2024 Range Rover Velar P400 First Test: It Looks So Hot, the Rest Almost Doesn’t Matter

When Land Rover’s Range Rover Velar first appeared for 2018, it was a sensation—visually, at least. The rakish SUV’s slim body perched on big wheels like a concept car, even if the hardware beneath it was mostly pragmatic, off-the-shelf components shared with other Jaguar and Land Rover models. It was the second-least expensive way into the Range Rover family, and it still is today, squeezed between the Evoque and Range Rover Sport. But six years on, the Velar has matured into its moneyed visage. Land Rover cleaned up the originally screentastic interior and adopted Jaguar Land Rover’s Ingenium inline-engine architecture across the lineup for 2021, from the four-cylinder P250s to the six-cylinder P400 reviewed here, and this year revised the grille and added a few new colors.

Having not formally checked in with the Velar since those midlife upgrades, we grabbed a 2024 SE Dynamic model with the optional P400 turbocharged I-6 engine and mild hybrid setup. One thing we’ll get out of the way up front: The Velar remains almost painfully expensive for what it is, which is, effectively, a compact luxury SUV. Somewhat plus-sized for the segment, much like the Jaguar F-Pace it shares bones with, the Velar nonetheless goes up against premium rear-drive-based SUVs such as the BMW X3 and X4, Alfa Romeo Stelvio, Maserati Grecale, and Mercedes-Benz GLC-Class, all of which start in the $40,000 to $50,000 space. The Range Rover’s order books open where most of those competitors’ higher-performance trims top out, at an eye-watering $62,775—and it stretches well past 80 grand in nicer trim levels with the P400 inline-six option.

Whether the Rover’s style justifies that extra outlay is up to you. Yes, the Velar still looks incredible, even years after its debut, but you’ve gotta really dig the aesthetic to pass on larger, similarly priced luxury SUVs from other makes. That baby Range Rover vibe is powerful, though; considering it looks much like the larger Range Rover Sport, which starts at $85,075 and easily can be ordered for more than $100,000, the Velar might even be considered a value to anyone shopping solely at a Land Rover dealership.

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Pretty and Pretty Useful

The Velar certainly is a convincing luxury good, and revisions over the years have cured many of the original’s ills. Dropping the overkill second touchscreen from the dashboard, which lived below the primary display on the center console and controlled ancillary off-road and air-conditioning functions, was a big help. The (single) 11.4-inch touchscreen on the 2021–current Velar’s dashboard now ably handles all entertainment, navigation, and climate control functions and boasts a subtle curvature to match the laydown dashboard’s form. Responses from the display are quick, and we suffered no random shutdowns or freezes during our week with it—something we would’ve considered a miracle if we would’ve been in the buggy 2018 version.

Much like in a Tesla, virtually every control lives, well, virtually on the touchscreen. This looks slick, as there are no buttons whatsoever on the dashboard or center console aside from the shift lever and the button for park. In practice, however, we’d like something as simple as a volume knob instead of the on-screen up/down tap-or-slide curiously located on the far side of the display, by the passenger’s left knee. Similarly, adjusting the cabin temperature via the climate controls flanking the display’s central graphics requires finicky taps and presses we’d rather just use buttons or knobs for. Again, the display is otherwise agreeable, even easy to use, with audio, navigation, and home shortcuts on the driver’s side. It’s joined by another display that lives behind the steering wheel with sharp graphics and legible ancillary info spread along its bottom half. Combined with the modern-looking shapes and smooth, leathery, and rubbery materials intermixed with metals and muted wood trim, the interior elicits a muttered "cool" from anyone who enters it.

As far as automotive fashion accessories go, the 2024 Range Rover Velar unexpectedly doesn’t punish owners with cramped cargo room or other uncouth compromises. The luxury compact SUV is big for its class, and its elongated tail is put to great use, affording an above-average 30-cubic-foot cargo hold that expands to 60 cubes with the seats folded. Rear seat space is good, too, despite what the plunging roofline makes you expect. There is plenty of headroom, even with our test model’s panoramic sunroof, though taller occupants must simultaneously duck under the low top edge of the door opening and step over a thick sill to reach the aft chairs.

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The Performance Doesn’t Quite Match the Drapes

Previously available with a supercharged V-6 or, for one model year, a supercharged V-8, the 2024 Range Rover Velar is now only sold with a P250 2.0-liter turbo I-4 as standard or a P400 mild hybrid 3.0-liter turbo inline-six. The 247-hp P250 dates back to the Velar’s launch, but Land Rover added the P400 I-6 for 2021, when it was offered in two strengths. Since then, the company dropped the lower-output version of the I-6, leaving only the 395-hp version you opt for today on the midlevel Velar SE and standard on the range-topping Velar HSE. 

The powerful I-6 helps justify the Velar’s price somewhat, as it places the SUV in line with performance offerings like the BMW X3 M40i (382 hp) and Mercedes-AMG’s GLC43 Coupe (385 hp), which are priced at $62,895 and $69,350, respectively. Whereas those six-cylinder Germans cost a lot more than their four-cylinder X3 and GLC counterparts, the Velar’s six-cylinder upgrade costs only a few thousand bucks.

In short, if you’re going to buy a Velar, you might as well go ham sandwich and get the Ingenium I-6, because it delivers notably better straight-line performance and refinement than the P250 setup, with virtually no impact on efficiency. In our testing, the 2024 Range Rover Velar SE Dynamic P400 accelerated to 60 mph in a so-so 5.8 seconds and on through the quarter mile in 14.3 seconds at 99.1 mph—that’s notably slower compared to the X3 M40i’s 4.2 seconds and 12.8 seconds and the GLC43’s 4.7 seconds and 13.4 seconds. Per the EPA, the Velar P400 nearly matches the P250’s fuel economy: 19/26/22 mpg city/highway/combined for the P400 to 20/26/23 mpg for the P250. In the real world, the six’s effortless torque surely will help calmer drivers dip into the throttle more shallowly than P250 owners, closing the economy gap to negligibility. 

Get on the 3.0-liter inline-six like you’re performing our instrumented testing, and the Velar leaps forward and feels plenty quick. Throttle tip-in is a hair touchy, even in the Comfort drive mode, but once underway, the I-6 smoothly catapults the Velar along, belting out a wonderful snarl along the way. Even at idle, the tightly wound six emits a tense hum audible from the driver’s seat; sift through the on-screen drive mode menu and tap the Dynamic setting, and the hum grows more urgent.

If you were to only ever accelerate in a straight line, the 2024 Range Rover Velar surely would leave you with sporty thoughts. Turn the wheel or stop the Velar, however, and the experience is more old-school AMG: Stick to the straight-line stuff. The softly air-sprung suspension delivers a pillowy ride, even with our test example’s 20-inch low-profile tires, but also allows plenty of body lean in corners, while the brake pedal’s long stroke and soft tuning further betray the Velar’s relaxed core nature (as well as its above-average off-road capability). The Rover hangs in there if you’re in a hurry, notching an OK 0.84 g on our skidpad and a 26.5-second run through our figure-eight lap, but the BMW X3 M40i and Mercedes-AMG GLC43 put forward more obviously dynamic behavior when hustled.

We think not enough luxury SUVs are as unabashedly comfort-focused as they should be, making the Velar’s chill vibes welcome. The quiet cabin and bump-erasing suspension add to the Range Rover’s luxury cred; if you want sporty, Range Rover makes an SUV with that in its name. In fact, the Velar is so unruffled by haste, the inline-six’s stop-start function often puts the engine to sleep well before you come to a stop, though it refires smoothly and silently. Should you abandon a stopping event and get back on the gas while still moving, the six can sometimes rouse itself with a lurch as the transmission reengages, but the ostensibly fuel-saving feature enabled by the onboard 48-volt electric system is otherwise unobtrusive.

Having originally launched as a fashion-first, everything-else-second proposition six years ago, the Range Rover Velar has stayed the course dynamically—it’s still a comfortable cruiser, not a sporty SUV—and stylistically while improving key shortcomings. The onboard technology is now usable, even friendly, and the inline-six P400 option is so much better than the P250, it’s a wonder Land Rover hasn’t just made it standard across the board. Especially at this price point.