Evoque in disguise – we were a bit harsh!

The Range Rover Evoque Prototypes - one for each world city

We reported on a set of photos Land Rover sent us of the Evoque in disguise on Tuesday. We were a bit disparaging – and a bit unfair.

We reported on Tuesday that Land Rover were busy teasing the new Range Rover Evoque by sending us an exclusive set of photos of a ‘Pack’ of Evoques in disguise out testing. Which we said seemed an odd way to tease a car that had already been revealed a couple of weeks ago as part of the celebration surrounding the Range Rover’s 40th anniversary.

But what we didn’t have was any detail about why we got the photos. So as usual we dived in and moaned (it’s what we do) that issuing us with photos of disguised Evoques seemed and odd way to go. But there’s more to the story than we first thought, as we learned when we read the info that came with the photos but which had got separated before we ran the story. Whoops!

So let’s put things straight. Land Rover are putting hundreds of Evoque prototypes out round the world to undergo final testing, everywhere from Arctic to desert and Autobahn to Tokyo city traffic. But what they are also doing – in their own words – is fitting “ten of the prototypes with funky camouflage wraps, meant to introduce the new car to ten key cities worldwide”. And the camouflage is a GPS mapping trail of the ten cities each car can be found in

These ten ‘Prototypes with funky camouflage wraps’ will go out and play in London, New York, Sao Paulo, Paris, Milan, Madrid, Berlin, Sydney, Shanghai and Moscow over the next year to get a bit of a buzz going around the Evoque ahead of its launch in 2011.

Which does make more sense than we first thought. There is logic and reason behind the camouflaged pictures. Mind you, we still think its daft to put camouflaged cars out there to promote a previously revealed car – whatever the Land Rover Logic. Much better to have a brightly coloured – but undisguised – Evoques so people can spot it and actually see what it looks like. Surely the point of camouflage is to disguise, not inform?

What? You expected us to be contrite without getting a moan in? No chance!