Land Rover Range Rover Evoque 2016

The British maker was facing a common dilemma among sports teams: what to do when you’re playing with a winning team for too long? In this case, updating a successful car is risky because it changes how people perceive it. Depending on how you change it, attracting new buyers can be as easy as losing both these and those you already had. On the other hand, the longer you wait to make a decision, the less competitive the car becomes in its market, which is also highly negative. After four years of unbelievable sales records, Land Rover has finally made its mind. And you’re just about to meet the result.

As the images anticipate, Land Rover has performed the smallest kind of facelift there is. It’s not a new generation (such as the current Range Rover, for instance) nor a complete redesign of the same project (like Dacia Logan) or a partial refreshment (think of Toyota Camry). Evoque received a front bumper with smoother surfaces and bigger air intakes, new grille designs which depend on the trim level, new headlight graphics in LEDs, new wheels and those hood vents that used to be exclusive of the three-door sibling. The result is pretty much the same product, but that’s completely okay. After all, in situations like this, the automaker doesn’t really want to take the risks of changing. It just wants the vehicle to attract people and media attention once again.

And what would the British want to do with all this attention? To show where Evoque’s facelift really is important. The best-seller crossover is the latest member of the Jaguar Land Rover group to carry an engine from the Ingenium family. It’s the same turbodiesel 2.0-liter that debuted under Jaguar XE’s hood, which is still the only option of this lineup released so far. Here, you can enjoy it in two TD4 trims: the cheaper one is good for 148 hp, makes 68 mpg and emits 109 g/km of carbon dioxide (it uses the eD4 badge which is Land Rover’s symbol fuel-efficient engines), while the other takes these figures to 178 hp, 59 mpg and 125 g/km. If you prefer to burn gasoline, the only choice is the carried-over turbocharged Si4 2.0-liter, which delivers 236 hp, makes 36 mpg and emits 181 g/km.

Entering the car will bring the same feeling you had with the exterior. You’ll find the very same design, filled with rectilinear elements and a great combination of chrome and leather, but there are some key novelties which are very interesting. One is the the company’s InControl infotainment system, which is claimed to be unbelievably better than what had been equipping Jaguar and Land Rover cars so far. This move allowed Evoque to drop several physical buttons in favor of a high-definition touchscreen with more intuitive interface. Other news regard the equipment list: Evoque received autonomous braking system to prevent front collisions, DAB radio technology, and an off-road cruise control which works at up to 19 mph.

Land Rover also states that the turbodiesel Evoque will have its service intervals increased from 16,000 to 21,000 miles, which supposedly means it’ll be cheaper to maintain. The only bad news is that most of the style updates are restricted to some trim levels. The hexagonal-themed front grille comes with Dynamic, while the lesser models use two horizontal bars. Those adaptive all-LED headlights, which rotate in order to help you while turning, come only on upscale Evoques, just like the aforementioned hood vents. And the roof fin, which hides a 3G antenna dedicated to improve the internal reception, is optional. Nevertheless, it’s still great enough for the company to expect to keep increasing its sales. The new Evoque will go on sale in a couple of months.