Land Rover has announced it will be bringing a new Range Rover to market in early 2013. The company promises its latest SUV will be the “most luxurious Range Rover Yet,” and will come equipped with a lightweight aluminium monocoque body structure, improved off-road capabilities and new suspension.
The new Range Rover appears to take a couple of design pointers out of the Evoque’s book, thanks to wraparound head and tail lights. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though, as the Evoque is particularly stylish — not to mention insanely popular.
The interiors of both models are similar, too. The centre console and dashboard appear almost identical at first glance. Again, this is a positive change as the new Range Rover seems a bit less cluttered on the inside. As ever, the cabin should be a very quiet place thanks to what Land Rover calls “acoustic lamination” of the windscreen and side windows.
While aesthetic design is subjective, there’s certainly no disputing the difference in size. Land Rover says it’s the most spacious yet, and this is most noticeable in the rear quarters where legroom has increased by 118mm.
So you would think the new Range Rover should be quite heavy but, thanks to the aforementioned aluminium body structure, it actually weighs 420kg less than the steel-built outgoing model, which should help you get a few extra miles-per-gallon out of its sizable fuel tank.
Gerry McGovern, Land Rover Design Director and Chief Creative Officer said of the new Range Rover: “Designing the next generation Range Rover, following over forty years of success, came with a huge responsibility to protect the DNA of such an icon.”
“Our design team worked incredibly hard to capture the elegant proportions and pure surfaces which have been a feature of the best Range Rover designs,” he added.
Three engine types will be available at launch: a supercharged V8 petrol engine and the SDV8 and TDV6 diesels.
Available worldwide, the British-built SUV will be available to order from next month.
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