The £45k Range Rover Velar Has A Clever Digital Interior And Is All About The Lifestyle
Land Rover has just unveiled the Range Rover Velar fully for the first time at a special event at London’s Design Museum.
We now know that the range will start from £44,830 and rise to a buttock-clenching £85,450 for a supercharged V6 First Edition. It will use a brand new interior with a massively reduced count of traditional buttons. In a supreme piece of marketing invention, Land Rover is calling the process ‘reductionism’, simplifying the interior by ‘hiding’ many features until they are needed, at which point the relevant capacitive touch-sensitive buttons are lit from behind.
The interior is heavily digitised, with two 10-inch touch-screens and two rotary dials making up the infotainment system. We hope they’ve overcome the strange niggles that affected our long-term XE S. The upper of the two screens can be tilted by up to 30 degrees, allowing some control against glare.
The Velar, which sits between the Evoque and Sport models already in Range Rover’s line-up, will have the company’s now-traditional manual Terrain Response system for tackling the rough stuff. The more advanced Terrain Response 2 with its automatic grip-sensing mode and All Terrain Progress Control, which maintains a set crawling speed to allow the driver to focus on steering, are on the options list.
The new SUV looks a lot like a nine-tenths scale Range Rover Sport, except for the massive 22-inch wheels in the pictures that look a little too big and would be terrible off-road. There are apparently several designs of that size to choose from, so the Velar is clearly focused on winning buyers who want style and a world-leading off-road reputation rather than a mud-plugging workhorse for farm duties.
The press release is littered with words like glamour, agility, elegance and composure, of course, as these things have to be. Back on the straight and narrow, though, there will be six engines. First are the 177bhp and 236bhp Ingenium diesels, which will be the big sellers, followed by a 3.0-litre diesel V6 with 296bhp. On the petrol side are 246bhp and 296bhp versions of a 2.0-litre unit, while the most expensive will be the 375bhp supercharged V6 we know and love from cars like the Jaguar XF S and F-Type S.
If you want to tow, the Velar can haul up to 2.5 tons, and there’s a clever optional (again) Advanced Tow Assist system that computerises the reversing-with-trailer process, allowing the driver to control the angle of the manoeuvre by twiddling a rotary dial.
The Velar name harks back to the very first Range Rover prototypes in the late 1960s, which were badged with the same name. We look forward to getting to know the new kid better later this year.
Comments
I’ve just had a crisis…
Looks a little out of proportion. Probably because it uses the same platform and other structural components as the F-Pace, which has a tall front area of the body and lower ride height than Land Rover platforms to make it sportier and to accommodate for the large Jag grille. By contrast Land Rovers have always had slimmer, more discreet grilles, as is the same here
This “turn everything into an iPad” trend… RIP physical buttons and switches
Buttons > any touch screen
Hate it. New Golf also has it which means not turning the volume up easily
I don’t see any problem (if it works well and if it’s practical…) Car makers are putting screens everywhere into their concepts, and in most production cars we can’t get a decent screen. I think this interior looks rather good!
RIP Buttons. Long live easily hackable technology
*cough cough
The only car with donk rims from the factory
Here just look at this and make a choice.
This is the most turboactive car i’ve ever seen. Does it come with surfboards as standard?
Congratulations land rover! You just have made a capable off road vehicle that will be owned by rich footballer wives with their gucci or Louis Vutton bags to take children to the school, have a frapuccino at starbucks, take their french poodle to a canine stylist, go to the gym to have instagram selfies and then go with their hypocrite friends and complain about how life is boring and need more luxuries….. RIP Land Rover you once were the symbol of adventure, and freedom without road restrictions
Truest thing I’ve ever heard about the modern Range Rover. Well said.
Don’t forget that It could be owned by the Kardashians
Next One wont have a back window at all i guess
When will manufacturers learn that will going digital is great for passengers, but for the driver it’s downright distracting and dangerous. I mean why would you design something that makes you take your eyes off the road to work it? Next they’ll be hiding the indicators in a menu in the infotainment.
Agreed, I can operate every single thing in my Golf while looking at the road, I can’t see the reasoning behind putting things like heated seat controls (a satisfying “clicky-wheel-thing” in my car) into a touch screen.
This is just another waste of a car. Not even 1% of these cars will ever go off-road. All they’ll be used for is wealthy soccer-moms going shopping, to that overpriced coffee shop with about 100 different coffees on sale and to the gym where they take selfies and chat instead of work out. The brand that once stood for adventure and exploration is dying, and the biggest sign of that is that whenever I see a Range Rover, I immediately dislike whoever’s inside it.
i get that the people who buy them most will never take it off road. But you can say that about any off road vehicle, hilux, jeep, navara most will never go off road. But thats the not the manufactures faults they build cars that people ask for and want. They are a business so they build what will sell. Its sad that most will never go off road but it is nice that some will.