Whitley, West Midlands - Just 14 months after its world debut on 1 March 2017 at the Geneva Motor Show, the Range Rover Velar has been updated for 2019 with an additional engine option and a host of new gizmotronics, many of them shared with its Jaguar F-Pace cousin.
Unusually, the new engine doesn’t offer more power, but less - it’s a slightly detuned version of the current 221kW three-litre turbodiesel V6, rated at 203kW and 625Nm, with significantly reduced emissions which, in countries with punitive carbon taxes, makes a lot of sense.
According to Jaguar Land Rover SA, no decision has yet been made as to whether the Velar D275 will be released in South Africa, but we’d expect the rest of the new features to reach local showrooms during the final quarter of 2018.
These include an 82 litre fuel tank (up from 63) for the P250 (184kW) and P300 (221kW) two-litre turbopetrol fours, which are also now fitted with exhaust particulate filters.
Steering assist
Standard kit across the range now includes a reversing camera, front and rear parking sensors, driver fatigue monitoring, autonomous emergency braking and lane keeping assist.
Adaptive cruise control with steering assist combines the existing cruise control with thr lane-keeping function to steer the Velar on a multi-lane road and keep a set distance from the car in front at up to 180km/h, while a new ‘stop & go’ function will slow the Velar to a dead stop if the vehicle ahead stops in heavy traffic.
When the car ahead moves off, just a tap on the accelerator will reinstate the Velar’s cruise control. Finally, an enhanced, radar-based high-speed emergency braking, effective at up to 160km/h, will detect an imminent collision, warn you about it - and hit the brakes if you ignore the warnings.
Air suspension is now available on both petrol and V6 diesel models, as is adaptive damping, which monitors wheel movement 500 times a second, and body movements 100 times a second and continuously varies the damping forces at all four corners to improve both on-road handling and off-road comfort,
As soon as we find out about local availability and pricing, so will you.