After years of teasing, Land Rover finally revealed the latest addition to their range in a star-studded event last night. Ladies, gentlemen and esteemed gentry… The Range Rover Evoque.

Back in 2008, Land Rover released a concept car called the LRX. It was a design study for a new ‘funky’ Land Rover to sit between the Freelander and Discovery, and go head to head with lifestyle cars like the Mini. The concept won critical acclaim for its styling, being futuristic and modern, whilst still being very recognisable as part of the Land Rover family.

Fast forward 2 years, and the Land Rover LRX has become the Range Rover Evoque. They chose to move brands as Range Rover is more upmarket, and basically it means they can charge more for the same car! Unfortunately details are still scarce, as the official launch isn’t until the Paris Motor Show in September; just one official press photo shown above.

What we can see is that this is possibly the most unchanged concept-production ever. The only real changes to the LRX are the addition of door handles, and proper mirrors. The rest is exactly the same, even the wheels. So as they were kind enough to only give us one front 3/4 view, we can show you the rear of the LRX concept, confident that it’s pretty much identical:

Land Rover have come under a lot of internet criticism today, as the spokesperson they have chosen for this pivotal model is?…….. Victoria Beckham. Now many of our international readers may not even know who she is, but we can inform you. She used to be a Spice Girl, then she married footballing ace David Beckham, and now designs clothes for stick insects.

Apparently she has been hired as a ‘Style Consultant’ for Range Rover and will be collaborating on future special editions. We’ll see how that goes shall we…

Anyway, back to the car. Again details are scarce, but the likely engines will be a 3.2 litre straight-6cyl petrol and a 2.2 litre 4cyl diesel at launch. a 2.0 petrol hybrid is also likely later on. Big news on the Evoque, is that it’s the first Land Rover ever to be available with two wheel drive. In fact 2wd will be standard, with 4wd an option. This obviously gives economy and emissions gains, and says a lot about the intended target maket for this car – less muddly fields, more school runs.

Prices are likely to start at around 30,000 GBP for the 2wd diesel model, which should come under 130g/km of CO2.

What do you think of the Evoque? Hate the name? Hate the Beckham connection? Please comment below, we’d love to hear what you have to say.