Gerry McGovern

Land Rover's Design Director talks to us about the Velar and the company's new design architecture

`THE RANGE ROVER Sport is a bigger vehicle, it deliberately sits higher and it is a bigger package. The Velar sits between the Range Rover Sport and Range Rover Evoque. We are working on the replacement for the Range Rover Sport which is now four five years old. Interestingly, Mr Tata began from the very start, he had seen the first Velar and he loved it. So with Mr Tata we are always pushing, whether it was about flush doors in the first iteration. It’s a very nice looking silhouette, which will change the image of Land Rover. We are undergoing a transition as a specialist brand to a more universally accepted entity.

'You can still know that it’s a Range Rover, you can still connect, but we are moving along. For example, the flush door handles could have been on the Range Rover Sport 6 years ago, but we did not have the technology to achieve that, even the matrix technology on the super slim lamps. It makes the vehicles on offer already look old. I would say that it has a very modern approach because of the flush doors and big panoramic sunroof, reduction in terms of the interiors with minimal switches. For me less is more, you get the fundamental approach right, make the car sit poised relative to its overall length which is the most important thing and then you go into the details.

'Quite obviously, when you are improving the design, the aerodynamics is benefited too. We have worked very hard on aerodynamics too, without compromising the design.'