which fracking entrepreneur Jim Ratcliffe has vowed to lovingly recreate.
Although JLR stopped production of the iconic SUV, a favourite of the Queen, in January last year, Ratcliffe has said he will create a new vehicle which embodies the spirit of the Defender.
In an interview with Radio 4 last week, Tom Crotty, the director of Ratcliffe's Ineos, said the entrepreneur had decided against buying the intellectual property to the car, as had previously been rumoured.
But Crotty added the new vehicle will be produced in its entirety in the UK.
"It is Jim's brainchild. He had a passion for this type of vehicle, he sees the opportunity."