Baby Rangie hot for Oz

LAND ROVER’S smallest model – the Range Rover Evoque – has a big future in Australia despite wearing a price tag that might take it well into the $60,000 region when it is launched here in about October 2011.

Land Rover’s global marketing director Colin Green said the Evoque eventually would become the company’s biggest selling model.

Another Land Rover spokesman said that, with the amount of global interest the model has already garnered since being unveiled as a fleeting computer generated video at the Frankfurt motor show way back in 2007, only the lack of supply will hold the Evoque back around the world.

Debuting at the Australian International Motor Show in Sydney just a fortnight after its Paris unveiling as a production model, the Range Rover Evoque will be pitched as the Tata-owned British marque’s riposte to the BMW X1, as well as the forthcoming Audi Q3 baby SUV to be built by SEAT in Spain.

“We are trying to raise awareness of the Evoque in a non-traditional way, with an invitation event on the Sydney harbour and that sort of thing, to create intrigue and a bit of buzz in the vehicle,” Mr Green said.

“Australia is one of the top ten markets for this car. We see lots of growth potential, and as we move forward with this and other future Land Rover models, Australia will always be of vital importance to the brand.

“And the Evoque has a great market waiting for it in Australia.”

Two body styles will be released this country – the three-door ‘Cross Coupe’ and the five-door wagon model, with the former remaining faithful to the LRX Concept that begat it in 2008.

Drivetrain choices will include front-wheel drive as well as all-wheel drive, with the range initially arriving in 2.0-litre (petrol) and 2.2-litre (diesel) four-cylinder formats.

Oddly, the five-door version will be the less expensive of the two Evoque styles on offer.

Land Rover says the Evoque does not have any direct competitors for now, so it will appeal far beyond the Mini and BMW X1 demographic that observers of the LRX Concept initially predicted.

“We’re still a year away from pulling the covers off the car in Australia. But for now we’re really going for that urban connected younger audience set,” Mr Green said.

“And when you look at the transformation models like the Audi TT and BMW Mini had in the market, we are looking at the same sort of thing happening with the Evoque.

“There’s nothing quite like it, and there probably won’t be for the next two to three years, so there’s our chance to capture a new market.

“If you look at the first Range Rover, and then the Range Rover Sport, we set the scene in competing in a slightly different area against more traditional 4x4s, and the Evoque will do it again.

“There’s nothing like that at the moment.”