Aussie behind the Brit Evoque

The newcomer is essentially and deeply British, but it took an Australian to guide it successfully from a pretty picture and a nice idea into a showroom reality.

The man behind the Evoque is Murray Dietsch, a highly-talented engineeer who began at Broadmeadows in Ford Australia but has now broadened his ability to a global post as head of new-model programs at Land Rover.

"It's my baby. Obviously, a lot of other people have worked on it, but it's my baby," Dietsch tells Carsguide following a preview drive in Wales and England. He took the LRX concept car developed by Land Rover and turned it into the Evoque, complete with the off-road credentials to justify a Range Rover badge.

"It's got the practicality about it. But it's cool," he says. "It's pretty good that we've stayed so faithful to the LRX concept car. Having the concept car so early in the program was the catalystfor the final product, and it gave everyone a dead focal point on what we had to deliver."

The end result looks good - with both three and five-door SUV bodies - but Dietsch says the Evoque always needed to be more.

"It's got to be authentic. We couldn't put a car on the road and then not have it perform the way you expect it to perform as a Land Rover or Range Rover. Put it up against anthing it would come close to in its class and it will rings around it."

Still, he knows Evoque is a potential game-changer for Land Rover. "It's taken us into an area where we've never been," Dietsch says. And there will be an overall benefit for the brand, as governments around the world take a closer look at average emissions and economy.

"Evoque gives people the excuse to not worry about the social stigma of an SUV. Building smaller, lighter vehicles is a big enabler for us. Lighter, more fuel-efficient vehicles are what we're working on." And is there anything that's missing, that he would like to add to the Evoque? "Yeah, another body style. I'd like to do one without a roof," Dietsch says.