The Range Rover Velar, a sleek piece of machinery, is now available in sub-Saharan Africa market, and it is expected in Nigeria in January.
Regardless, enthusiasts who desire a share of the few units available in the market can get theirs by December. The Velar is something to hope for because it brings with it an unmatched brilliance in its segment, combined with the ruggedness that comes with its Range Rover bloodline. As it is, enthusiasts and prospective buyers even have enough time to personalise their vehicles, as the Velar offers such luxury.
The luxury and creativity put in the Velar sprang to life at the full day drive experience by journalists, on and off road, after the Media launch of this machine at The Villa, an art gallery in the Western Cape area of South Africa The food was designed by the famous Neill Anthony, one of Cape Town’s very few private chefs. He spent 10 years in Europe, honing his skills in the professional kitchens of Gordon Ramsay.
The Villa’s real life sculpures and the Range Rover Velar are both works of perfectionists.
After the launch, Journalists from sub-Saharan Africa took the variants- 3litre, 2litre diesel, and 3litre petrol- of the sweet Velar for a spin, savouring their comfort and strength on arterial and on gravel roads, spread across long stretches of farmland with grape vines and wineries.
The Velar is expected to leave the showroom quicker. Enthusiasts have good reasons to collect the Range Rover Velar, particularly because it brings a new dimension of presence, modernity and minimalist design to the Range Rover family. Designed to fit between the Range Rover Evoque and Range Rover Sport, the Velar offers levels of luxury, refinement and all-terrain capability never before seen in the mid-size SUV segment. This is a new type of Range Rover for a new type of customer.
Created from a clean sheet using Jaguar Land Rover’s Lightweight Aluminium Architecture, the Velar represents the next chapter of the Range Rover success story as Britain’s biggest luxury export. Velar is defined by a visually reductive approach and meticulous attention to precision in every detail, which evolves Range Rover DNA and previews the next generation of Range Rover vehicles, according to the automaker.
“Velar’s design is beautifully balanced, from its powerful proportions to its continuous waist line through to the taut tapered lines of the rear. The generous wheelbase contributes significantly to its elegance while helping to provide a spacious interior.”
Gerry McGovern, Chief Design Officer, Land Rover said: “Velar is now the compelling, stand-out design in the class, showcasing perfectly optimised volume, powerful, taut surfaces and a stunning silhouette.”
The leather seats and interior wrappings are simply stunning like the infotainment. There are no menus, as every function has been reduced to make the dashboard user-friendly. Buyers have liberty to personalise their Velar, said Mr. Nigel Clarke, the Sales Operations Director, Jaguar Land Rover, sub-Saharan Africa, at the launch. “This is a vehicle that can be personalised, more so, as it stands today, it is one of the most popular Range Rovers for personalisation. Early this year in sub-Saharan Africa, we launched the configurator, so you can go on to configure your own vehicle.”
The large alloy wheels – in particular the range of 22-inch designs – optimise the vehicle’s stunning silhouette, while further enhancing Velar’s dramatic presence.
Advanced technology is pivotal to enabling Velar’s contemporary design: the full-LED headlights are the most-slender ever to appear on a production Land Rover. The flush deployable door handles emphasise Velar’s reductive, sculptured form, and contribute to the low drag coefficient of only 0.32 – this is the most aerodynamically-efficient Land Rover ever produced.
Look inside Velar’s interior and you will see elegant simplicity, sophistication and refinement. An unwavering belief in reductionism has been fully employed, with switches being kept to an absolute minimum to help create a calm sanctuary.
Design enabling technology has been engaged fully to create the new Touch Pro Duo infotainment system which is the centrepiece of Velar’s interior. Touch Pro Duo features two 10-inch high-definition touchscreens integrated seamlessly behind hidden-until-lit surfaces. These slim, intuitive displays work in harmony with the cabin architecture while adding an overall sense of modernity congruent with the vehicle’s exterior design. All of this is equalled by the Velar’s practicality: luggage compartment volume is class-leading at 673-litres.
Unique in the segment, the Velar offers a sustainable, premium textile seat material as an alternative to leather. The Dapple Grey material was developed together with Kvadrat, Europe’s leading manufacturer of high-quality design textiles, and is complemented with Suedecloth inserts in Ebony or Light Oyster.
The light, stiff, aluminium-intensive body, together with double-wishbone front- and Integral Link rear suspension provides the perfect basis for agile handling, superior ride comfort and outstanding refinement. It also delivers exceptional levels of crash protection, and the Velar has been developed to meet the most demanding crash test regulations worldwide.
Combined with a comprehensive restraints system that includes six airbags, and a suite of advanced driver assistance systems, including Adaptive Cruise Control with Queue Assist, the Velar integrates the latest safety technologies.
The Velar features a sophisticated all-wheel drive system, four-corner air suspension, class-leading ground clearance of 251mm (213mm when equipped with coil springs), class-leading wading depth of 650mm (600mm when equipped with coil springs) and Land Rover’s unmatched suite of traction technologies including Terrain Response 2 and All Terrain Progress Control. The Velar – like all Range Rovers – offers world-class all-terrain capability.
Exceptional performance and efficiency comes from the range of four petrol and diesel powertrains, all matched to smooth-shifting ZF eight-speed automatic transmissions and all-wheel drive with Intelligent Driveline Dynamics.
Clean, refined Ingenium engines are offered in Velar, in both diesel and petrol form. A 2.0-litre, four-cylinder diesel engine produces 132kW and 430Nm, with CO2 emissions of just 142g/km. Two petrol Ingenium four-cylinder engines are also available in Velar, with outputs of 184kW and 365Nm, and 221kW and 400Nm.
The V6 diesel combines an extraordinary 700Nm of torque for effortless acceleration and off-road capability with CO2 emissions of only 167g/km. The 280kW supercharged V6 petrol engine combines exhilarating performance with a unique soundtrack and enables the Velar to reach 100km/h in only 5.7 seconds, before reaching an electronically-limited top speed of 250km/h.
The Velar and Velar R-Dynamic range comprise Standard, S, SE and HSE specifications. Customers can also specify Black and Premium exterior packs for an even more distinguished appearance. Customers can build their own Velar using the configurator on their market’s Land Rover website. All new Land Rover vehicles come with the Land Rover Five-Year Care Plan: a five-year/100 000km service plan, a five-year/100 000km maintenance plan and a five-year/100 000km warranty, as standard.
Culled from Here
