Call It The Range Rover Evoque

Evocative is an adjective meaning “bringing strong images, memories or feelings to mind.” Yeah. That fits.

That’s Posh Spice (aka Victoria Beckham) showing off the newly christened Range Rover Evoque at a posh (sorry) garden party in London’s Kensington Palace. Where else, right?

Yes, we’ve all been over this before. The Evoque will join the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport in U.S. dealerships in fall, 2011 as the smallest, lightest and most fuel efficient luxury SUV that the brand has ever produced. Very, very hot. (The Evoque, that is.) There is a lot riding on this vehicle, however. A whole lot.

First, Evoque will be built in Halewood, England, creating 1,000 new jobs.

Second, Tata Motors Limited CEO, Carl-Peter Forster, says its Land Rover division needed to develop more environmentally-friendly models to compete with other, greener models from other automakers and this is their foray into that pit.

Forster said, “I’m not a supporter of the theory that if we have a small car then we can afford to make a large car. It’s important that the bigger Range Rover is developed with more fuel-efficient engines. That’s the type of activity that will make sure it continues to be socially acceptable.”

And that all starts – at least on the road – with the Evoque.

As an example of Range Rover’s efforts to lower greenhouse emissions, Forster cites a new diesel engine which they  plan to launch in 2011. The new eight-cylinder diesel delivers 309 bhp and an estimated fuel efficiency rating of 30.1 mpg.

Land Rover’s UK managing director John Edwards said they're improving the fuel efficiency of their vehicles “more than any other manufacturer”. “We’ve made more progress on our current cars than we thought possible,” he said.

This is exciting stuff, and goes hand-in-hand with Land Rover’s recent induction into the European Council for R&D.

It certainly has the looks. Next we’ll see if it has the chops. All indications point to the positive on that score as well.