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2020 Road Rover EV Crossover and Next Jaguar XJ to Share Platform

With the advent of the Velar, Range Rover is slowly but steadily heading in a new direction for the Land Rover-owned brand. More luxury, more technology, more of everything to sum it up nicely. And as we wait for the second-generation Evoque to arrive, word has it a crossover-like electric vehicle is also in the offing.
Road Rover Series I and Series II prototypes 15 photos
Photo: Pinterest
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Road Rover is the name, and as per Autocar, the newcomer will be revealed in 2019. Expected to arrive in the U.S. for the 2020 model year, the Road Rover “will be a premium all-electric model,” developed with EV-friendly markets in mind. Think California and China. More interestingly, however, the cited publication highlights that the Road Rover will be Jaguar XJ-sized and that it will share its aluminum platform with the next generation of the luxury sedan.

Such a scenario would make the Road Rover a crossover instead of a full-fledged sport utility vehicle. But when you think about it, there’s no reason why Jaguar and Land Rover wouldn’t put its in-house synergies to good use. And as a side note, hearsay suggests the next-gen XJ will go electric.

The 2020 Range Rover Road Rover will be “tuned for impressive on-road dynamic performance,” mostly thanks to the dual-motor, all-wheel-drive setup. Autocar argues the electric SUV will premiere at the 2019 LA Auto Show, and that pricing will be £90,000 for the range-topping trim level.

Regarding the name, Road Rover isn’t merely an indicator this Range Rover can’t climb every mountain and ford every stream. Similarly to the Velar, Road Rover was originally a series of clay models, concepts, and prototypes from the 1950s, created as a bridge between the ill-fated Rover brand and the utilitarian Land Rover Series I. Somewhere along the way, the British automaker stopped developing the Road Rover into a production model.

Anticipated to develop on the styling language introduced by the Velar, the 2020 Road Rover is rumored to have “a range of at least 300 miles (483 kilometers; NEDC),” as well as “a 0 - 60 mph (100 km/h) time of under 5 seconds.” Genuinely good figures considering the size of the new model, and for what it’s worth, Land Rover needs an equivalent to Jaguar’s I-Pace.
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Editor's note: Road Rover Series I and Series II prototypes pictured.

About the author: Mircea Panait
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After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
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