The Range Rover Velar may not be the industry-typical image of a mid-sized, mid-level SUV, but it is precisely that for JLR's luxury SUV arm - which tells you as much about Range Rover as a modern sub-brand as it does about the car itself. Now in middle age as a first-generation model, the car is a high-style alternative to the likes of the Mercedes GLC, BMW X3 and Audi Q5 - and its latest update, though a fairly mild one, turns up the dial on its designer SUV credentials just a little.
Having been introduced to UK showrooms in 2017, the Velar was the model with which Land Rover really focused on style. JLR design supremo Gerry McGovern seized the opportunity of a blank canvas to create a car not simply to plug the hole in the model range between Evoque and Range Rover Sport, but to explore the potential of the Range Rover brand to appeal to customers looking for a really standout design - and who would value that design every bit as much as Range Rover's more traditional values of space, capability and luxury.
It has sold well, and integrated within the Range Rover model range equally well, as its sibling models around it have themselves picked up a little of its reflected design star quality. Now, JLR has taken the opportunity to refresh its exterior a little, to improve its powertrain options slightly, and to reappraise its interior and infotainment technology rather more extensively.