Land Rover has cut the three-door Range Rover Evoque from its line-up amid slow sales.
Since the introduction of the cabriolet variant — the third body style of the huge-selling Evoque — the three-door has been the slowest-selling, leading Land Rover to now axe this from the sales. Sources suggested that as much as 95% of sales were of the five-door version.
Less practicality-focused buyers now have only the more expensive cabriolet model as an alternative to the five-door Evoque. A Land Rover spokesman said: “From the 2019 model year, Land Rover has rationalised its Range Rover Evoque body style offering to concentrate on the five-door model and convertible, which account for the majority of sales.”
The move to axe the slower-selling variant of one of Jaguar Land Rover's most popular cars likely aims to offset falling sales of volume models; in March alone, sales declined by 7.8% compared with March 2017, with overall sales down 3.8% across the year ended 31 March.
It’s no surprise that the three-door Evoque was discontinued, given the industry’s trend towards more practical five-door cars. Three-door and coupé variants of the Audi A3 and Volkswagen Scirocco have been discontinued in the past 18 months, while several models have been converted to five-door only for their new generation. Jaguar has also recently cut the XE S and XF S from its line-up.
No official word has been given on whether the second-generation Evoque will be available as a three-door, but it's now almost certain that it won't be.
Despite the dominance of the five-door Evoque, a second-generation Evoque Convertible will likely follow the five-door’s introduction for a 2020 launch.
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