Range Rover: How a Secret Project Called "Velar" Created the Luxury SUV

Before the Range Rover had a name, its prototypes were registered under a decoy company called Velar. The word came from the Italian "velare," meaning to veil or to cover. The name was a disguise. Behind it was a vehicle whose makers were still working out what, exactly, they had built.

An Idea That Waited Fifteen Years

The Rover Company, which created the Land Rover, had been thinking about a larger, more road-friendly model since 1951. That year, engineer Gordon Bashford developed the "Road Rover," a two-wheel-drive project based on the Rover P4 car. It was shelved in 1958, and the idea lay dormant until 1966, when Bashford and fellow engineer Charles Spencer "Spen" King set to work on a new model.

King was well suited to the job. His uncles, Maurice and Spencer Wilks, had created the original Land Rover, and he had done plenty of epic off-roading himself. Rover's own account says he saw something new in how people lived: busy lifestyles that combined careers, families, and recreation. He believed there was a customer for a vehicle that combined all-terrain capability with on-road performance and modern design.

Engineers First, Designers Second

The Range Rover's basic concept was set by engineers. Bashford decided against using the Land Rover's chassis and instead chose a shortened version of the Rover P4 platform. The concept and basic shape, with flat sides, thin roof pillars, short overhangs, and an upright nose and tail, were determined principally by King and Bashford. King later remarked that the team probably spent only a tiny fraction of its time on appearance. The shape, sketched by King and finessed by designer David Bache, came with a clamshell bonnet, a continuous waistline, and a split tailgate.

The design was finalised in 1969. Pre-production vehicles were registered under the Velar name, a decoy used by development engineer Geof Miller. Sources differ on the count: one says 26 engineering development vehicles were built between 1969 and 1970, while another says about 40 pre-production vehicles were built between 1967 and 1970.

Launch Day in a Cornish Tin Mine

The Range Rover was launched to the press on June 17, 1970, in Cornwall, with off-road testing in tin mines near St Agnes. Spen King himself said that it certainly wasn't a luxury vehicle, at least not initially, which is a striking admission for a car that would define luxury SUVs. It was designed for one-handed operation, including the tailgate and fuel filler, and had levers on both sides of the front seats so drivers could tip up the passenger seat to let someone into the back.

In 1971, the Louvre in Paris exhibited a Range Rover as an exemplary work of industrial design. (Accounts differ on whether the exhibit was a quarter-scale model or the vehicle itself.) A four-door production model didn't go on sale until 1981, and the first generation remained in production until 1996, with 326,070 built.

From a Capable Wagon to a Luxury Icon

The luxury identity arrived gradually. The second generation, revealed in 1994, brought greater space and upgraded air suspension, and introduced an "Autobiography" service offering hand-finished interior colours, trims, and unique paint choices, a level of luxury that was hitherto unseen on an SUV. Today it is offered through Range Rover's Bespoke Service.

The family kept growing. The Range Rover Sport joined in 2005, and the Range Rover Evoque, which Land Rover describes as the world's first luxury compact SUV, appeared in 2010. In 2017, the Velar arrived, reviving the name of that very first decoy. By around 2022, more than 1.25 million Range Rovers had been sold worldwide since 1970.

Ownership and a New Brand Architecture

Land Rover changed hands several times. Ford bought it from BMW in 2000, and then sold it, along with Jaguar, to India's Tata Motors in June 2008 for about $2.3 billion in cash. In 2023, the company, previously Jaguar Land Rover, became simply JLR and adopted a "House of Brands" strategy, in which Range Rover, Defender, Discovery, and Jaguar operate as four distinct brands, each with its own identity. The strategy, part of a plan called Reimagine, aims to make JLR an electric-first modern luxury company by 2030, with an all-electric Range Rover leading the way.

The Marketing Strategy: Let the Design Do the Selling

Range Rover's marketing is distinctive because so much of it came from the product itself.

It defined a category by combining two promises. Off-road capability and on-road comfort were usually separate. Range Rover offered both, and Land Rover's own history describes it as "the original luxury SUV," a position the brand has built on for over fifty years.

It treated design as proof. An exhibit at the Louvre did more to establish the vehicle's credibility than any advertisement could, and its distinctive silhouette has remained recognisable across generations. The brand's current design philosophy, which it calls "reductive," continues the same logic.

It let customers climb a ladder of personalisation. The Autobiography programme, and later the Bespoke Service, turned a model into a platform for individual expression, allowing customers to move upmarket within the same brand.

It grew the name into a family, then a brand. From Range Rover to Sport, Evoque, and Velar, each addition widened the audience without abandoning the core idea. The 2023 decision to treat Range Rover as a standalone brand within JLR was the logical next step.

It used heritage as a story. Reviving "Velar" for a 2017 model, decades after it was a decoy, turned an engineering footnote into a piece of brand lore.

A Disguise That Became an Identity

Range Rover's journey, from a vehicle hidden behind a decoy name to a brand of its own, shows how a product can lead its own positioning. Its makers set out to build something more capable than a car and more comfortable than a Land Rover. In doing so, they gave the world a category, and a name that now stands for it.