Road test: 2WD Evoque proves two can play that game

That’s right, a two-wheel drive Range Rover. What the devil is this world coming to? Well, it’s like this – the twin forces of consumer demand and the constant push for cleaner cars have leapt from the undergrowth and caused Britain’s favourite maker of 4x4s to veer down the 4x2 path.

Fair enough, just about every other manufacturer has at least one 2WD pseudo-SUV in their catalogue, but this is Range Rover we’re talking about – crosser of continents, conqueror of the Commonwealth, conveyor of the Queen. Normal rules do not apply. Bowing to outside influences must surely mark a new nadir in the company’s history, must it not?

Don’t be silly. With all the concept-car good looks of its 4WD sibling, but better fuel economy, lower CO2 emissions and a less intimidating purchase price, you can expect the 2WD Evoque to be a best-seller for its maker when it arrives in the UK next April. Job done: The baby Range Rover has now got its corner of the market sewn up. Everyone else might as well pack up and go home.

“Whatevs,” you’re thinking. “Will it get stuck in the snow?”

Ah, the $64,000 question. How red-faced would you be if your car that looks like a four-wheel-drive but isn’t a four-wheel-drive slid to a halt at its first sight of a slippery slope. The truth is, we don’t know if it will or won’t because, despite travelling to the Austrian Alps in December in search of a blizzard with which to beat the Evoque into submission, Mother Nature refused to play ball and sent some unseasonal winter sunshine instead.

What we can tell you is this: it carried us high into the Tyrol on a loose gravel track, and it brought us safely down again. At no point did we get stuck or slide off the mountain. Heck, we even switched the traction control off to see if we could catch it out and, apart from some chattering wheelspin when we got a bit loutish with the right foot in the hairpins, nothing untoward happened.

We even tested it back-to-back with the four-wheel-drive car on a series of test-track challenges set for us by the Range Rover people. Skid pan, hill-start on an ice-covered slope, changing lanes on ice… the 2WD Evoque managed them all. The only challenge it baulked at was crawling up and over a ramp shaped like the roof of a house, not because the car’s not capable of pulling it off but, as course-setter Ronnie Dale told me: “The terms of my health and safety certification won’t allow it.” Which sounds to us like code for “anything’s possible if you go at it fast enough”.

It gets better: peel away the “2WD Development Vehicle” stickers from the outside and no-one would ever know you were driving a “lesser” Evoque, since the car’s attention-grabbing profile remains the same whether it uses all four wheels to trample the scenery aside, or claws its way up a mountain using only its front paws.

It’s the same story on the inside. The cabin invites you in with its blend of understated style and quality finish. The leather seats are sublime, the metal and trim delicious. The material covering the top of the dash feels like a cross between denim and that bulletproof nylon they use to make expedition rucksacks out of.

Ours is a pre-production car, but rather than being bodged together with string and gaffer tape, it’s all squeak and rattle-free, which bodes well for the final production version. The only visual difference between this and the 4WD car is the removal of the Terrain Response buttons from the centre console. The gearbox is, for now at least, strictly manual

Underneath, binning half the drive train has helped the Evoque shed 75kg, which is good for fuel economy and the Evoque’s agility. The 2.2-litre diesel engine in this greenest of Evoques – it’s badged eD4 – is tuned for economy at the expense of outright zip. A combined mpg figure of 57.6 and CO2 emissions of 129g/km testify to this – much better than the 4WD.

Still, with 148bhp on tap, there’s enough performance to satisfy anyone who isn’t competing in the Paris-Dakar rally, and it’s impressively quiet, even when you’re hooning it up an Alp in the hope of being first in the queue for knödel and sauerkraut at the mountaintop cafe.

Bloody tasty too. Just like the car.

VITAL STATS

CAR: Range Rover Evoque eD4 2.2L 2WD

PRICE: £36,625 (Coupe Prestige)

PERFORMANCE: Max speed 112mph; 0-60mph 10.6s

FUEL CONSUMPTION: (combined) 57.6mpg

EMISSIONS: 129g/km