Velar reinvented as EV in JLR's reworked masterplan

Slow-selling Range Rover Velar will gain a radical all-new electric reboot by 2025

- FELIX PAGE

The Range Rover Velar will be reinvented as a slick, luxurious electric SUV, targeting the upcoming Porsche Macan EV with vastly improved endurance, performance and practicality.

It will be the first of several new electric Land Rover models to run down the firm's revamped production line in Halewood, Merseyside, followed soon after by EV successors to the Range Rover Evoque and Land Rover Discovery Sport (see overleaf). Work to convert the factory into an EV production facility will get under way next year and the electric Velar is expected to enter production before 2025.

Until recently, the future for the Velar had been unclear. Launched in 2017 as a Macan rival, the luxury crossover initially sold strongly but was deprioritised as JLR shifted focus to the more profitable Range Rover and Defender when the semiconductor crisis hit in 2021. In the 12 months to March 2023, it was the second-slowest-selling Land Rover, ahead of the Discovery, with 29,845 units sold.

While the cheaper and more popular Discovery Sport and Evoque were confirmed to go electric more than two years ago, the firm had given no indication that the Velar would return for a second outing until a wide-reaching company update in March revealed at least three new EVs will be built at Halewood, one of which will be the second-generation Velar.