Remember all those F-Pace updates we told you about last week? Well, it's deja vu time. Quite how Land Rover and Jaguar decide between them who gets to go first on these new model year rollouts is anyone's guess. Sterilised wrestling in the car park, hopefully. Or more likely and drearily, whoever makes the strongest business case.
Plainly here, Jaguar's need is more pressing. It's no understatement to call the success of the its SUV utterly crucial. For Land Rover, the Velar - which shares its platform with the F-Pace - is more like icing on the cake. Yet it receives a similar level of 2021MY updating, which is good for it because it delivers a number of key upgrades.
The big takeaway? Land Rover would like you to remember that it has introduced the P400e Plug-in Hybrid (thereby 'completing' its electrification of the Range Rover lineup) which delivers 404hp and 472lb ft of torque courtesy of of a 300hp petrol engine and associated electric motor, and has a 17.1Wh lithium battery for around 33 miles of zero emission mode. But the real boon is the wider introduction of the new straight-six Ingenium engines.
The 400hp version, endowed with an electric supercharger and a twin scroll turbocharger is installed in the conventional P400; Land Rover craftily claims the P400e is very slightly quicker than it to 60 (and 62mph) although we'll bet all the money in our pockets against all the money in their pockets that it isn't - based on the fact that it produces virtually the same peak power and is doubtless heavier on the scales.
Of course, it's no flyweight itself; certainly not when the 48-volt MHEV system added. Land Rover says this pays serious dividends in the range-topping D300 oil burner, which it calls one of the world's leading clean diesel engines. There's a four-cylinder D200 as well, although we wouldn't pay that much mind, given it misses out on the air suspension which the P400 and D300 get as standard.
Elsewhere it is the introduction of JLR's new Pivo and Pivi Pro infotainment system that leaves a mark. Yes, it has a silly name, but the tech (and the electric architecture which underpins it) is a legitimate game changer as far as the manufacturer is concerned and represents more time and money invested than virtually anything else you've read about here. Accommodating it in the Velar means employing a 'reductive design' inside, which is marketing speak for installing yet more screens. But the effect is undoubtedly to the benefit of the 'digital experience' and the Velar's cabin was already among its strengths.
Certainly, the Pivi system is far slicker than anything JLR has previously attempted, and comes with the promise of the 'over-the-air' updates, reducing the amount of times a dealer won't be able to find space for you that afternoon. Land Rover has thrown in some other extras, including the Active Road Noise Cancellation system that we're keen to try out for ourselves. But the other most notable item is probably the departure of the rotary gear selectors, replaced by a new (and surely improved) Drive Selector. You'll likely recognise it from the F-Pace.
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