Range Rover Velar leaked

UPDATE 01/03/2017 1:00pm: This story has been updated to include leaked images of the new Range Rover Velar ahead of its world debut in the UK at 7:40am tomorrow (March 2) Australian time. The official images you see here were first published by Spanish website Diariomotor.com, which has since removed them at the request of Jaguar Land Rover – but not before they were republished by a range of websites including Jalopnik.com. Stand by for the full story and images from our man on the ground at the event tonight.

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Range Rover's new Velar five-seat SUV is expected to increase the brand’s appeal to female buyers in Australia, just like the F-PACE wagon has for sister brand Jaguar.

And the two vehicles, which share core architecture and technology under their bespoke bodies, are also expected to fight it out within Jaguar Land Rover Australia showrooms for sales.

“It’s a nice problem to have,” JLRA managing director Matthew Wiesner told motoring.com.au. “If you are going to have a problem it’s the one to have.”

Full details of the Velar are being issued overnight Aussie time ahead of its motor show debut in Geneva next week and its Australian release late in 2017.

There are big expectations for the Velar both globally and locally.

It will sit in the sizable hole in the Range Rover line-up between the compact Evoque and the full-size Range Rover Sport, suggesting a starting price around $70,000.

“If you look at the people who are in that space and buying cars in that space, a huge number of them have some form of female influence and a big number of them are genuine female drivers and buyers,” said Wiesner.

“It is the answer that Evoque started to provide [Range Rover], but Velar takes it to another level… We see it as a great opportunity to fill that gap.

“Not only has it got sharp design and dynamics – which will become very apparent – it’s also got space and performance.”

As does the F-PACE -- hence the expected clash.

Wiesner says there will be no attempts to artificially retard either vehicle in favour of the other. However, F-PACE seems likely to offer rear-wheel drive from mid-year, something that may not be made available with Velar because of Range Rover’s declared determination to make it more off-road capable than its rivals such as the BMW X6 and Porsche Macan.

“It will come down to ‘will I drive a Jaguar or will I drive a Range Rover?’, but also how we positon things ourselves to make that a clearer decision from some who may be wavering,” said Wiesner.

“At the end of a day, if we are creating the right noise from a brand point of view being Jaguar Land Rover, and then a customer comes in hell-bent on an F-PACE and actually goes ‘oh actually what is that?’ as they wander around the showroom and end up in a Range Rover – or vice-versa – we are OK with that.

“Keep in mind three years ago the risk was the other thing you might have been looking at was somebody else’s stable and you left completely and didn’t come back.

“And that’s been the issue for this group for quite a long time.”

Wiesner predicted the Velar could become Range Rover’s top-selling model in Australia once supply constraints relax around 12 months into its production. In 2016 the Sport was the top-selling Range Rover (3099 sales), narrowly ahead of the Evoque on 2732.

“Velar sits in very much the fat spot of that SUV space, especially when you look at the growth that’s happened in that broadly medium luxury premium segment,” he said.

“Once it [supply versus demand] settles down we are going to get a good indication of where it all sits between Range Rover Sport, Velar and Evoque.”

Watch this space for the full Velar reveal in the UK tonight.