New 2019 Range Rover Evoque on sale now: prices, specs and full details
The all-new Range Rover Evoque is here! The wraps are off the latest version of the baby Range Rover and we’ve got all the details…
This is the all-new Range Rover Evoque, which has been revealed at an event in London and is on sale now, with first deliveries expected in spring 2019. Prices for the new Evoque start from £31,600.
The second generation of Land Rover’s popular small SUV gets a fresh platform, a cleaner look and mild hybrid technology across most of its range, in a bid to be more efficient and match the sophistication of some of its stablemates - notably the Velar - while also answering existing Evoque owners’ calls for more room in the cabin and a bigger boot. It also ditches the three-door ‘coupe’ model to become five-door only.
• Read all about our drive in the new Evoque
Land Rover design director Gerry McGovern says the car’s looks are “meant to be unmistakably Evoque, while being unmistakably the new Evoque”. Key elements, such as the clamshell bonnet interrupted by the bulging front wheelarches, and the ultra-slim rear glass area, have been retained. But there’s a much cleaner look along the Evoque’s flanks, with flush door handles (as seen on the Velar) and a less complex surfacing on the doors, with none of the horizontal creases of the Mk1.
The end result is a car that is clearly still the Evoque, but one that has a more grown-up, more sophisticated appearance. This is helped further by an increase in wheel sizes; the new car’s alloys range from 17 inches up to an optional 21 inches.
New Evoque platform, engines and hybrid tech
Under the skin, there are significant changes; more than 90 per cent of the components in the car’s bare body are new, in fact, and the Evoque is the first Jaguar Land Rover model to be based on the firm’s all-new Premium Transverse Architecture. The new platform is designed to offer the companies’ smaller models more scope for technical progress (in particular in electrification) than the old car’s LR-MS set-up, which could be traced back to the second-generation Freelander and Ford’s ownership of the British brands.
PTA has been designed from the outset to offer electrification - and that’s precisely what will be available on the Evoque, because all automatic variants, regardless of whether they’re diesel or petrol, will have a 48-volt mild hybrid system equipped with an 8Ah lithium-ion battery.
The system will cut the engine off completely below 17kph (11mph), instead of waiting for the vehicle to reach a standstill - and use a belt-integrated starter generator to assist with acceleration if required. The electric device, which can produce 100Nm of torque but more normally supplies between 20Nm and 30Nm, also helps to reduce turbo lag and overcomes any delay in stop-start activity. Land Rover says the MHEV system alone brings a up to a six per cent reduction in fuel consumption, saving as much as 8g/km of CO2 emissions.
The new Evoque will be available with two trios of engine line-ups - all Ingenium four-cylinder units. The petrols produce 197bhp, 247bhp and 296bhp, while the diesels have 148bhp, 178bhp and 237bhp. There will be a manual gearbox available on the lowliest diesel, in front-drive form, but the rest of the range will get a new nine-speed automatic.
Within the next 12 months, the car will get a less powerful three-cylinder turbo petrol option. And this engine will be available as a standalone unit or as part of a plug-in hybrid configuration. Land Rover hasn’t announced stats on the PHEV Evoque but chief engineer Pete Simkin told us, “It’ll be able to go a competitive distance on electric power alone.” And the packaging of the larger battery pack does not impact on cabin or boot space, it’s claimed.
All but the most basic of Evoques will be four-wheel drive, but their transmission has something called ‘driveline disconnect’, which in effect makes the vehicle front-wheel drive when it’s cruising along on a motorway. Land Rover will also offer an Active Driveline, which uses a rear-mounted double-clutch to offer torque vectoring on the rear axle - instead of using the brakes to aid turn-in.
Land Rover has yet to issue final CO2 figures across the range but it says the 150PS front-drive diesel manual will emit 143g/km of CO2, and that the cleanest mild-hybrid auto diesel will emit 149g/km and return 50.4mpg. These figures are based on the new, tougher WLTP test cycle, too.
Land Rover has also tried to fix another of the Mk1 Evoque’s bugbears: range. The diesel version gets a larger tank (now 65 litres) in a bid to give it more long-distance usability, while the tanks in the petrol models are bigger again, at 67 litres.
Dimensions and boot space
Engineers have used the platform to extend the Evoque’s wheelbase, so while the new model is actually a few millimetres shorter than the old one overall, it has shorter overhangs (slashed by a substantial 30mm at the front) for better cabin packaging. This is chiefly to bring benefits to rear-seat passengers, who should find it easier to get into the vehicle, and enjoy more leg and kneeroom once they’re aboard.
The boot capacity with the rear seats in place increases by around 10 per cent, to 591 litres - enough, Land Rover says, for a full set of golf clubs or a folded pram. The overall maximum capacity is actually a little smaller, though; with the second row folded down, there’s 1,383 litres on offer.
Off-road driving technology
Land Rover says the new Evoque is more capable off road than the old one; the new generation has a wading depth of 600mm, up from 500mm, and it gets Terrain Response 2, tech from the full-sized Range Rover that detects the road surface and adjusts the transmission accordingly.
Evoque is also being used to introduce a new feature that’s only previously been seen on the company’s Discovery concept. Clearsight Groundview uses cameras on the side mirrors and the front axle to show a ‘through-the-bonnet’ view on the car’s upper infotainment screen. It’s designed to eradicate the ‘blind faith’ moment when you’re about to tackle a steep, sharp down-slope during off-roading - but Land Rover says the tech could also come in handy in when negotiating ramps in 1970-sized multi-storey car parks.
The Clearsight concept also extends to the limited view out of the car rear window - one of the car’s known issues. This Mk2 Evoque will be available with a rear-view mirror that can be flicked between conventional use and a 1600x320-pixel, 9.5-inch display that shows footage captured by a rear-facing camera on the car’s roof, at 60 frames per second. Based on our brief experience with the system, it’ll take a while to get used to the ultra-wide angle - which makes items seem further away than they are. But we could easily see most owners leaving the digital display as the default, given time.
The company believes that through a mix of the mild hybrid tech, driveline efficiency gains and much-improved aerodynamics (the new car’s drag coefficient has been reduced by 14 per cent), owners could see a gain of more than 10 per cent in real-world fuel economy.
Range Rover Evoque interior, trim levels and infotainment tech
Inside, the cabin has clearly been influenced by Velar, with a 12.3-inch digital instrument panel, the option of a head-up display and a pair of 10-inch infotainment screens (called Touch Pro Duo) on higher-end versions. The end result is a car that has noticeably fewer physical buttons than before - a reflection, McGovern says, of how the ‘reductionist’ approach on the exterior styling can transfer to the passenger environment without impacting on usability.
The infotainment set-up should set new standards for Jaguar Land Rover - and not just because Android Auto and Apple CarPlay are both available at last. The system has Smart Settings, which uses artificial intelligence tech to monitor the driver’s preferences and ‘learn’ favoured seating positions, music choices and climate control configurations.
There are four basic trim levels. The regular Evoque gets LED auto headlights, rain-sensing wipers, 17in or 18in alloy wheels (depending on the engine chosen), ambient cabin lighting, dual-zone climate control, and a heated windscreen.
Step up to S and you get 18in alloys regardless of engine, plus perforated leather, electrically adjustable front seats, an improved infotainment system with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, auto dimming on the side mirrors and rear-view mirror, and traffic sign recognition with an adaptive speed limiter.
SE upgrades the headlights, incorporating high-beam assist, and animates the LED indicators so they ‘sweep’ in the direction of intended travel. You also get 20in alloys, further adjustment and heating on the front seats, an interactive driver display, an electrically powered tailgate and a parking pack that includes a rear traffic monitor.
HSE upgrades the leather upholstery again and brings a 380W Meridian sound system, the ClearSight rear-view mirror camera, gesture control for the powered tailgate, adaptive cruise control and a different finish of 20in alloys.
On top of these trims, Land Rover is launching the car with a ‘First Edition’. It carries a £5,500 premium over even HSE, but brings matrix LED headlights with power washers, privacy glass, a black contrast panoramic glass roof, electric adjustment on the steering column, configurable interior ambient lighting, a heated steering wheel and a head-up display.
The new Evoque is on sale now, although the first cars won’t reach customers until next spring. The range starts with the £31,600 150PS front-wheel-drive diesel manual - around £800 than Land Rover has been asking for the equivalent edition of the outgoing generation. The same engine with an automatic gearbox and four-wheel drive starts at £35,100, while the petrol editions start at £35,950 for a 200PS auto 4WD.
Range Rover Evoque reveal event live video
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