The Range Rover Evoque - will it get the 200bhp EcoBoost lump?
Will Land Rover fit the 200bhp EcoBoost engine in to the new Range Rover Evoque? We think not, at least not in Europe.
I suppose the need to keep the story alive – the story of the Range Rover Evoque, that is – makes us speculate on what we don’t yet know. Which no doubt explains why Autocar have run a story claiming the Evoque will get endowed with Ford’s latest EcoBoost lump when it hits the road next year. But does that make any sense?
Not surprisingly, Land Rover won’t say anything. But let’s throw a bit of logic at this. The Autocar claim is that the Evoque will be offered with the 200bhp version of Ford’s EcoBoost lump as fitted to the 2011 Mondeo. That would give the new baby Range Rover 200bhp to play with whilst still offering decent economy.
But why would Land Rover want to offer a 200bhp petrol lump – at least in Europe? The only petrol engine they bother with is the 5.0 litre Supercharged engine in the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport. The Freeelander lost its petrol option in the UK some time ago, as did the Disco.
But there is some logic that there will be a petrol option, because the Evoque is a Range Rover and as such it perhaps needs a ‘Halo’ model, however slow sales are. But why would Land Rover stick in the 200bhp EcoBoost lump when they can offer similar performance and better economy from their existing 2.2 litre diesel with 190bhp?
If the Evoque is going to get a petrol option in Europe – and it’s a big if – we would expect it to get the full fat version of the EcoBoost lump offering 240 bhp+. That would potentially see the Evoque move along the tarmac at the same sort of rate as its bigger brethren with the 5.0 litre S/C lump.
The only place we can see the Evoque getting a 200bhp – or less – version of the EcoBoost is for export to countries which are still averse to oil burning cars – like the US. There we can see a regular EcoBoost engine with the halo EcoBoost with 240bhp+ sitting at the top.
So really, for what it’s worth, we can’t see the Evoque getting a 200bhp EcoBoost lump in Europe. The 250bhp version maybe, but there is just no point in fitting the Ecoboost as anything other than a halo engine. But all this will go out of the window as soon as Tata have their planned in-house 2.0 litre petrol and diesel lumps ready to go.
And it’s all just guesswork anyway.
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