I’ve seen the future. It happened in a flash while standing at the top of a large hill in Northern Wales. Idling next to me, the lime green Range Rover Evoque that effortlessly delivered me to this location and way below me, some of the quaint and picturesque towns – the Gaelic names of which I fear I may never be able to pronounce – that we passed through on our journey.
In the near future, I see Range Rover easily adding to its some 20 000 pre-orders of the new Evoque (more that 600 of which are in South Africa) – even before a single customer has pressed the ignition button in the baby Rangie. Impossible to ignore styling and an extremely well thought-out pre-launch marketing programme will ensure this. I see the premium pricing of this new SUV easily being justified by the fitment of the Range Rover nameplate on the electronic tailgate and I reckon more four-door models will be ordered than coupes – only because buyers, especially in South Africa, can’t get their heads around not having rear doors. The most popular colour will be white, even though it was ever so tempting not to order the metallic red one and specify a striking white roof finish.
Although the 177 kW 2,0-litre petrol engine offers good punch and feels the livelier of the two, it’s the 2,2-litre turbodiesel option that will be the most popular thanks in part to it’s low-down torque (420 N.m), but mostly because of its claimed 6,5 litres/100 km combined fuel consumption. The slick six-speed automatic transmission will perform well.
I see more female drivers than male. While I can see husbands insisting on popping out to run errands and taking the Evoque because it was “closest to the door”, ultimately I can see this newest Range Rover being used for the morning school run before heading to the more expensive shopping lanes around our country. On more than one weekend, I see a black version with optional 20-inch wheels and tinted windows rushing to secure the prime parking spots outside the trendiest watering holes – and the driver not going home alone.
In the ideal garage, there will be a “his” Range Rover Sport or Discovery parked alongside the her Evoque.
I see owners driving with the standard panoramic glass roof's electronic visor folded away as much as possible. Besides adding an additional view out for all occupants, the fitment of this extra glass section will also add a much-needed sense of airiness to the cabin. Those narrow side windows, especially towards the rear, may add to the spectacular exterior profile of the Evoque, but they also close in on the rear occupants, robbing them of a decent view of their surroundings. Taller rear passengers, especially in Coupe models, will also welcome those extra few millimeters of headroom.
One and a half years down the line and I see nearly a third of all Evoque models sold sporting at least two scuffed alloy wheels and more than a few spent touch-up paint bottles tossed as owners come to terms with the relative lack of visibility from the driver’s seat. On most occasions the Evoque will be easy to maneouvre but every now and then too much trust will be placed in the rearward facing camera and park sensor systems.
The well-put-together interior will be holding together nicely and owners will have gotten used to resting their left foot underneath the brake pedal instead of balancing it on the inexcusably narrow and flimsy left-foot rest.
Importantly, the Evoque will still be turning heads wherever its parked and Land Rover South Africa will be selling as many units as it can ship from the Halewood plant.
In my vision, nearly every owner will have forgotten what function each symbol on the Terrain Response system operates and not one Evoque will ever have ventured off-road. Land Rover won’t be overly disappointed to hear this fact, not least because not one grab handle was engineered into the cabin and South African units will only be sold with space-saver spare wheels (a puncture repair kit is all that UK-spec owners are armed with).
Oh yes, and it will come to light that the only involvement that Posh Spice had in the design of the interior was those diamante-looking lights on the instrument cluster that rather cringingly turn red when S mode is selected on the Jaguar-sourced pop-up gear selector…
