The fifth model in JLR’s Range Rover line-up will be a low-riding electric crossover called GT, the company has said. The new model sits in a “white space” between coupes, sedans and SUVs as part of JLR’s strategy to further push the company upmarket.
“We wanted it to be complementary to our existing cars, not just another SUV,” head of the Range Rover brand Martin Limpert, told Auto&Design. “We wanted to focus on long distance, transcontinental driving pleasure, but through the lens of Range Rover.”
JLR showed off the proportions of the new car with a camouflaged prototype model that included a full production version of the modernist interior. The car is the first to be built on JLR’s Electric Modular Architecture (EMA). The new platform with its low battery pack helped unlock the proportions needed to make GT work. “We’ve been drawing this car for years. It’s only when EMA came along that we could do it,” Lee Perry, production design manager, told Auto&Design. A hybrid version is also being planned.
The interior of the car applies the same simplifying “reductive” principles that define its exterior proportions, displaying purity, precision and quiet modernity, JLR said. “It has the feeling of open-plan living, thoughtfully partitioned,” Alex Watkin, chief designer for Range Rover interiors, said.
The “architectural” dashboard proportions are anchored by a bar running the width of the car that conceals the air vent. The horizontal bar – a Range Rover signature – is echoed by the wide, thin OLED screen sitting on top of the dashboard in place of a driver instrument display.
The brand’s reductive design principles have kept much of the controls on the central screen, with some buttons retained for the steering wheel. JLR promises more voice control access to functions than on previous models as part of the GT’s focus on technology.
The instrument panel topper is made from a knitted fabric with acoustic properties that avoids the need for speaker cutouts. The seats meanwhile are made from a simulated leather from Ultrafabrics described as being quietly luxurious with a high level of precision. The fabric is lighter than leather as well as being odourless.
Details include chrome ‘jewellery’ towards the front of the door panel and a double-deck centre console. The top deck also features the new Range Rover logo with its interlocking ‘Rs’.
Despite being lower than other models, the GT will retain the Range Rover characteristics such as a command driving position with the low dash allowing a good view over the bonnet. Rear-seat space is said to match that of the large Range Rover model, and it can also drive off-road.
“There are cars that have off-road capabilities, there are cars that have a beautiful low roofline and design, but there’s nothing that packages all of this together in a way we want,” Limpert said.
