2015 Range Rover Evoque

The concept of a Grand Tourer (GT) has always been associated with large luxurious performance vehicles (with sporty leanings) designed to eat up kilometre after kilometre of smooth blacktop. The experience is basically a two-part mixture which come together to let you enjoy the sights and sounds but still cover the distances.
Seems ideal, doesn’t it? But what happens when you take the Indian context into consideration? We have the GTs but very few roads to match their capability. So what we need then is a vehicle that will go the distance but have the capability to deal with the poor (or non-existent in some cases) roads while traversing the length and breadth of our great nation.
Enter the Range Rover Evoque. It’s the legendary British automaker’s lifestyle SUV and a product that brings a new meaning to the term Grand Tourer. Capable of dealing with our roads, it is being locally assembled and now gets the ZF Nine-speed gearbox, a perfect tool to go Grand Touring.

The Range Rover Evoque compact SUV is a very good looking car. It manages to get your attention wherever you are thanks to its unique proportions. The fascia hangs over the front-wheels and has that ‘in-your-face’ factor thanks to the double slat chrome grille and large Range Rover lettering on the bonnet.

The projector lamps add style to the face while the off-road bits like the contrast coloured pseudo bull bar element and honeycomb metal mesh increase the muscle factor. I particularly like the power dome on the bonnet as it seems to flow well into the sharply raked windscreen.

While the fascia is the place where a lot of the style is contained, the side profile is where the Evoque displays a lot of its SUV origins and strong stance. The low slung rear sloping roofline, flared wheel arches, big wheels and chunky tyres give the car a squat and powerful stance.

The contrast coloured pillars and roof work well with the strong shoulder line to add some strength normally associated with the images of SUVs.
Move over to the rear, and you are greeted by a sharply raked tiny rear glass, spoiler and prominent tail lamps that have been beautifully wrapped into the sides of SUV. There is a large chrome strip above the number plate slot while the rear bumper like the front one gets a pseudo bash plate element.

We drove the car around in a variety of situations both in the mountains as well as in an urban context and discovered that it is a major attention puller thanks to its great design, in your face, stance and proportions.
The Evoque in India rivals the BMW X3, Volvo XC60 and the Mercedes-Benz ML-Class which will soon become the GLE. When it comes to looks, the Evoque is no doubt the winner and the one that will get you the maximum attention.

The Volvo XC60, in my opinion, takes the second spot thanks its curvy appearance and quite enticing grille. BMW’s X3 and the Mercedes-Benz ML have a slightly old school design and will appeal those who want a properly portioned SUV rather than a crossover.

In modern cultures everywhere the concept of luxury always seems to be associated with the idea of pristine and clean. One route would be to make everything shiny and bling-bling like while a second and more common route is to include shades like white, brown or gloss black in the colour palate.

It is no surprise then that a majority of the India spec Evoque’s cabin has been trimmed out in white leather. Step into the driver’s seat and you are greeted by a large leather lined wheel. It feels extremely good to use but has far too many buttons. However, what looks and feels really nice are the stalks as well as the instrument cluster with a multifunctional display in between the gauges. The reach and rake adjustment are both manual done, something we expected to be full electronic considering the price of the vehicle.

Move over to the black centre console and you are greeted by a large amount of high quality chrome plastic into which JLR’s famous rotary gear knob as well as the terrain controls have been integrated. Both the front seats are very comfortable to be sat in over extended periods. They are electronically controlled and include lumbar support.

The infotainment system is comprehensive and has controls for everything right from the navigation to the ambient lighting system. It works well with the Meridian speakers to provide quality output but feels dated with regard to the interface. The resolution is too low, the fonts look old and the colours are not rich enough when you consider the pedigree of the Evoque.

One of the things we enjoyed using a lot were the six cameras that have been installed on all sides of the car. Their resolution is a little poor but they still managed to provide a comprehensive view of all the areas surrounding the vehicle.
The Evoque is the smallest vehicle among its contemporaries and that translates into the smallest wheelbase also a.k.a less space in the rear. However, this is no detriment with regard to comfort for the rear passengers. There is ample space for two people with it becoming a bit of squeeze (both in terms of shoulder room and leg room) when there is a third person sitting in the back. Land Rover has fitted two screens for the rear passengers and these can be controlled from the back once the option has been enabled from the front screen.

A party piece for the entire vehicle is the panoramic roof which extends all the way to back and instantly adds a new sense of depth and airiness when you have bright sunlight pouring in during the day. It’s a bit surreal when you are sitting in temperature controlled environment and have a near 360 view of an environment that’s baking in the hot sun thanks to the 40c temperature outside.

On the practically front, the glove box and the arm rest between the front seats are deep. The door pocket slots are thin and narrow making it a bit of a task when it comes to storing litre-class bottles. While we did not test out the boot to its full potential, we can tell you this much that it does have the practicality of a full-size hatchback and has decent load capacity despite the sharply raked roofline.

The Evoque has a good package when it comes to NVH insulation and manages to keep out a lot of the external noise and retain the cabin temperature even the car had been off for more than 45 minutes. A chink in this armour is that the distinct clatter of the 2.2-litre four-cylinder engine can be heard across the cabin.

There is not much to separate the Evoque from its rivals with regard to feature list and cabin layout as they are all similar. It only loses out on the practicality front thanks to the smaller dimensions but this is not a major issue as dimensions are only smaller as compared to the rivals and not in terms of it being a small vehicle.

The Range Rover Evoque is powered by a 2.2-litre turbocharged four-cylinder diesel engine that produces 187bhp@3500rpm and 420Nm of torque@2000rpm. Power is sent to all four-wheels via a ZF nine-speed gearbox and an electronic 4WD system called the ‘Terrain Response System’.

In the quest of bettering its emission standard, Land Rover introduced a nine-speed box to replace the six-speed unit that came with the car when it was launched in 2011. The large number of ratios has created a wide torque spread allowing the engine to stretch its long legs across various situations.

What this has resulted in is that the first five gears are short while the next four have been stretched out. The engine only goes into ninth and final gear once you have crossed around 90kmph. In traffic condition it keeps shuffling between ratios in a bid to keep the engine in the correct torque band but this does not affect the driving experience if you keep a light foot on the throttle. However, the gearbox also responds pretty well when you mash the throttle as it will quickly downshift into the right gear to ensure ample torque delivery. The sport mode further amplifies this method of delivery as it prevents unnecessary shifts and holds onto the gears until you hit the red line or shift manually.

One of the best things to do to get instant responses from the gearbox is to shift into to the manual mode. The paddle shifters respond instantly when you change gears and vice versa when you go back up the order. The full manual control means that you can cruise at a steady 130kmph at just 1800rpm in ninth gear.
We did a lot of heavy throttle driving during out test run and still managed to get 10kmpl which is very impressive when you consider that the unladen weight of the Evoque is 1.85 tonnes. When driving with a lighter foot, we believe that a number as high as 14kmpl is very much possible thanks to the way the nine-speed gearbox works to keep the car in the right rev range.

If we have to find a grouse then it is the fact that the box is a bit slow to respond in the ‘D’ mode and takes an awfully long to change back from manual to automatic shifting mode. Overall though, this is an excellent addition to the Evoque as it makes the driving experience a lot more fun in a more realistic sense quite a bit more economical.

The Evoque is a compact SUV but does not handle like one would expect from a vehicle with this kind of ground clearance. Yes, the obvious small amounts of body roll and flightiness are there but it is able to hold its own in the corners. This is in part down to the firm suspension and chunky tyres which allows the car to keep going at higher speeds.

However, with the setup being on the stiffer side, the ride does feel harsh at times and this is prominent when you go over the path less taken where the roads are basically mud paths or broken tarmac. All the imperfections can be felt and heard in the cabin albeit in little bumps and muted thuds. The chunky tyres play a significant role once as they have managed to bring some softness to the firm ride. There is decent feedback from the steering wheel and although it feels quite heavy at low speeds, it weighs up correctly as you go faster.

The Evoque gets 300mm ventilated discs in front and 302mm solid discs on the rear. For a vehicle of this size, the brakes did not feel as effective and at times felt spongy under heavy braking conditions. We believe that slightly larger brakes would have helped, but the problem is felt only past speeds of 140kph, so this setup should be fine in day-to-day conditions
We did not get a chance to test out the various terrain response systems that are being offered with the car as a majority of our test was conducted out on the highway. There are basically three modes- Grass /gravel/snow, mud/ruts and sand. These work in conjunction with a variety of driver aids to make the off-roading experience a lot more enjoyable.

Given that we do not have the best of roads, we discovered that the Evoque with its small proportions, high ground clearance and car-like handling makes for a good go-to-anywhere type of machine. It is an excellent Grand Tourer and will eat up kilometre after kilometre without losing a step and in turn give you good fuel efficiency thanks to the nine-speed gearbox.

There are some obvious things that stood out like the slightly stiff ride and low quality of some of the plastics in the cabin. We can live with the latter and in the case of the former, this stiff ride is boon as the Evoque handles excellently for a high riding vehicle.
The Evoque was certainly worth the anticipation. It has the looks, is aesthetically pleasing, and gets a feature rich cabin with a panoramic sunroof and rear screen. At Rs 56.21 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi) the Evoque calls for quite a bit of bragging rights.