News : Range Rover Evoque Convertible to go on sale in 2016

MY16 Range Rover Evoque Convertible

Land Rover has confirmed that the world’s first premium compact SUV convertible will go on sale in 2016 by releasing a unique underground testing film.

Forty metres below the streets of London, the first prototype of Land Rover’s new Range Rover Evoque Convertible was granted exclusive access to the 26-mile network of Crossrail tunnels for a development test with a difference. Engineers were allowed the opportunity to drive the disguised Evoque Convertible with its roof lowered in complete privacy.

The short film (below) begins with the highly-capable convertible being lowered into the tunnel network by crane, before negotiating a range of obstacles through the 6.2 metre diameter tunnel.

Murray Dietsch, Director of Land Rover Programmes, said: ‘The tunnels are still under construction, so we had a unique opportunity to explore the vehicle’s all-terrain ability in unchartered territory.”

The Range Rover Evoque is no stranger to subterranean adventure. At its launch in 2011 the five-door variant was driven through Edge Hill Tunnel in Liverpool, the first tunnel in the world to be bored beneath a major city.

Land Rover will announce further details about its exclusive new premium compact SUV Convertible later this year. It will be built alongside the five door and coupe Evoque at Land Rover’s Halewood plant in the UK and will be on sale in 2016.

Clive Goldthorp

8 Comments

  1. Well for all the pre-election doom and gloom and talk of austerity, its a very very long time since this country had an indigenous car industry producing cars people will queue to buy at a premium like the Evoque and Infrastructure projects on such a grand scale as Crossrail. That video made me feel proud to be British.

  2. A bit too Triumph Spitfire / Mazda MX5 for my tastes, but may the streets of SW1 fill with them and Halewood work around the clock building them. I can see this being one popular car.

  3. My Granddad got his Range Rover in 1971, it was 6 months late and a different colour to the one he ordered (we have got a blue one you can have, but it will be another 6 months at least before we can get you a green one).

    It was a great car, but nobody understood why it did not have four doors apart from British Leyland product planning who had other priorities such as a diesel Princess for the Mini Cab market.

    Given the decades it took to get a four door Range Rover, it’s refreshing to see the amount of fresh metal coming from JLR and they have at last got a portfolio that warrants a two door Range Rover.

  4. After Victoria’s oh-so-tasteful special edition designer Evoque, who will be called upon to bling this one? Katie Price? Gillian Taylforth? Ronald McDonald?

  5. Complete privacy. Well, apart from the video cameras and PR team. It never ceases to amaze me how these press releases are peddled as ‘news’.

    Having said that, I am happy to read it and pleased that has made it onto this website. Keep up to good work!

  6. Looks a lot better than I feared it would with the hood down, but I’d like to see it with the hood up. The standard car looks a little oddly proportioned with its tiny glasshouse- can’t imagine a cloth roof would make things any better on that score.

    • I’ve only ever seen one – at an over-priced Marina on the Costa del Sol – where it was playing second fiddle in the popularity stakes to a beautifully restored popular classic. Who on earth thought a convertible version of an ugly supposedly off-roader would be a sales success?

      • JLR, that’s who. They’ve come to believe that the monied but taste-free will buy anything with a Range Rover badge. And pay through the nose for it too. In fact, the more outrageous the price, the happier they are to pay. Don’t think I’ve seen one of these though.

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