RANGE ROVER VELAR

SUV looks to enhance its luxury billing with a less-is-more approach to design that's subtler in some ways than others

- MATT SAUNDERS 

'Reductive design' was a term added to our vernacular when Land Rover launched its fourth Range Rover model, the Velar, in 2017.

At the time, some of us questioned the choice of words: a reductive approach to anything might not necessarily, universally or instantly be recognised as a positive thing by those less conversant with the sometimes lofty jargon of design, might it? The philosophy behind it, however - a natural evolution of the clean and minimalistic aesthetic into which so many premium car makers have now been tapping for so long certainly produced a bold and handsome luxury SUV.

And now, with the mid-life facelift that's taking effect for the 2024 model year, that thinking is being flexed all over again.

You could call the Velar's exterior design update pretty reductive, I suppose. There are new headlights and tail-lights, a new radiator grille, reshaped bumpers and some fresh exterior paint options, but the overall impact is subtle. This is the kind of update that you might notice on a car you're following or being followed by after dark but will take a keen eye otherwise.

On the technical side, most of the Velar's powertrains are all but unchanged. A fairly broad choice of mild-hybridised fourand six-cylinder engines, both petrol and diesel, remain part of the armoury. The four-cylinder petrol-electric plug-in hybrid system, meanwhile, gets a larger drive battery and a boost in tax-liability-defining official electric-only range to painfully close to 40 miles.

The Velar's interior has had the most work. Having originally come along before JLR started to roll out its latest Pivi Pro touchscreen infotainment system on cars such as the Defender, Range Rover and Range Rover Sport, the Velar now becomes the first JLR product with a new-generation console that encompasses even more functionality than previously.