Land Rover Is Considering Grande Evoque Gap-filler

If Mercedes calls its cars “uber” internally when they want to give them steroids, the British marketing teams at Land Rover are currently considering a “Grande Evoque”, which will fill the gap in the lineup between the compact Range Rover Evoque and the Range Rover Sport. Once again, this is a car that’s being analyzed from a marketing point of view first and then from an automotive perspective, but we’ll let it slide because we like the new design direction the British firm has.

According to Autocar, inside sources say that a final conclusion on whether to give the go-ahead or not is close to being reached. Land Rover wants to bridge the gap in price between the range-topping Evoque and the entry-level Sport.

The Grande Evoque could be a five-door machine that takes the recently introduced shape and blows it up a bit to provide more room for families. “What’s wrong with the Freelander 4 as a family car?” you may ask. Not much, but a coupe-like body shape will substantially increase market appeal, plus the Freelander has as much chance of being looked at as being sporty as a tractor tire. The Grande Evoque will benefit from an aggressive sporting appearance and still offer considerable legroom in the back.

The powertrains will be borrowed from the Evoque, as will the front-wheel drive option, so expect to see 2.2-liter diesel and 2.0-liter petrol engines under the bonnet. Autocar says the LR-MS platform could be stretched some 300 millimeters (about 12 inches), half of which will go toward legroom and the other will be used for a bigger boot.