Range Rover Velar in the pipeline

RANGE Rover is planning to launch a new large-ish SUV, called Velar, to slot between the mid-sized Evoque and large Range Rover Sport, according to British news reports.

GoAuto has confirmed that the Velar brand name – Italian for veil – was registered in Australia last year by Range Rover’s British parent company Jaguar Land Rover Limited in readiness for the launch of the new model, potentially within the next 12 months.

The name was last used by JLR for secret prototypes for its original Range Rover in the late 1960s.

Although the British reports suggest the Velar will make its first appearance at the Geneva motor show next month, sources at JLR Australia have indicated this is incorrect.

The BMW X6/Mercedes-Benz GLE Coupe competitor is said to be based on JLR’s aluminium-intensive IQ platform that underpins Jaguar’s F-Pace.

According to Autocar, the five-seat Velar will also share JLR’S Ingenium four-cylinder diesel and petrol engines, as well as the Ford-sourced V6s currently used in a variety of JLR products until JLR’s own Ingenium-based V6s are ready.

Plug-in hybrid and supercharged V8 powertrains have also been mooted for Velar by the British press.

All engines are set to be mounted longitudinally, unlike those of the Evoque which has a transverse layout for its range of four-cylinder powerplants.

Velar is likely to be built alongside the F-Pace on the Solihill production line that also produces the Discovery-based Range Rover Sport.

If the British reports are correct, all Velars will be equipped with a 4x4 powertrain, but without the dual-range off-road capability of larger Range Rovers and Discoverys.

This slots it directly against the main German rivals that have carved out a large chunk of the global “lifestyle” luxury SUV market.

Assuming the Velar is somewhere around the same size as F-Pace (4731mm long), it would be about 376mm longer than Evoque and 129mm shorter than Range Rover Sport.

Price-wise, the Evoque wagon starts at $56,050 plus on-road costs for the base diesel Td4 Pure in Australia, while the Range Rover Sport kicks off at $90,900.

The F-Pace starts directly in the middle of those two, at $74,340.

Last year in Australia, JLR sold 13,597 Land Rover Discovery and Range Rover vehicles, up 14.4 per cent on 2015. The top-selling Range Rover was the Sport, with 3099 sales, followed by the Evoque on 2732.

In its first year on the market, Jaguar’s F-Pace accrued 829 sales.