Your first look at the Range Rover SV Coupe

Badged the Range Rover SV Coupe, a maximum of 999 are to be built by the firm’s Special Vehicle Operations division to sell in all world markets, at a price to be announced. As a machine to create a new niche at the pinnacle of the SUV market it is sure to come with Range Rover’s highest-ever price tag.

Ahead of the Geneva exposition here’s a sneak peek at it – or at least of what Land Rover calls its “supremely refined” interior, boasting “peerless refinement and uncompromised sophistication”. The emphasis as a Range Rover for drivers is clear in the two-colour interior, with white quilted leather up front and black for the back seats.

What will it look like on the outside? We are promised a “dramatic two-door silhouette” with what design director Gerry McGovern calls “breathtaking exterior proportions.” Quite what cleverness they have come up with to allow easy access into the rear – where, as the picture shows, it offers far from a coupe’s normal cramped quarters – is yet to be seen.

Plenty of “coupes” these days have four doors but Land Rover has a longstanding love affair with two-door cars, not just for the SWB Defender family but with the Range Rover, which began in 1970 as a two-door only, and followed by Freelander, Evoque and concepts like the Range Stormer, which morphed into the (four-door) Range Rover Sport.

Despite this it is impossible to find examples of two-door SUVs that have been successful, as we have already reported, making this Land Rover’s boldest product initiative yet. How then to sell a two-door Range Rover? Timeless Range Rover appeal and capability, plus plenty of craftsmanship and technology, undoubtedly will be part of the SV Coupe.

But ultimately it’s likely to be about exclusiveness and enough sheer driver appeal for it to rival not other SUVs but supercars and top-end GTs and coupes. More a rival for the Bentley Continental GT than the Bentayga – or Rolls-Royce Wraith rather than upcoming Cullinan? Watch this space.

As SVO boss John Edwards puts it: “In launching the new Range Rover SV Coupé, we will offer clients an alluring combination of peerless luxury and rarity. 

“Unveiling this special vehicle at Geneva International Motor Show in March, during Land Rover’s 70^th Anniversary year, will be a defining moment for Land Rover, the Range Rover portfolio and Special Vehicle Operations.”