There probably weren’t too many surprises on this one. Since it’s introduction, the ‘baby’ Range has been making waves in the luxury SUV field, augmented by awards left right and center.

Although it faced fairly stiff competition from the updated 2012 version of Honda’s popular CR-V and the latest BMW X3, in terms of design and engineering, the Evoque was judged the overall winner in the 19th annual North American Truck of the Year awards, which took place on January 9th at Cobo Hall in Detroit, just prior to the opening of this year’s North American International Auto Show.

This represents the third time that a European branded vehicle has won the title, the last was back 2003 when the Volvo XC 90 took the honors. Interestingly, the only other European SUV to ever win North American Truck of the Year was the first generation Mercedes ML back in 1998, recognized as a game changer in the segment, much as the Evoque is today.

The North American Car and Truck of the Year awards are administered by a group of 50 automotive journalists from both the US and Canada, with the awards financed entirely by member dues (no advertising or commercial support for automakers or auto related businesses is accepted).

See AutoGuide’s complete Detroit Auto Show Coverage Here

News that Jaguar and Land Rover won’t exhibit at this year’s North American International Auto Show can be taken as a sign of the diminished importance the Detroit show now plays on the global stage.

There’s more to this story, however, as the reason the two luxury brands will be absent is due to a conflicting schedule with the Auto Expo show in New Delhi, India. While India’s importance as an emerging market can’t be downplayed, the decision has less to do with growing economies and more to do with the fact that JLR parent company Tata Motors, is from India.

In addition, JLR has little new to show a western audience, having already revealed the Jaguar C-X16 and Land Rover DC100 concepts, first at the Frankfurt Motor Show and then at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November.

JLR has confirmed that executives will still be cruising the show floor. After all, the Range Rover Evoque is on the shortlist for the 2012 Truck of the Year.

[Source: AutoNews]

See AutoGuide’s complete 2012 Detroit Auto Show Preview here

The new Range Rover Evoque has been much applauded by the press and is pushing Range Rover sales figures to heights the company has never seen before.

German auto giant Volkswagen wants a piece of the action and is now planning to bring its Evoque-fighter to the market by 2014. This new model will sit on a modified Golf platform.

VW’s R&D boss Ulrich Hackenberg says he thinks the crossover segment will continue grow and that customers want the high seating position with muscular style and sporty driving dynamics.

VW recently showed a concept of this new vehicle at the Tokyo Motor Show, called the Cross Coupe. While the concept was a plug-in hybrid, the production model will have many different petrol and diesel engines on option, with either a normal hybrid or a plug-in hybrid at some point in its life.

Even a longer, seven-seater version is planned, primarily for the American market. The target date for this new stylish SUV is 2014, which gives Range Rover plenty of time to sell as many Evoques as it can, before the competition arrives to take pieces out of its pie.

GALLERY: VW Cross Coupe

[Source: Autocar]

Over in the United Kingdom, Hertz has teamed up with Premiere Velocity in order to offer their customers the ability to rent some of the world’s finest exotic supercars. The list of exotics being offered is impressive including Lamborghini‘s LP560-4 Bicolore and Aventador, Porsche‘s Carrera 4 GTS Cabriolet, Ferrari‘s 458 Italia, Range Rover‘s Evoque, Mercedes-Benz‘s Brabus S-Class and SLS AMG Roadster, Rolls-Royce’s Phantom and even McLaren’s MP4.

The full range of cars available is up on Hertz’s website and a 5-percent discount is offered when booking through http://www.hertzsupercars.com. Prices vary, but a C63 AMG for example is £201.25 a day ($314) while an Audi R8 is £362.25 ($565). Hertz wand Premiere will also offer customers with a bespoke meet, greet and delivery system at any agreed location whether it be their home, office, hotel or airport.

The requirements? Enough money, 25-years of age and no more than six points on their driver’s license.

Autocar UK is reporting that Land Rover is currently planning for a bigger Range Rover Evoque model, slotting a vehicle in between the Evoque and its Range Rover Sport sibling. Success of BMW‘s X-models and Audi‘s Q-models has encouraged Land Rover to expand its Range Rover brand.

Possibly called “Grand Evoque”, it should be based on the same LR-MS architecture currently found on the existing Evoque, but Land Rover should be giving it a distinctive aesthetic design of its own to set it apart from the standard Evoque. Stretching the underbody by about 12-inches would give the Grand Evoque plenty of extra room, possibly for a third row of seating.

Speculation also continues with possible powerplants, with the larger Evoque powered by new four-cylinder engines that Jaguar Land Rover is developing. Rumor has it that a 1.8L turbo is in the works capable of producing as much as 170-hp per liter while a diesel variant would be capable of 133-hp per liter. There is also a possibility of a hybrid model for the larger Evoque.

[Source: Autocar UK]

Continuing along with the trend of adding awards to its roster, the Range Rover Evoque has been bestowed with another. Top Gear magazine in the UK, has named the baby Rover as it’s “Car of the Year.”

Following the announcement, the Evoque was taken on a “reward trip” across the wilds of North Africa, namely the desert and mountains of Morocco – talk about celebrating in style.

In addition to garnering top honors from the magazine, Top Gear‘s resident  ”motor mouth” Jeremy Clarkson, also labeled the Evoque as his favorite vehicle of the year, beating out such contenders as the Ferrari FF, McLaren MP4-12C and BMW 1 Series M coupe.

[Source: Autoblog]

Startech, a sub-division of famous Mercedes tuning house Brabus, is showing off a custom Range Rover Evoque at this year’s Essen Motor Show. The project originally debuted at the Dubai International Motor Show earlier this month, and has now made its way over to Europe to Essen for its home crowd.

The tuning package from Startech is available for all three- and five-door models of the Evoque and was developed to make the crossover more capable on the road, rather than focusing on the Evoque’s somewhat non-existent off-road capabilities.

For aesthetics, Startech outfits the Evoque with a new front apron, roof wing and rear apron that sports a new rear diffuser and wickedly cool quad exhaust tips. Ride height is lowered by 1.2-inch thanks to a suspension kit while Startech offers a variety of 20- to 22-inch wheels with custom color combos for the client.

On the inside, Startech offers a plethora of custom interior modifications including a sport steering wheel, aluminum pedals, foot rest and shifter, leather upholstery and Alcantara headliner. Startech also announced that they’re working on more horsepower for the 2.0L SI4 powerplant first, and will develop a power kit for the diesel engine shortly thereafter.

For more information and to discuss the Range Rover Evoque, please visit our Range Rover Evoque Forum.

GALLERY: Startech Range Rover Evoque

Despite these uncertain economic times, some luxury car makers have made healthy sales gains in recent months, particularly Land Rover. Along with sister company Jaguar, which had been languishing behind somewhat, the JLR group collectively boasted a 26 percent gain in global sales last month.

Much of the increase came from Jaguar, which saw demand rise by a whopping 157 percent in China, Land Rover, by comparison, reported gains of 85 percent in the same market.

In Europe, demand for both brands was up by some 37 percent, largely fueled by strong demand for new Range Rover Evoque and Jaguar XF diesel.

In North America, where Jaguar Land Rover has been struggling recently, September represented a refreshing turn of events, with demand up by some 10 percent, largely aided by the XF, which is proving quite popular with buyers here.

Phil Popham, Group Sales Director for Jaguar Land Rover went on the record stating that [2011] “has been our strongest September since 2007 when the industry was hit hard by the recession. Since that time we have introduced a host of new models and engines that has driven sales growth and attracted new consumers to our brands.”

It’s nice to know there’s at least some bright spots in an era seemingly dominated by much doom and gloom.

Although it hasn’t been officially given the green light, there’s every indication that a hot rod version of the recently introduced ‘baby’ Range Rover could be on its way.

Evoque program director David Mitchell has been driving one of the little Rovers, equipped with a  300 horsepower version of the turbocharged 2.0-liter gas engine found in regular models and says that the vehicle’s chassis is more than up to the task of handling an additional 63 horsepower.

However, there remains the question of how to market such a high performance model, if and when it reaches production; one scenario is perhaps offering a ‘hot’ sub brand, a bit like Cadillac with it’s V-series.

“We’ll have to look at that when the time comes,” says Mitchell.

For more information on the Range Rover Evoque, please visit our Range Rover Evoque Forums at http://www.rrevoqueforum.com/

[Source: Autocar]

Those who have been waiting to park the stylish new Range Rover Evoque on their driveway would be pleased to know that they won’t have to wait too long now. The vehicle will go on sale in just a few months time, but Land Rover has just announced US-pricing for this model, which starts at $43,995 (not including destination charges). That’s for the four door model with the coupe priced from $44,995.

This is easily the cheapest Range Rover model offered by its maker, and thanks to its 2.0-liter, turbo-charged, four cylinder motor, it will be cheap to run also. EPA figures suggest it will do 19-mpg in the city, and 28-mpg on the highway, which are very impressive numbers. Part of the reason it is so efficient is because thanks to weight-saving materials used in its construction, it only weighs 3680-lbs.

Expect these to ornament posh neighborhoods driveway very soon, no wonder they hired ‘Posh Spice’ Victoria Beckham as one of their brand ambassadors.

GALLERY: Range Rover Evoque