Starting from 1989, Land Rover had two different cars which were the Range Rover and Defender. Range Rover is an ultra-luxury SUV. One can have extreme luxury, and extreme features and the price of this car is also expensive so not every person cannot afford this car. The second one is the Defender of this brand. It was an extreme off-roader which was very basic and very bare-born.
One can get this car anywhere and its price was also very decent, and valuable. But the consumers wanted something else, their demand was shifting to something else. They wanted a car with luxury like a Range Rover. Also, one could get the off-roading of Defender. And the price of the vehicle should also be in between these two cars. Land Rover's hands were completely empty, They did not have any such vehicle which could fulfill both demands. But then Land Rover made something new. And that is why, in 1989, Land Rover launched its Discovery, which was a new car of this brand, the body design of a Range Rover. But in this car, you get the engine of Defender. Off-roading capabilities of this car match with Defender.
The price of this car was perfectly in between Range Rover and Defender this car was a new need of urban consumers. They want a car with good looks. And off-roading should also be good, which can cater to it opening a new dimension for Land Rover and increasing its market penetration even more. And yes, before coming to the Evoque, But after 17 years of this, Land Rover has to face such a situation again in which Land Rover has 4 different series of cars, which is the Freelander a very basic car, you get basic features and you get decent off-roading there is its Defender in which you get extreme off-roading. But you get useless luxury and you can't drive this car to the city. Another is its Discovery in which you get good off-roading. And you get good luxury another is its Range Rover in which you get extreme luxury. And you get extreme performance, but at that time, the demand of the consumers was something else.
They wanted something else something sexier, a mixture of SUVs and compact cars. It was also because in 2006 the price of crude oil increased significantly. Today it is around $90. It reached like this at that time the price of petrol and diesel at that time improved a lot. So people were not able to afford to drive big SUVs which had a 6.2L V8 engine or a 5.0L V8 engine. The consumers wanted a small SUV that had a small engine but the ground clearance and off-roading capabilities of the car should be of a proper SUV. And if you see the BMW X3 of that time, the Mercedes GLK or Audi Q5. Their demand was increasing a lot Land Rover's hands were empty, and they didn't have any cars in this segment, because the Freelander is a small car but it doesn't have luxuries like X3 or GLK.
Land Rover didn't lose hope, Land Rover's engineers and designers, started working on a car that was called LRX. It was a concept model and Land Rover's boss wanted that it should be such a car that can be driven well on 5th Avenue street of New York. Which has expensive paint houses and should look good in the mud of the mountains and work well there. It should be such a car which is small in size. But its feel and road presence should be grand and welcoming. It should be such a car that has the off-roading of Land Rover but has the fuel efficiency of a Suzuki a car with which every Land Rover car will be inspired. So there were a lot of burdens on Land Rover's engineers and designers. That is how to make such a perfect car having everything. Good efficiency, good off-roading, good looks. How does that even make any sense?
Journey of Range Rover EVOQUE
So then after 2 years of hard work after changing its owners, Land Rover showcased its LRX concept at the D-Tron Motor Show, and it was a really very futuristic car in which one can get thin Lights on the front, a very thin grill in front, and a very masculine front Bonnet. Thick wheel arches on the side of 21-inch wheels get a sloping roofline in it and get its body line going up. A very high bumper at the back will make its departure angle cool. You get its roof made up of glasses. Driver-oriented slanting dashboard and sports seats in it Land Rover was not even sure whether to launch this car or not. They only showcased this car so that dealerships and those who are coming to the D-Tron Motor Show, know their viewpoint. To know if Land Rover will launch this car and if there is any market for it. But you know when people would have seen this car, they would have been shocked. They literally started saying we want this Land Rover, we want LRX! Launch the LRX. I think the same feeling would have come in this car at that time. The feeling that we got seeing Hummer EV last year.
Because when the Hummer EV was launched, It was very shocking. It is a bit advanced car in which you get thick tires. You get very astonishing looks, which can be only seen in sci-fi movies, and the same would've happened with this car. Because there was no such car at that time which would've such a futuristic design. The designers of Land Rover had confirmed that in its concept model and its real-life version, there will not be much difference. It will be almost the same. But it is not so, you will be given good features in the concept model, and then you'll be made a fool. You will get everything perfect whatever is shown will be provided to you. The right policy of Land Rover. So, looking at the demand for this car, engineers and designers of Land Rover started making this car and indulged in making its road-legal version. But to make this car's road-legal version, Land Rover had to face three big problems:
1. First Land Rover thought to make this car into a body on ladder frame car. Which will give the feel of an SUV. But the market needs were going towards monocoque chassis-based cars and also towards SUVs because we get good efficiency in it. And we get less weight in it, So Land Rover had to change its whole plan and this car had to shift to its D8 platform based. On which Freelander is based, on which Discovery is based, and also on which Harrier and Safari are based. So technically you can say if you have a Harrier, So in one way, you have a Freelander or Range Rover Evoque.
2. Land Rover had thought that it would make its LRX into a separate division of cars like Discovery, Defender, or Range Rover which would have a lot of cars. But when Land Rover did some research on this idea, then it didn't make any sense. Because the rest of its ranges have barely one or two cars. So launching a separate range and having only one car in it will be very useless. Because it will take a lot of time to build up a brand under that range. So then Land Rover decided that it is better to launch this car under Range Rover than to launch it in a different range. Because Range Rover has a good market value And also a good brand equity So it will be easy to market this car by launching it under Range Rover, by putting some premiumness in this car, Land Rover can put a better price for this car. And the consumers also will be happy because they will get a feel and comfort of Range Rover in a small car.
3. Land Rover is not making the LRX a separate range and they are launching this car under Range Rover. So they can't name this car LRX because it is a car, not in a separate range. And LRX is a cool name Land Rover can use in some upcoming cars or for variants, LRX looks premium. So Land Rover wanted a new cool name for this car. And which can match the identity of this car. So Land Rover named this car EVOQUE. Which is made from EVOKE. Which means, to surprise or to shock somebody. And this car was really surprising. Because no one had seen such a cool and high-tech car. And after 2 years of hard work, And spending almost 1 billion dollars, On 18th November 2010, Land Rover unveiled this car or unveils Evoque, which is its road-legal version.
Initially, this car is unveiled in the 5-door version. And later, its 3-door version was unveiled. Land Rover designers said, that the looks of this car will be 90% the same as its concept model, it is the same in this car. In which you get the same thin lights, a thin grill in front gets a masculine bonnet in front, a tapering roofline, an upright body line, and thick wheel arches. While in the interior, you get a slanting dashboard that is performance-oriented. Wherein an aluminum finish, and an 8-inch screen on its dashboard. The instrument cluster is also very sporty in its seats, you get thick bolsterings. So that, you feel sporty. The roof is made of glass in this car and the car has a sporty SUV feel which won't get old even in the next 10 years. In this car, you get a 2.2-liter diesel engine which gives you 150 or 190 horsepower(HP) and an average of around 20 kmpl. Which is claimed by Land Rover. This is a very big thing so at first sight this car was loved by consumers. But it became even more loved when Land Rover disclosed the price of this car.
In which the starting price of this car was 28K pounds and its top-end spec was worth 44000 pounds. People went crazy on the first day of its unveiling. This car got 5 lakh inquiries. Land Rover initially anticipated that this car would have around 40,000 sales per year. But on the first day of the launch bookings of its 30K units were done. So, Land Rover had to increase its production capacity. Land Rover hired around 1K additional employees within some months. So that they could produce this car quickly and deliver it to customers. This car was not just good looking and you don't get good functionality. Every magazine gave this car a world car of the year award in 2011. And in the 6 months of its launch, this car got 50 awards from prominent car magazines. So this means that customers liked this car, Dealerships liked this car, and Car magazines liked this car. It is a perfect car that a carmaker can make. The Euro NCAP takes this car and tests it to see what it means. That this car has good features. Maybe it wouldn't have better safety. But this car scores a 5-star rating, so this car wins in this realm too. And conquers well.
EVOQUE Launched in INDIA
In November 2011, Land Rover launched this car in India and its price in India is around 44 lakh rupees starting from Ex-Room India which I think is a lot of value for money if you see technically, 11 years ago you used to get Range Rover Evoque in 44 lakh ex-room but now you get a Fortuner you don't get that in any top-end variant like Legender. Look at how times have changed. Things have gotten very expensive. Then in mid-2012, this car was aged 1 year after its launch. And this car got 80K bookings Which is a very big number in a year according to today's standards. This number is normal in India. Because in India, lakhs of scorpions are booked in 30 minutes. But at that time, there was no such online booking system. At that time, local dealerships used to book.
At that time, no one used to book for fun. So these 80 K bookings is a very big number. Till 2016, Land Rover has sold 4 lakh units of this car Which is a very big number. Because this car has been launched for the last 5 years. And 4 lakh units of this car have been sold and now Land Rover has launched a new facelift of this car In which you get 20% higher efficiency as compared to the previous version. You get some sporty bumpers in front, new LED lights, new taillights, new alloys, and new screens in the interior, and pretty much the car is the same, But you get some new adjustments to make this car new. In 2016, Land Rover launched the convertible version of this car Which is a very new concept In which the 3-door version of this car. The roof of that car was removed by Land Rover and the roof of a convertible car was. and it becomes a convertible SUV Which is a very new thing and no one has ever seen it. Its sales were not that good, but at least Land Rover tried.
But you must be thinking that everything is going well and everything is going well and nothing is going wrong. So, it is not so! In 2017-18, the sale of this car started to decrease. It decreased from 98,000, and now it has reached 68,000. Because this car was a bit old and all the other competitions were going well, Land Rover had to do something new. They got back to their roots and started making this car again, and in 2018, they launched the second generation of this car. In which you get the DNA of the whole Evoque. But you get a completely new look In which you get very thin lights in front. You get very minimalism in the looks of this car In which you get integrated door handles. On the back, you get very thin tail lights which are in a black bar. And this car, the look is like Velar. It is a big SUV.
If you see the interior, You get a dual screen in its dashboard In which you get the digital instrument cluster and you get new technology that makes this car better than earlier. And the sales of this generation were also decent. But this car could not gather that attraction which was done by the older Evoque in its launch. And this car has become very overshadowed in front of Velar or Defenders or the new cars of Land Rover. Because it is very advanced now and now the consumers are preferring As compared to buying a small Discovery Sport. And still, these cars are very cool. You can buy them, only the price is a bit expensive in India. It is worth Rs. 80 lakhs.
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