Range Rover Evoque: Evoque details +video

The Range Rover Evoque - Video below

We got the reveal of the new Range Rover Evoque on Thursday night at Kensington Palace, and we were delighted to see that the production version has come through almost unchanged from the original concept. But it wasn’t actually a big surprise  after the Range Rover Evoque spy photos we published showed a very similar silhouette to the original LRX Concept.

The Kensington Palace reveal was about capping off Range Rover’s 40th Anniversary with a flourish; the way forward being the plan. And it’s a good way forward. A premium but economical Range Rover which will even have a 2WD option. A sacriligous thought just a few years ago, but a pragmatic marketing move in the current climate where ‘Soft-Roaders’ are still selling well.

We are assuming the Evoque is going to get a version of the 2.2 litre PSA diesel from the Freelander, although Land Rover hasn’t confirmed this. It’s probably too soon to expect Land Rover’s desire to build their own 4 pot engines to have reached fruition by the time the Evoque launches next Summer, although it seems likely that will happen at some point in the Evoque’s lifespan.

Also planned is a Hybrid option for the Evoque. Again, we don’t have much information but it seems likely that a hybrid Evoque will use the diesel engine to drive the front wheels and an electric motor to drive the back. Land Rover do have in development a hybrid system with a 50bhp electric motor housed in the ZF auto ‘box which we expect will be launched in the 2012/2013 Range Rover. But it’s unlikely the Evoque will get this system.

As far as the gizmos and gadgets go we think you should probably expect the Evoque to be a ‘New Media’ car. Expect proper interaction between the car, the web and your Smart Phone. Hopefully LR will have the sense to make sure that the Evoque interacts with Android as well as iPhone, because by the time it launches we guess the Android phone will be offering more than the iPhone and be more ubiquitous.

With a year to go before the Range Rover Evoque hits the road we will no doubt get the answers to a lot of our questions in the form of a tease. JLR proved they are masters at the drawn-out tease with the launch of the new XJ last year, and LR are obviously going to go this route.

More as we get it. But please, don’t milk it to the point of boredom.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb9q5vCkrh8

By Cars UK