Range Rover Evoque review

Added to that line-up is the P300e, which has a new 197bhp 1.5-litre three-cylinder Ingenium turbo petrol engine, an Aisin eight-speed automatic gearbox and a belt-driven starter-generator motor up front; and a 107bhp AC synchronous electric motor cradled between the rear wheels, which drives the rear axle only. Total system peak power is 304bhp and torque 398lb ft.

The car’s lithium ion drive battery has 15kWh of gross capacity (bigger than in most of its direct PHEV rivals) and is packaged next to the 57-litre fuel tank under the back seats, leaving boot space unaffected – neat packaging in a car of this size.

Land Rover’s adaptive damping system is available on most Evoques as an option. The P300e is the exception. It comes with passive suspension however you order it because, simply put, adaptive dampers use electrical energy and passive ones don’t and Land Rover wanted to give the car the greatest electric range and operating efficiency possible.

It’s almost funny how cack-handed the redesign is. The gear selector sits on a big expanse of satin silver plastic that could have hosted some more storage trays but doesn’t and the plastic of the cupholders feels slightly flimsy. JLR’s infotainment system is generally a very agreeable one but less so now that it has a tonne more work to do. The way the new functions have been integrated seems like an afterthought. The new menus are ugly and clunky, the buttons are too small (because the interface wasn’t meant to host that many) and the screen’s responses seem more sluggish than before.

There’s more cheapening to be spotted around the cabin. Our test car had a trim rattle, the sunroof has a big slab of flimsy plastic and the leather-free Kvadrat option has been noticeably downgraded. It was a lovely cloth, but now it’s part cloth, part synthetic leather, and not of the convincing sort. It’s the eerily soft stuff you find in a BYD, and it has the same chemical smell.

Range Rover Evoque infotainment and sat-nav

For the tiltable upper screen, early second-generation Evoques used the old InControl Touch Duo system, which wasn’t the worst thing that 2018 had to offer, but could be quite slow to respond. From 2021, that was replaced with the Pivi Pro system. It used a smallish screen, but it’s an interface we generally like, because it responds quickly, has classy, clear graphics, enough virtual shortcut buttons and integrates well with smartphone mirroring.

For the latest redesign, the Evoque gets the same, larger screen as you would find in most recent JLR products such as the facelifted Jaguar F-Type and the full-size Range Rover. It’s still pretty good, but because it now needs to do both its old job and the job of its former colleague, the interface is more cluttered and the responses slower.

Lower-spec Evoques used to come with a mostly analogue instrument cluster with a smaller screen, but from November 2023 they’re all fully digital. The driver display is clear and has a good amount of configurability.

Due to the fairly supple way the original car was set-up, it needed slightly longer to settle onto its loaded side than some rivals, but had decent outright lateral grip levels even on slippery, chilly Tarmac thanks to the Pirelli Scorpion Zero tyres. The later car had more immediate responses, but its steering also felt very slightly nervous.

The chassis balance can even feel quite playful as you accelerate out of slower bends; there’s 200lb ft of torque instantly available to the rear wheels, and if you deploy it smoothly without triggering the electronic aids, it can add the faintest, fleeting suggestion of rear-driven poise.

Comfort and isolation

The last Range Rover Evoque (2011-2018) didn’t uphold the highest luxury-car standards for cabin isolation, which was one of the ways in which it felt less like a mini Range Rover and more like a Freelander in evening wear. The new one rights that shortcoming pretty clearly, though. We registered 64dB at 50mph in first-generation, diesel-engined Evoque when we tested it on a warm, still day in 2011, but the new PHEV recorded 62dB at the same speed and in windier conditions.

It’s a difference you would notice, and not just because of the quieter powertrain; better wind sealing and road noise suppression is clear.

The car’s seats may be found by bigger drivers to be slightly narrow in the upper backrest, and a bit meanly padded in places, but its ride is supple and generally quiet, with its 20in rims only thunking slightly over sharper-edged bumps. The car’s weight does show itself if you hurry it along cross-country roads with bigger undulations, but only in the odd bigger-amplitude heave or squat.

Pitch is laudably well controlled thanks to the car’s fairly even weight distribution and effective but progressive damping.

Off-road notes

In a segment where so many ‘soft-roader’ SUVs offer less than 200mm of ground clearance, the Evoque’s 212mm is probably its greatest asset on capability here. This isn’t the sort of car that people will use for steep climbs or rocky descents, but it may encounter the odd rutted track or muddy field, where a bit more fresh air under its skirts could be an advantage in some instances.

The car is said to offer as much as 600mm of wading depth. Our test car had only a claimed 530mm, but that’s still more than the old Evoque had. The car’s clearance angles, meanwhile, are slightly greater if you avoid the R-Dynamic bodykit.

Land Rover offers the usual multimodal Terrain Response system, but you can leave it in ‘auto’ and just let the electronics adapt to available grip as you go, if you prefer. Thanks not least to standard-fit M+S tyres, wet mud is no problem for the car at all, and so much instantly deployable torque makes for very good low-speed control.

The P300e will cost at least £49,000 in SE trim. That makes it slightly more expensive than a similarly specced BMW X1 xDrive25e, Alfa Romeo Tonale PHEV, and quite a lot more expensive than an Audi Q3 45 TFSIe.

Reliability

Recalls have been issued to fix the emergency call system, which contacts the emergency services in the event of an airbag deployment or when the SOS button is pushed. The rubberised fuel return hose assembly may have been incorrectly manufactured. The second-row seatbelt assemblies may contain a physical seatbelt retractor part that is of a different specification from that intended.

An electrical overload event in the 48V electrical system may cause a failure of the metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor. Check with a dealer to make sure all these works have been carried out.

Reliability can be an issue too. The reliability survey of our sibling title What Car? puts this second-gen Evoque in 36th place out of 39 cars in the family SUV class.