2019 Range Rover SV Coupe subtracts doors, adds opulence

Each one handmade, but what a price

Range Rover manages, yet again, to redesign its signature offering in ways that put it even further from the madding crowd. When the Supercharged wasn't enough, we got the Autobiography. When the 518-horsepower Autobiography wouldn't do, we got the 577-hp SVAutobiography Dynamic. Now, starting at that former peak, we welcome the Range Rover SV Coupe, a two-door coach that establishes a number of firsts and moves Range Rover into previously unexplored territory.

When Land Rover says this is the "world's first full-size luxury SUV Coupe," they mean from the factory; a highly specialized aftermarket has been chopping doors off Range Rovers for years now. At 557 hp and 516 pound-feet of torque, the SV Coupe carries over output numbers from the SVAutobiography Dynamic. The grunt propels the coupe from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 5.0 seconds, and top speed has been upped to 165 mph. Those stats make the SV Coupe the quickest and fastest full-sized Range Rover ever, beating the SVAutobiography by 0.1 second and 35 mph. But such fleeting performance is merely the undercard.

Image Credit: Land Rover

Designers performed cosmetic surgery on every body panel save the hood and lower tailgate. The power-close doors get fitted with frameless windows. The grille and side vents have been reworked in materials like Brunel Metallic mesh and Noble Chrome with Satin Indus Silver metal surrounds. Adepts in Birmingham, England's Jewelry Quarter, fashioned the "Range Rover" script front and back. This is the first Range Rover to offer a 23-inch wheel.

The prix-fixe menu contains eight colors in two finishes: Constellation, Parallax, Liquesence, and Obsidian are new, Ethereal, Flux, Valloire, and Desire come from the SV Premium Palette. That Liquescence tone marks the first time Range Rover's ever offered a metal finish. Two-tone Contour Graphic exterior options will color the sides and rear, front vent to vent, in one tone, the rest of the vehicle in a contrasting color. Cost-extra side orders include themed design packages that change the badging and interior treatment as well; Modernist means Ethereal Silver paint with a Liquesence finish and rose gold and chrome knurled badges.

Of course buyers can choose a single color for the interior, but we didn't know we needed a two-tone interior until we saw it in these press photos. Graduated diamond quilting comes on all four thrones, but four colorways may vary the hues from light to dark, front-to-rear, in Orchid/Eclipse, Orchid/Vintage Tan, Brogue/Ebony or [Cirrus](https://www.autoblog.com/chrysler/cirrus/ /)Lunar. Three veneer choices include the new Nautica, a walnut/sycamore fusion. From here, it all looks glorious.

Range Rover will take no more than 999 orders for the SV Coupe, and intenders can register their interest on the Land Rover site now. With the way posh metal gets swallowed by the marketplace these days, we'd otherwise have no doubt this show would be a sellout, but for this one thing: The SV Coupe starts at $295,000 in the U.S. Yes, each example will be handmade at the SVO Technical Center — another first for Range Rover. But that MSRP is $63,000 more expensive than a Bentley Bentayga
— the less exclusive and less elegant, but faster, more powerful, and arguably more luxurious Bentayga. We expect there'll be a lot of eyes watching to see how this goes; the SV Coupe might be the heaviest and most opulent trial balloon we'll encounter this year.