Nothing succeeds like success, they say, and Land Rover is so impressed by the success of the Range Rover Evoque (and Range Rover's continuing growth in these difficult times) that it is planning a bigger Evoque.
A Grand Evoque, if you will.
According to Autocar, the guys at Jaguar Land Rover are so fired up about the proposal that it has been leapfrogged past a couple of Jaguar-badged crossover projects (thank goodness!), to slot into the gap between the current Evoque and the Range Rover Sport (which, despite its name and undisputed muscles, is still a tank) in direct competition with the (very successful) BMW X and Audi Q models.
The top-of-the-range five-door Evoque now costs £45 000 in the UK (SA prices are too unrealistic to be used for this comparison) while the Range Rover Sport starts at £55 000 - and the next generation of Range Rover and Range Rover Sport are going to be even more expensive, so a price bracket of £35 000-£55 000 would be quite realistic for the Grand Evoque and competitive against the Germans.
Industry insiders expect that the new crossover would be based on the same architecture as the existing Evoque, which itself is derived from the Freelander platform (thank you, Ford, for that one) and should easily provide for a very comfortable two-row cabin, with the possibility of a peanut gallery in the back.
What it would take would be an extra 150mm of wheelbase and a similar amount added to the rear overhang, to make space for a really decent boot or the aforementioned third row of seats - which would make the Grand Evoque a completely different animal from the original.
And that's important, say industry watchers, otherwise it will simply steal sales from the earlier model. For the same reason, while it will still be recognisably an Evoque, it will need to have a style and a presence all its own.
Motivation will probably be provided by the four-cylinder engines that Jaguar is developing at Wolverhampton for a new, smaller sedan (be afraid, 1 Series, be very afraid). They're said to include a 228kW, 1.8-litre turbopetrol and a couple of diesels, each good for about 100kW per litre.
In two-litre format, that would make the Bavarian 20d look a little silly.
So, it's all beginning to line up: a little backroom brainstorming with the Jaguar body-shop boffins would see the Grand Evoque benefiting from Jaguar light-alloy expertise to bring the weight down (crucial, to meet upcoming fuel-consumption requirements), and it could be built at Halewood, alongside the original Evoque, the Freelander and the new small Jag, for a market launch in 2015.
And that date isn't just pie in the sky; Autocar got it from insiders at Jaguar Land Rover who are banking on this new family of four small(ish) cars - all on the same platform - to give them economies of scale they've never had before.
Just please, please, Jaguar, don't make the new small sedan front wheel-drive. If you do, it will go the way of the Rover 75 - straight into oblivion - and that would be such a waste.