Land Rover’s Range Rover lineup has been a well-perceived makeup of various-sized SUVs, which has worked well for the brand for many years now. For the smaller compact size, the Range Rover Evoque has quietly carried on giving buyers a less expensive, be it a much smaller, alternative to the larger Range Rovers without compromising the fundamentals of such a vehicle.
In its latest model year, the Range Rover Evoque receives updates to bring many of its features up to par with its bigger Range Rover brethren, now featuring the updated 11.4-inch touchscreen infotainment unit and a minimalist dashboard design. Moreover, the Evoque has an updated front-end design but has been simplified with only one powertrain, offering the P250, which has a 2.0-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder.
Styling-wise, the new Range Rover Evoque has an appealing classiness that’s carried over from the larger Rovers, which easily mimics delightful visual appeal from unique accenting colors as you find on my Tribeca Blue test vehicle sporting 20-inch wheels.
Now having just one powertrain setup, the new Range Rover Evoque isn’t exactly spritely with its P250 designation for the 2.0-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder, which produces 246 horsepower and 269 lb-ft of torque. However, it’s respectable with its all-wheel-drive system that’s front-wheel-drive biased. The outgoing P300 setup was a more robust mild-hybrid setup with 296 horsepower but carried a bit of extra weight. This year, the Evoque is simplified on many fronts with the less-powerful setup but remains a worthy contender for a compact luxury SUV, considering it retains the dynamics of being a capable off-roader through advanced terrain management settings. There’s also a bit more to be had in its ability on and off-road when compared to direct competitors.
Out on the road, the Range Rover Evoque has a good driving characteristic that’s initially soft, whereas its adaptive dampers in the top Dynamic SE trim exude a smooth ride quality. The Dynamic drive mode tightens things up slightly but not nearly to the point of being overly stiff. In fact, I preferred the Dynamic drive mode over the normal comfort drive mode as it seemed to perform better off of the line, putting the 9-speed transmission into first gear at stops instead of starting in second gear when it wanted in the default drive mode.
The turbocharged 4-cylinder engine does all it can to move the Evoque but at a slower pace than I would like, where it feels like the engine is straining to keep pace at times. Such a trait seems to take away from the fuel economy, which falls just short of the EPA-estimated 27 mpg highway figure, which I never saw in the real world. The 20-mpg city and 22-mpg combined EPA figures seem on par with what I was able to muster during my week with the Evoque. Zero to 60 mph comes in around 7.2 seconds, which is often inconsistent and highly dependent on selecting the Dynamic drive mode over the normal mode.
Overall, the ride quality is great compared to the power from the engine in the new Evoque. The Evoque would otherwise be a baby version of its larger Range Rover siblings if it were not for the powertrain being somewhat unrefined in comparison to what the larger Rovers offer.
The cabin of the new Range Rover Evoque takes a page directly from its larger counterparts, which is a good thing considering how well Land Rover played up its new minimalist design of the interior. The new Range Rover dashboard layout is used throughout the Evoque, putting the updated and curved 11.4-inch touchscreen infotainment system at the center of everything. The updated system works well for being one place to control just about everything. There are fixed areas on the left and right of the screen for quick touchscreen slider adjustments to things like volume and climate control temperature. Land Rover spent a lot of time where it mattered to give the new Range Rover lineup a welcomed infotainment system that responds quickly to inputs and is somewhat user-friendly after a short initial learning curve. Part of that short learning curve is purposely designed functions that only require one or two taps of an onscreen button to bring up essential features and controls. All nicely done as long as it doesn’t suffer from Land Rover’s historically questionable reliability.
The dashboard also features the latest digital gauge cluster, which can display a navigation map and be configured in a few different layouts. The specialized, almost fabric-like, materials used throughout the dash also mimic the larger Range Rover’s uniquely colored themes that don’t necessarily take away from its luxury appeal.
In all, the cabin seems to make up for the drivetrain’s minor shortcomings apart from being on the smallish side. However, up front, the heated seats have a decent amount of adjustability, making the driving and front passenger space accommodating for most. The rear seating is on the tighter side, as is the cargo capacity, considering the wheelbase of the Evoque is only 105.6 inches long. Out back, you have 22 cubic feet of cargo room to work from, and a power liftgate for accesses. Fold the rear seatbacks down, and you will have 51 cubic feet of storage.
Land Rover brings the expected active safety features to the table in the new Range Rover Evoque, including the highlights of lane departure warning, lane keeping assist, blind-spot warning with rear cross-traffic warning, forward collision warning with automatic emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, and a trick 360-degree camera system that overlays recorded imagery of what is under the vehicle. The ClearSight digital review mirror camera system added as part of an optional Technology Pack, is also a welcomed feature to display a high-resolution and high refresh-rate rearview mirror feed.
Keeping things where they should be for a compact luxury SUV, the Range Rover Evoque attempts to retain its affordability measure by being the least expensive vehicle in the Range Rover line you can buy with a starting price right around $50,000 but can make it as high as my loaded test vehicle’s total price of $62,930, which includes several options and a destination charge of $1,175.
