Range Rover Evoque launches in China

Range Rover Evoque launches in Beijing

The Range Rover Evoque has launched in China, with both three and five door Evoques available but only a petrol engine option.

Land Rover may have bit of a shortage of parts for the new Range Rover Evoque, which is reportedly causing some delays for UK Evoque deliveries, but they’re still pushing on with launching the Evoque across the world. And this week it’s China, with the tag line ‘Hello Beijing’ attached to the launch.

Last week Land Rover were out in India to launch the Evoque, with the Indian market getting the full range of Evoque models – that’s coupe and five-door with a choice of TD4 and SD4 diesels and the Si4 Ecoboost petrol. And the starting point, thanks to India’s big import duties, is £60k.

In China things are a bit different. There’s not much market for ‘luxury’ diesels, so the Evoque in China has Hobson’s choice on the engine front, with just the 2.0 litre Si4 with 240 horses on offer.

But the starting point in China for the Evoque is pretty much the same as in India (although the Si4 is a higher-end model than the TD4) at 620,000rmb (around £61k) for the five door and 630,000rmb (around £62k) for the coupe.

That comes in at the top end of prices for cars like the Mercedes GLK, which starts at around £43k, and the X3 which starts at around £53k.

But the kudos of the Evoque, coupled with its relative frugality compared to the Mercedes and BMW, should give it a ready market in China’s image-conscious market.

And once Land Rover (and Jaguar) sort out their joint venture with Chery (or whoever it turns out to be) those prices should start to come down as JLR takes CKDs to China, and even starts proper production for the home market.

But even at the high initial prices, the Evoque should do a good job increasing Land Rover sales in China.