2019 Range Rover Evoque vs 2018

What's the difference?

The second-generation Range Rover Evoque is a lot of things. It’s stunning to look at, better to drive, more practical, and more luxurious than ever before.

While it’s also hugely expensive and has lost some of the charm that came with its once-small visage, it achieves something far more important for the Evoque name, and that’s keeping it relevant in an increasingly congested luxury space.

Also check out Andrew Chesterton's thoughts from the Evoque's international launch.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with travel and meals provided.

I do find the standard specification list a bit weird but there's no denying it's well-equipped and it's not like they play pin-the-tail-on-the-spec-sheet at JLR HQ - this is a company that has worked out what buyers want. It's still great to drive (especially with the new engine), still looks utterly brilliant and is oddly practical.

You're not buying an Evoque with penny-pinching in mind - it's a considerably more expensive car than its larger stablemate, the Land Rover Discovery Sport. Heck, you can buy a 184kW Velar SE for a few more bucks. But neither are an Evoque, neither are the bold statement that went from show-stage to the road and changed the way we see Range Rover.

Put simply – the Evoque has returned to put competitors back where they belong. It is truly stunning for an SUV. To my eyes, at least, it has dethroned the Volvo XC40 as the most attractive small SUV on the market.

Sure, it’s more Victoria Beckham than Bear Grylls, but the Range Rover brand has crept beyond upmarket from its hose-out interior roots – and the Evoque owns it.

Land Rover has managed to morph the seamless, slick lines of the Velar onto the Evoque's petite and chunky frame. Design touches like LED headlights (now standard), contrast bodypanels and flush doorhandles add to this car’s stunning visage as you get closer.

Still, it’s undeniably an Evoque and has held onto design pillars like the ‘high beltline’ that rides from the headlamps to the tail-lights and descending roofline.

Inside, the Evoque has also continued to push upmarket with leather-trimmed surfaces from the base S up. It still has the signature chunky door inserts with recessed handles and window/mirror controls and has lovely seats no matter the grade with a premium-feel raised centre console stack.

It’s also in the centre where the Evoque has gained the elegant ‘Touch Pro Duo’ set-up from its larger sibling the Velar, totally de-cluttering the space.

Smart design touches are abound with well-textured and hidden storage areas throughout.

It all looks incredible, but there are a few downsides worth noting. The Evoque now has the huge steering wheel from the rest of the Range Rover range, making the helm feel more cumbersome than it was in its predecessor, and the abundance of gloss surfaces results in a potentially glare-heavy and difficult to keep clean cabin.

Don’t like the cars in the pictures? No problems, Land Rover offers no less than 17 different interior trim packages with five different textured highlights and numerous headlinings and wheel trims for pretty much any taste.

'Iconic' is bandied about a fair bit, but the Evoque definitely fits the bill. Few cars are as recognisable or as desirable as the Evoque's trend-setting lines. Even if you don't think it pretty, it's striking. It's also unusually cool in the (optional) 'Yulong White' - many of the options on the extraordinarily long list are to add to the car's styling. The Black Pack does look terrific, as do the 20-inch black alloys, which clearly work well against the angular look of the car.

I used to think that the three-door was the better looker, but I've come around to the better proportions of the five-door, the way the roof appears to fall to meet the tailgate, the big-wheel-friendly chunkiness and that front end with the LED daytime running lights still looks as fresh as the day it was born, tempered slightly by the recent arrival of the Velar.

Inside is more conventional and very familiar to the Land Rover/Range Rover-ista. It all works well, even if the rotary dial for the gear selector makes things a bit awkward in a three-point turn. It looks solid, dependable and most of it feels good.

The Evoque is on a heavily updated platform with its very bones having been altered to future-proof it for hybrid drivetrains.

This has resulted in a 20mm increase to its wheelbase, which is reflected directly into its now-gigantic cabin.

Aside from the invasively large steering wheel, the driver is greeted with an airy and spacious cabin with plenty of room for elbows across the thick centre console and chiseled out door cards.

Almost every surface greets you with a soft material, although the window line is quite high, making resting your arm there impractical.

There are storage spaces everywhere. Bottle holders in the doors, cupholders in the centre console, a massive top-box with a split opening and power sources within, a decently-sized glove box and a huge trench hidden underneath the second-screen.

The designers have had the foresight to put lovely textures on the base of storage surfaces to prevent items like phones, wallets and even pens from finding their way onto the floor.

Rear passengers are greeted with no shortage of legroom, dual rear air-vents, pockets on the back of the front seats and trenches in the doors.

Seat trim and comfort are easily as good as the front seats, and despite the declining roofline, headroom is plentiful for someone my size (I’m 182cm tall).

An odd annoyance I noted was the lack of handles above the doors. Almost every car has these. Not sure why this one doesn’t.

Don’t be deceived by the Evoque’s squashed rear window. I found on my test drive its surprisingly easy to see out of it, and then, there’s the boot.

The boot is truly gigantic, the Evoque’s new platform has made it 20cm wider than it was before, but it’s the volume that’s staggering. At 591 litres with the rear seats up it easily pulls punches with SUVs a size up.

There’s also an elastic belt and netted area for securing small objects. There are a few small catches to this voluminous space, and that’s that the rear seats don’t fold fully flat, making for a smaller total space and there’s only a space-saver spare wheel on offer under the boot floor.

Interior space is surprisingly good for what is effectively a compact SUV. The front-seat passengers have plenty of room in all directions while two rear seat passengers who aren't NBA stars will be perfectly happy. The third, middle row won't be, although the vents will keep their feet from sweating.

The boot is an impressive 575 litres with the seats up and 1445 with everything folded. The loading lip is quite high, though, and although the seats fold, the load area isn't flat.

The turning circle is a lazy 11.38 metres.

Off-road, you can wade up to 500mm, you have clearance of 211mm, an approach angle of 17.8 degrees, departure of 30 degrees and breakover of 22 degrees.

This particular specification is weighed down with the name Range Rover Evoque HSE Dynamic 290PS. Being a Range Rover, the HSE's opening figure isn't a shy one - $93,568 grants you entry to the 213kW turbo petrol. There is a lot of stuff in it, but by the same token, for the money it's missing some features, too.

For that price you get 19-inch alloy wheels, dual-zone climate control, reversing camera, keyless entry and start, front and rear parking sensors, cruise control, hill descent control, electric heated and cooled front seats, heated rear seats, bi-xenon headlights, head-up display, leather trim, electric tailgate, powered and heated folding mirrors, auto wipers and headlights and a space-saver spare.

The 11-speaker stereo has the usual Bluetooth, USB and also a DVD player. That little lot is controlled from JLR's ever-evolving 'InControl' media system on a 10-inch touchscreen. The sat nav is a bit thick (still) and takes a while to recognise inputs, while the lack of Apple CarPlay/Android Auto continues to grate.

Our car had a liberal sprinkling of options - 'Black Pack' with 20-inch alloys ($6360), 'Advanced Driver Assist Pack' (includes auto parking, around-view cameras and *grinds teeth* blind spot monitor, $6080), 16-speaker Meridian-branded surround sound ($3010), adaptive cruise ($2740!), adaptive dynamics ($2530), fixed panoramic glass roof ($2460), metallic paint ($1910), 'Connect Pro Pack' ($1260), black roof ($1260), DAB ($940!), privacy glass ($820) and 'InControl Protect' ($640). Taking us to...$123,578. Youch.

I mean, come on - blind spot monitoring doesn't come standard on a $90k car? That's a bit stiff. On its own a whopping $1490, and nearly $1000 for DAB, is really pushing it.

As previously mentioned, the Evoque has almost too many engine options. There are three petrols and three diesels, ranging from so-so to perhaps overpowered in the case of the P300.

All the engine options are 2.0-litre turbocharged units in different states of tune, and all are mated to a nine-speed torque converter transmission, with all-wheel drive.

Starting with the diesel the entry-level engine offered on most grades is the D150 which offers 110kW/380Nm, you can then step up to the mid-spec D180 which ups those figures to 132kW/430Nm and then to the top-spec D240 which offers 177kW/500Nm.

On the petrol side, things kick off with the P200 at 147kW/320Nm, then there’s the P250 with 183kW/365Nm and, finally, the top-spec P300 which has a rather silly 221kW/400Nm.

The top two engine options also offer a mild hybrid 48V electrical system which is capable of cutting the engine under 17km/h and feeding power back into auxiliary systems, although it is not capable of running the car under its own power. The brand says the system allows for a six per cent reduction in fuel consumption.

To make things more complicated, a three-cylinder mild-hybrid and plug-in hybrid variants are expected to join the line-up some time in 2020.

The 290 in the model name refers to the (metric) horsepower number of JLR's own Ingenium four-cylinder turbo petrol. That means 213kW/400Nm (there's a 240 horsepower version for a hefty 10 grand less).

Power reaches all four wheels via ZF's nine-speed automatic and, being a Rangie, it comes with all sorts of off-road cleverness to ensure you don't end up stuck in a rut... or sand... or mud... or snow. Flatten the throttle from rest and you'll be at 100km/h in a swift 6.3 seconds (as long as there's no snow, or mud, etc).

Towing fans will note a rating of 1800kg for a braked trailer and 750kg for unbraked.

The Evoque has reasonable official claimed/combined consumption figures across all its engine options. Diesel engines are more impressive consuming 5.1L/100km for the base D150, 6.8L/100km for the D180 and 6.3L/100km for the D240.

Petrols are not quite as good, with stated figures of 8.1L/100km for the P200 and P250 and 8.2L/100km for the P300.

Every new-generation Evoque has a 65-litre fuel tank.

The windscreen sticker says 7.6L/100km of 95RON or better, but that doesn't ever seem likely on the combined cycle. Our week of suburban running with bursts of highway yielded an average of 11.3L/100km. The Evoque is chubby for its size, which explains its relative thirst.

This Evoque is better to drive in almost every way compared to its predecessor. It’s smoother, more confident in corners, more composed on rough terrain, and some combination of the new engines and re-calibration of the nine-speed auto has made most of the turbo-lag issues reported on its predecessor a thing of the past.

Unlike many SUVs, the Evoque doesn’t suffer from the feeling of impending understeer, and it’s surprisingly capable when trudging along unsealed roads and even off-road tracks.

Although there’s no mechanical control of a low-range gearbox, Land Rover’s computer-controlled Terrain Response 2 system might surprise you as to how capable it really is, especially on the top two engine variants with their enhanced torque vectoring abilities.

Diesel engines in particular are surprisingly quiet, and while it could be argued that the P300 petrol engine is overpowered for something this size, it was genuinely difficult to get the wheels to lose traction on tarmac.

One criticism I would level at this new Evoque is that in its quest to become the most practical small luxury machine on four wheels, it’s lost something along the way. It’s so big and heavy now it feels as though you’re just driving a cropped down Velar.

That’s all very luxurious, but I’ll miss the nimble, agile feeling that was a large part of what made the first Evoque so endearing.

In its likely environment - the suburbs - the Evoque is impressive. Even on the big, optional 20-inch tyres (albeit with the dynamic dampers), the car rides firmly but with good compliance over the bumps. To my ears, the Evoque has become quieter over the years, which is partly down to the new engine, while further advances in sound-deadening have  also helped.

The steering is light and sensible in 'Standard' mode and weights up probably a touch too much when you switch to 'Dynamic', via the console-mounted switch. I like kicking around in Dynamic with the stiffer suspension and slightly more responsive throttle.

Perhaps less optimally, I also found myself switching to 'Sport' mode on the transmission. The nine-speed has a habit of being a little ponderous, which may be something to do with the switch from the old Ford-powered car I drove a few year ago. My wife complained that the transmission was clunky but agreed it improved in Sport mode, while expressing her disappointment that it didn't drive as well as she had remembered. She's hard, but fair.

If you're a bit of a hooligan like me, this 290-spec engine is strong and torquey and with everything turned up to Dynamic and Sport, very good fun and a potent weapon in traffic. With the nine-speed more concerned with performance than fuel-saving in D, S turns the tables and gets you moving at a rapid rate. Get too ambitious, though, and understeer sets in, with the weight of the car inescapable.

At cruising speed, the Evoque is genuinely lovely and very well-suited to long journeys and with that huge optional panoramic roof, a light and airy space that feels huge.

The Evoque leaves the Halewood factory with seven airbags, ABS, stability and traction controls, forward AEB, trailer stability assist and lane-departure warning.

Additional safety gubbins are available with the aforementioned Advanced Driver Assist Pack.

You can anchor three child seats with the top-tether points or two with the dual outboard ISOFIX anchors.

In 2011 the Evoque scored four ANCAP stars in December 2011. Curiously, the Evoque scored five stars in the EuroNCAP test the same year.

Land Rover offers a three-year 100,000km warranty which is frustratingly short, though if you believe what BMW has to say on the matter, this won’t bother premium buyers.

Still, with Volkswagen now offering a five-year warranty, the pressure will hopefully mount on premium automakers to start offering a little more in this space.

Land Rover does offer 24 hour roadside assist for the length of the warranty.

The new Evoque has condition-dependent servicing, meaning the car’s on-board computer will notify you when it’s time to have it serviced. This will happen at least once every 12 months.

This car’s predecessor allowed you to add service packs of up to five years at the time of purchase, as well as an optional extended warranty. We’ll seek clarification and pricing on these and update this story when we have confirmation on both.

The standard warranty of three years/100,000km applies, with three years roadside assist. Service intervals are set at 12 months or a scarcely believable 26,000km, whichever comes first.

You can extend the warranty at purchase and pre-purchase five years/130,000km of servicing for $1500, which seems fairly reasonable.