What you’re looking at above is categorically not a replacement for the Range Rover Velar. In fact, we’re told this new Range Rover GT will be a “fifth member of the family” and that it’ll arrive in all-electric form.
It’ll be built in Halewood on a new Electric Modular Architecture (EMA) platform, which allows for all-wheel drive and a flat floor. Although hybrid versions will arrive later down the line. Might that be when the slightly coupe-ified Velar retires?
There’s no word on where exactly the GT will sit in the Range Rover erm…range, but we do know it’ll be lower than an Evoque but as long as a Range Rover Sport. Essentially a coupe crossover with four frameless doors, then. Looks a little bit like an Evoque Convertible but with a hardtop roof in the camouflaged images released so far, too.
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Inside it’ll be a 2+2 layout as standard but with the option of a rear bench, while there’s lots of talk of “reductive principles” and “reduced visual and acoustic noise.” And yes, it was penned before Gerry McGovern left the company. How could you tell?
Anyway, translated out of design-speak, it simply means there are very few buttons inside, with most of the features controlled through the large OLED central screen or by voice. Uh oh. Even the drive selector has moved up onto the steering column, and the steering wheel itself has shrunk, with a smaller secondary screen mounted above it as a driver display. All very Peugeot. A giant single air vent stretches across the width of the cabin, while the dash is wrapped in a ‘woven textile.’ No mention of any leather trim.
“The Range Rover GT will redefine the grand-touring segment with the ability to deliver beautiful and engaging GT poise, proportions and long-distance refinement while offering capabilities no conventional GT can match,” said Range Rover boss Martin Limpert.
“We have spent the last few years working obsessively on the fundamentals of the GT formula, reinterpreted in a sophisticated, uniquely Range Rover way. The result is the most car-like, yet unmistakably capable, Range Rover ever created.”
Prototypes of the GT are undergoing final testing now, and we’ll get further details—perhaps even a steer on the range, performance figures and price—later this year.
More photos of the Range Rover GT prototype:
NOTE: This story first appeared on TopGear.com. Minor edits have been made.
