“I’m apparently the first person outside of Land Rover to drive the Velar, which is quite exciting and also extremely jammy,” gushed British pop star Ellie Goulding this week in Central Park after she helped to debut the new Range Rover Velar in the US with an exclusive live online performance.
The chart-topping singer’s New York show precedes a charity auction of the hotly anticipated new mid-size SUV at the East Side House Settlement Annual Gala later this week. Goulding’s performance of ‘Love Me Like You Do’ opened the reveal event and was shown live on her Facebook page.
Designed to fill the space between the Range Rover Evoque and the Range Rover Sport, Velar brings something new to the Range Rover family. Goulding described the Velar’s look as “futuristic and very slick… very much my kind of car,” and said that to drive it “feels like you’re in your own kind of technological sanctuary of peace.”
Velar launches with a suite of consumer technologies, working together to create an in-built technology butler. At its heart is an all-new, cutting-edge infotainment system called Touch Pro Duo.
Velar is created from a clean sheet using Jaguar Land Rover’s Lightweight Aluminum Architecture. Safer, stronger and cleaner, it also improves driving performance. Five engines are offered at launch, ranging from the clean, responsive 180PS 2.0-litre Ingenium diesel to the potent 380PS supercharged 3.0-litre V6 petrol engine. A 300PS Ingenium petrol engine will join the Velar range later in 2017.
To complement the US launch event, a Range Rover Velar will be auctioned at the East Side House Settlement charity gala, a preview of the 2017 New York International Auto Show, at the Jacob Javits Center on Thursday 13 April. The winning bidder will be among the first customers in the world to take delivery of the highly coveted new vehicle.
New York remains the world’s biggest Range Rover market. The Velar is now available to order from Land Rover retailers, with US deliveries beginning late summer.
*Video assets courtesy Range Rover.
