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What and where is the L486?

Land Rover has various designations for their different models, not sure if they’re technically code names or just alternate ways to reference the vehicles.

Here are a few of the current models:

L316 – Defender

L319 – LR3 & LR4 – Discovery 3/4

L320 – Range Rover Sport

L322 – Range Rover – Current model(2002 – today), below is a picture used in some technical documents, I don’t have a picture like this for the other models.

L359 – LR2 – Freelander 2

L538 – Range Rover Evoque

L405 – Possible code for the next Range Rover

And back to the point of the post, the L486, it’s been referenced in the press since 2008 or so and has been described by them as a 7-seater Freelander, possibly to be called the Ventura. I take anything from the press with a grain of salt, but since 2008, it hasn’t really been brought up again.

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/06/24/land-rover-developing-new-7-seater/

http://www.autoweek.com/article/20080624/free/957481398

I wrote about it back in April after finding some of the designers who worked on the project.

And just thought with the LA Auto show going on and Land Rover PR running at full steam, anyone who has a chance should start asking the LR PR people for comments for reactions. Or if you have any info, send it over.

Quick reference back to my article from April, here’s the info, a small reference to the L486 along with the L538, which would become the Range Rover Evoque:

http://www.people4business.com/seller-269321.htm

This person has done a lot of work for Aston Martin & Bentley – they list the specific items. The latest project is listed below:

WARWICKSHIRE (Oct 2007 & ongoing)

CAD ENGINEER – EXTERIOR TRIM – CATIA V5
LANDROVER L538 / L486
Initial design and feasibility studies for the following components: door claddings, rear spoiler, rear finisher, front and rear bumper cover, fender vents. Parametric modeling in Catia V5 to create fully modifiable master CAD models. Use of TCE to save and access data and create product structures. Liaison with styling, CAE and suppliers to mature designs.

Could the L486 be the 5-door Evoque?

And if you have some more current generation code names, please let me know.

One final item, you can see the alternate names in use all over the Land Rover website, below is a header graphic for the Range Rover Sport section, you can see the L320 in its filename:

LRNA_RRS_COMPARE_L320_10_EXT_LOC06-900×200.jpg

LRNA_RRS_COMPARE_L320_10_EXT_LOC06-900x200[1]

Michael2010-12-06T02:10:46-05:00November 19, 2010|

5-Door Range Rover Evoque – First official pictures & US PR #rangeroverevoque

Ahead of the actual reveal in LA on November 17th, ~~Land Rover~~ Range Rover has released pictures & a press release for the 5(4)-door Range Rover Evoque.

The PR we have is US biased with no talk of a diesel or 2WD model and with US prices stated to be starting at $45,000. I still wonder, have they officially said that we aren’t getting the coupe?

And finally, interesting paragraph from that PR:

The more capacious interior of the five-door Range Rover Evoque has been achieved without enlarging the compact footprint of the coupe model: the overall length and width remain identical.

And I appear to still be the unofficial proof-reader for Land Rover here in the US. Just below you can see a screen shot from the interactivelandrover.com site with the Press Release for this new model, and again, a pretty clear mistake on the third line. I’m trying to make this criticism constructive, but I just thing they should have at least one real person read everything before they post it. And again, I’m sure the mistake will be quietly fixed by morning but as usual, no one there will acknowledge my help. I’m usually quieter about alerting them to all the mistakes but now I think I’m just going to post them here. At least this time it wasn’t a spelling error…

And back to the real stuff…

THE ALL-NEW FIVE-DOOR RANGE ROVER EVOQUE – COUPE STYLE WITH ENHANCED VERSATILITY

Addition of exciting five-door bodystyle to Range Rover Evoque line-up
Bold exterior captures coupe design, with the same compact footprint and slightly higher roofline for enhanced versatility
Premium cabin, with the enhanced space and practicality of the r five-door format
Permanent all-wheel drive combined with turbocharged four-cylinder engine and an updated six-speed auto transmission deliver excellent performance and fuel economy
All-new 240bhp* 2.0-liter Si4 turbocharged engine combining six-cylinder refinement and performance with four-cylinder fuel economy
Dynamic and agile handling across varied terrain, available with Adaptive Dynamics featuring MagneRide™
All-weather, multi-terrain capability with Land Rover Terrain Response
Innovative Range Rover technologies, including 8-inch (203mm) touch-screen display and Surround Camera System
Sold in 160 countries worldwide, with North American deliveries from Fall 2011
Indicative pricing starting from around $45,000

(more…)

Michael2010-11-11T21:33:41-05:00November 9, 2010|

Just some more notes on the Land Rover / Range Rover branding split #landrover #rangerover

rr-na

When Range Rovers first became officially available in the US back in 1987, the name of the car company here was, Range Rover of North America – prior to that, you could get Range Rovers, but I believe they were all grey market. Here’s an ad from 1984, showing they were available.

Anyway, back to the focus of the post, just more notes on the separation that’s happening between Land Rover & Range Rover as brands. From the slow removal of Land Rover badges from the Range Rovers to the branding they’re using on the web. The actual Land Rover website has two distinct looks and logos depending on what models you’re looking at:

lr-web web-rr

The thing to notice there is that “Range Rover” logo in the upper left of the page. It’s those separate Land Rover / Range Rover logos that are showing up more often. Here’s the cover & last page from the iPad version of the OneLife magazine.

onelife

I didn’t notice all this extra Range Rover specific branding until the Evoque launch, I probably just wasn’t paying close enough attention prior, but now I can’t miss it. Especially when those first Evoque pictures were missing any type of Land Rover branding – a Land Rover badge did appear on the Paris show car.

And finally, back to that OneLife magazine/app, they seem to be very careful in talking about Land Rovers and Range Rovers as independent items which seems like a lot of PR editing.

Directly from the Ratan Tata article:

Tata wants to broaden the Land Rover and Range Rover model range and further differentiate the two brands to attract more customers to the business.

I just wonder what that means exactly? Is this going to be a Toyota/Lexus arrangement? We currently only have two Land Rover models in the US. If this grows with something like the still secret L486 project, where do the Land Rover models fit in? Why not lose them and go all Range Rover? Are they going to be a lot cheaper? There will be a Range Rover at the $40,000 level with the Evoque and I know it’s not the LR4 segment, but what’s going to be the differentiator? Is it just to help people with the confusion between LR & RR that happens at times?

Can someone explain?

lr-rr

Michael2010-10-31T00:02:56-04:00November 8, 2010|

Preview of the Range Rover Evoque 8” Touchscreen? #rangeroverevoque

So the Evoque has been described as having the “Range Rover brand’s 8-inch(203mm) high-definition touchscreen display”, which I guess is new for the “brand’ because the current models I believe all have 7” screens. Anyway, I noticed that the new XJ touchscreen had a similar look to the quick shots we’ve seen of the Evoque, not identical but similar design language – the XJ has the 8” screen too.

So while doing a little searching around, I found that Jaguar actually has a Flash-based and what appears to be Windows only; emulator for their touch screen & HVAC controls.

http://www.jaguar.com/us/en/#/owner_support/touchscreen_simulator

So again, I realize it’s not identical to the Evoque’s but if the little things like this interest you like they do me, you may want to check it out:

One thing I did notice on the XJ that the Land Rover designers didn’t do, was try to eliminate as many buttons as possible. Which while a nice thing to do to clear up the clutter and confusion, some odd choices/compromises were made. Like the climatic seats, there seems to be a lot of tapping on the screen to set what you want – I realize going this way does add more options with less buttons, but on the other side, these changes now can’t be done without looking. Without a physical switch/button/knob, how much muscle memory gets trained? A hard button gets you to the screen but then it’s just a lot of tapping.

And then there’s the physical audio controls, instead of putting that musical note button next to Mode, why not put a Pause button? You could move the left transport control to the left once more and then add Pause button right in the middle. Of all hard buttons they replaced with this design, why do you need a hard button to set the Base & Treble – is it really used that often?

Then you’ve got those “Shortcuts” which seem to be for the most part not things that you may be changing all that often – Language? Animation preferences?

Sorry XJ, you’re an awesome car, it just seems the UI designers may need a bit more time for polish. Maybe the Evoque’s system is v2 for the new 8” JLR screens?

Either way, go check this out.

Michael2010-11-04T20:09:48-04:00November 5, 2010|

The Evoque, the fireplace & OneLife on the iPad #rangeroverevoque

So Land Rover UK has created their OneLife magazine as a free new app on the iPad:

They always like to add in a lot of “lifestyle” content to these things and nothing is different here with an article on Bhutan with “Range Rover” references sprinkled throughout. And there’s also one about a father and son team in the Freelander 2, here’s their video (it’s also available in the app itself):

But along with those articles, we usually do get some real info that doesn’t always show up in other places. We hear from Ratan Tata, current JLR owner with some good insight. And from the actual designers & engineers on the Evoque team. It was there that we learn from the Chief Program Engineer, David Mitchell that:

They’ve adapted the LRX feature where by the lights on the instrument clusters change from blue to red depending on which sport dynamic mode it’s in.
They call the center stack the “fireplace”, which also has an ambient glow – now for this one I’m not totally clear on – did he mean the area that’s lit up behind the HVAC controls? Or the storage area between the armrest and the Terrain Response controls? He mentions it’s where you’d keep sunglasses or other odds & ends.
Finally, when unlocking the vehicle, there is a glow from underneath – is this an enhancement to the puddle/approach lamps or real ground effects? – UPDATE – I missed this in the original PR: “Approach the car at night, and you will also see a bold vehicle graphic alongside the front doors, illuminated by the ‘puddle lights’ which shine from the mirrors.”

So overall, they did a really great job on this issue and I recommend you check it out.

Here’s a link to it again:

http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/onelife-magazine/id396905875?mt=8#

I’ve got a little more to say about it, but will follow-up in another post since it’s a different topic.

Michael2010-11-04T20:11:30-04:00November 1, 2010|