Range Rover Velar revealed: Land Rover targets elegance and glamour with new luxury SUV

Land Rover has announced the Range Rover Velar, a new sports utility vehicle (SUV) which aims to blend elegance and glamour with the company's off-roading pedigree.

Sitting above the entry-level Evoque and below the mid-range Range Rover Sport, the Velar has been created to add 'avant-garde luxury' to the SUV lineup.

To be shown off in full at its world premiere in London on 1 March, the Range Rover Velar gets its name from the fleet of 26 prototypes of the original 1970 Range Rover. These cars, built a year earlier, were badged as Velar to disguise the fact they were built by Land Rover. Velar comes from the Latin word velare, meaning to veil or cover.

After the launch on 1 March, Velar will see its first public outing at the Geneva motor show, which opens to the press on 7 March and the public from 9 to 19 March.

Sketches of the Velar lined up next to its Range Rover stablemates show a car which is slightly taller than the Evoque (starting at £30,600) but shorter than the Sport (from £59,700), which in turn is smaller than the full-size, £76,350 Range Rover.

The Velar's design is more curved than that of the rest of the range, with much shallower rear light clusters and more pronounced belt and hip lines. This appears to give the car a wide, squat stance which exudes more aggression than we have seen from the Range Rover brand before.

A teaser image published by Land Rover today, 22 February, shows a large panoramic glass roof, rear spoiler and gives a clearer look at the car's shallower LED clusters. The car's belt line continues from the boot and all the way to the wing mirrors, while a raked rear windscreen and back side windows echo what we have recently seen on camouflaged cars spotted testing in public.

Inside, the Velar's dashboard features a large widescreen infotainment screen and seemingly few physical buttons, switches and dials.

Land Rover says the new car has been refined "for every occasion, for every terrain" and that it will be produced using "sustainable materials and advanced engineering".

Gerry McGovern, chief design officer at Land Rover, said: "We call the Velar the avant-garde Range Rover. It brings a new dimension of glamour, modernity and elegance to the brand. The Range Rover Velar changes everything."