What is it?
How to describe the new Evoque? Like the old Evoque but dialled up by 10%. And that’s exactly how Land Rover wants it.
Since launching seven years ago, the Evoque has done for Land Rover what the Porsche Cayenne did for Porsche, making it, perhaps, the most important model in its line-up. And while sales normally taper off as a vehicle ages, that hasn’t been the case here. The buyers just keep on coming.
When you have such a successful formula, wisdom suggests not to mess with it. The second-generation’s design is only a subtle evolution, yet looks can be deceiving because this car is fresh from the ground up.
The body structure is 99.9% new with only the door hinges remaining from the former car. Plus, it sits on a new platform, the Premium Transverse Architecture, which crucially allows for mild-hybrid and plug-in hybrid variants and gives more interior space.
Space was a major bugbear on the last Evoque. This new model has almost the same footprint as the previous generation – as dictated by buyers’ wishes - yet the wheelbase is 21mm longer. Land Rover admits that it lost prospective owners the first time round due to poor rear space versus rivals, so you’d imagine this was top of the ‘to improve’ list here.
When the Evoque launched, the compact SUV segment barely existed. Now, with a shedload of rivals, the Evoque must not only be on a par for space but everything else too.
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Mild Hybrid
Why people so obsessed with the softness of plastics? For God's sake! If you're not sitting on it and it's well made, who cares? A soft plastic isn't better than a hard one per se. There's good quality hard plastic and poor quality soft plastic. Why is there nothing is this report about how the mild hybrid system works around town between 0 and 10 mph, a speed at which a lot of us drive, a lot of the time. If I want to ready an magazine about plastics, I'll go out and buy one.
I agree.
They never complain about the nasty hard wood used by Rolls-Royce and Bentley, do they?
I deffo buy a diesel, just
I deffo buy a diesel, just not this horrid thing.
When they say 75% diesel/25% petrol
That’s just what LR would like, in line with their engine production capabilities. Reality? The other way round. Don’t know anyone who’d buy a diesel now. But the real tragedy for LR is that they’re so far behind with electrification of Evoque. They should obviously have a plug in version, or at least a hybrid like Lexus UX.
Robbo
Why always so critical
You really really don't like JLR do you ? You're now living in Australia a country that didnt support its home grown car industry politically and was swamped with imports and now has NO car industry. Is that where you want to see in the UK ? Compare and contrast with France/Germany/China etc etc where unions and/or government have built and protected incredibly strong business even they turn out some poorly built crap or illegal cars (yes Renault and VW) . Give it a rest please .
He's not just critical
He's not just citical, he's also delusional; when I was extremely lucky to go round their Wolverhampton engine factory a few months back, the diesel and petrol components are run through the same machines, and the engines built on the same line, with fully flexible sequence and mix.
Plug-in
Some people just don't know when to quit, it has one of biggest range of engines for the BUYER to decide, way more choice than most Japanese companies in this segment. Now I'm not keen on diesel engine as most people know but a heavy, 4WD true SUV that does 14,000 miles+ they 8 out of 10 buyers will go for diesel, unlike Lexus with their limited range.
As to the Hybrid comments did you not read all "Bar the entry-level D150 diesel, all have a torque-vectoring four-wheel drive system and are assisted by a 48v mild hybrid" now that all the £2,500 gov cash back has gone for the plug-in it might prove a wise decision by JLR until the fog clears. Unlike Lexus with their crap Auto gearbox and Hybrid petrol power (do they offer any choice at all?) JLR let the owner decide.
Nice car with big range of engines/gearboxes, will sell!!
Fully agree, what other
Fully agree, what other manufacturer let the customer chose between petrol/diesel manual/auto like JLR do? Just try configurating an Evoque and you'll see what I mean.
Was expecting a load of JLR hate on this section but glad to see people are thinking straight.
JLR deserve so much more.
Aussierob wrote:
Well working in the UK in a JLR dealer, the diesel still outsells the petrol many fold. That's true in Jag as well as LR.
Amazing how these people who don't know the truth spout their own thoughts as 'facts'. Sad.