No Velar Coupe, says Range Rover
Three-door Velar is not the "white space" Range Rover is looking forLand Rover’s search for more “white space” for the Range Rover brand does not include a coupe version of the Velar.
Just unveiled overnight in London, Range Rover's fourth model is strictly a five-door, five-seat conventional (albeit handsome) SUV. And the company’s head of exterior design says it will stay that way.
Land Rover’s Creative Director, Exteriors, Massimo Frascella, told motoring.com.au last night that the company had not even considered a coupe version of the new Range Rover.
“It wasn’t considered for this vehicle at all,” Frascella stated.
“This [Velar] had a very natural birth – it was always considered like that [a five-door]. The coupe profile takes away half of the elegance -- a coupe profile would look forced,” he opined.
It’s Frascella’s opinion that the new, lower, wider Velar (which is built on the same wheelbase and platform as stablemate Jaguar’s F-PACE) eschews the trend to ‘crossovers’ too.
“I’m sure there is a [global] trend towards crossover SUVs, but I think this [Velar] stands apart from that. It just offers, within the Range Rover family, a slight evolution.
“It’s still a generous SUV but it is really combined with this beautiful body,” he stated.
Velar is the most road-oriented Range Rover ever, the design chief stated. But even as the brand looks for new niches and opportunities (“white space” in Land Rover speak) “capability” will not be stripped away, he says.
“In the future we’re looking at different opportunities, how we can expand the family… [But] Capability is part of the core DNA of our brand. It’s a given.
“There are core values that we need to retain. Within those core values there are several opportunities,” he teased.
“As designers we are exploring even beyond the cycle plan. It is our job to find more white spaces. Evoque was one, this [Velar] is another but to be honest there are several [other] white spaces.”
Even though Velar has not spawned a coupe, Frascella says Range Rover could build one.
“You can have a very elegant coupe but it’s a question of proportions.
“We study and stretch the boundaries of proportion but what is important is [that the end result] is clearly recognisable as a Range Rover,” he said.
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