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Range Rover Evoque in China

From:Internet Info Agency 2019-06-14 15:43:27

Author:He Lun, IIA’s Co-Chief Content Officer, Deputy Head of IIA Academy of Auto

Automobile hot topic Q&A (Ep.204)

TEXT:

Four years ago, Land Rover's flagship model, the 241-horsepower Land Rover RANGE ROVER EVOQUE, was launched at a starting price of 448,000 yuan. Six months later, RANGE ROVER EVOQUE cut the price by 50,000 yuan, and then launched the 200 hp RANGE ROVER EVOQUE, starting at 375,800 yuan. Now, the new RANGE ROVER EVOQUE will be launched soon. The pre-sale price of the 249-horsepower model is 359,900 yuan, which is lower than the price of the 200-horsepower model, but it still caused a lot of controversy. What exactly is going on?

Q: Some people say that RANGE ROVER EVOQUE is "a compact SUV that has the price of medium-sized SUVs." What do you think?

A: This argument seems a bit reasonable. The main reason is that the RANGE ROVER EVOQUE has a wheelbase of only 2.68 meters and a length of 4.37 meters. It is the size of a typical compact SUV. At present, the starting price of Q3 is 271,800 yuan, and the extended version of X1 is priced at 276,800 yuan. People will naturally think, why should you RANGE ROVER EVOQUE set the price higher than the German rivals by 70,000 yuan, similar to the medium-sized luxury SUV?

On the other hand, if the RANGE ROVER EVOQUE is similar to the two German compact SUVs with similar power levels, such as Q3 45 dynamic version, 220 horsepower, 359,800 yuan, and X1 20Li luxury version, 192 horsepower, 369,800 yuan. It can be seen that the new Range Rover Evoque has higher power, better configuration and more suitable price.

Land Rover has two sub-brands: one is the high-end Range Rover, it has a large SUV with a price range of 1.22m-3m yuan; the mid-large sized SUV with a price starting at 900k yuan; and the medium SUV Range Rover Velar starting at 570k yuan; and next is the Range Rover Evoque.  

Another sub-brand of Land Rover is DISCOVERY, which is positioned below the Range Rover and belongs to the general "luxury". There are medium and large DISCOVERY and medium-sized DISCOVERY, which compete directly with their competitors in their respective market segments.

Due to the different positioning, you can see that in Germany and Land Rover's home country, the RANGE ROVER EVOQUE is a compact SUV, but its starting price is slightly higher than the medium-sized DISCOVERY. The mid-to-large DISCOVERY starting price is only slightly higher than the medium-sized Range Rover Velar.

In Germany, in addition to the high-performance cars of the same class, the price range of Mercedes-Benz BMW and Audi's medium-sized SUVs is between 45,000 and 58,000 euros, and the price range of compact SUVs is between 30,000 and 45,000 euros, while the RANGE ROVER EVOQUE’s price range is 38,100-69,600 euros, covering the high price range of compact opponents, surpassing the low price range of medium-sized opponents. This is the RANGE ROVER EVOQUE should be positioned, the previous generation RANGE ROVER EVOQUE is basically the same, the Germans can not be fooled.

If the 249-horsepower RANGE ROVER EVOQUE is compared with the BBA medium-sized SUV with similar power levels, the German market price difference is around 8%, while in China, the spread is as high as 21%, and as mentioned earlier, and the power and configuration are lower. Compared with the two compact German luxury SUVs, the price of the made-in-China RANGE ROVER EVOQUE is already very low, which can be regarded as self-contained.

 Even there are many reporters and insiders in the auto industry that couldn’t figure out the relationship between Land Rover and its sub-brands. And the pricing of Range Rover Evoque (made-in-China version) was way too high at the beginning of its launching, and it’s too late to change that first impression. In addition, there are many models that are so called “the knock-off Range Rover Evoque” or “the little Range Rover Evoque”. It even makes the situation more complicated. Therefore, the automaker had to change the positioning to fit in the Chinese market.  Although we all know it isn’t the best choice.     

Editor:He Lun