New Range Rover launch on Nov 30

Land Rover will launch the all-new Range Rover in India on Friday, November 30.

The all-new Range Rover has been re-engineered to become more competitive as a genuine luxury car on-road as well as becoming more capable off-road. The new model is lighter, more frugal, more spacious and significantly more refined, according to Land Rover.

The company says it is the world's first SUV with all-aluminium monocoque construction. Made up of 270 aluminium pressings, 14 castings, nine extrusions, ten steel pressings and magnesium castings, the structure is assembled by riveting and bonding. A total of 3,722 rivets are used along with 161m of adhesive.

The bodyside is pressed in one piece and said to be the 'largest automotive panel in the world'. The use of high-strength AC300 T61 aluminium in the crash structure is also said to be the first automotive volume use. It is 180kg lighter than the steel shell of the previous model. The Range Rover's bare shell is also 23kg lighter than a BMW 3-series shell and a remarkable 85kg lighter than that of the Audi Q5. In fact, Land Rover claims it is only 12kg heavier than a bare Mini Countryman shell.

At a millimetre under 5m long, the new car benefits from much improved rear cabin space. The wheelbase is 40mm longer and the rear door aperture wider for easier access. Legroom is claimed to have increased by 118mm. It has been benchmarked against luxury cars such as the Bentley Flying Spur and Mercedes S-Class for ride quality and tyre and wind noise.

The new Range Rover's off-road ground clearance has been improved by 18mm, to 296mm front, 310mm rear and the 597mm of wheel travel easily bests the Mercedes GL's 480mm. The car's wading depth has increased by 200mm to 900mm, with the car now 'breathing' via the gap between the bonnet and wing. The new-generation Terrain Response 2 system now includes an 'auto' setting, which analyses the terrain and can switch automatically between the five off-road settings.

The permanent all-wheel drive works through a new eight-speed ZF automatic gearbox, which has a wider gear ratio spread and only uses the torque convertor for launch, before locking up for maximum efficiency. Brembo six-pot callipers and 380mm discs are fitted to the front wheels and it gets a new electric power steering system.

Initially, the new Range Rover will be available in India only with the 4.4-litre V8 twin-turbo diesel engine that is good for 334bhp. Three variants will be available at launch. The base variant will be priced at around ₹1.73 crore, (ex-showroom) while the metallic-paint variant will cost ₹1.75 crore and another variant with exclusive paint-shade will be priced at around ₹1.78 crore.

Land Rover will start selling the 3.0-litre V6 diesel powered variant from June 2013.

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