Range Rover Evoque nine-speed automatic first drive

It’s the Range Rover Evoque with a new automatic gearbox – a nine, count ’em, speed variant that will replace the existing six-speed auto on 2014 model year Evoques. That means you can order it from around June and Evoques with the new ‘box will arrive from September.

It’s the first application of this new ZF ‘9HP’ gearbox. Land Rover has become a lead partner for the transmission, which has been specially developed for transverse engine installations, so gets it first to install in its Evoque. And instead of the ’box having two overdriven gears, as the six-speeder does, four gears are now overdriven towards the top end, and the upper ratios stretch much further than sixth did. At the bottom end, first is even lower than before, too.

The main benefits, then, are improved drivability at the bottom when towing or off-roading, and at the top it gives a lazier and therefore – you would think – quieter and more economical cruise.

Although the new CO2 rating hasn’t been officially sanctioned, Land Rover says it will improve by four per cent thanks to the gearbox alone, but will actually turn out 10 per cent better because the auto Evoque now includes stop-start for the first time.

That means a diesel’s economy should improve from 43.5 to around 48mpg, with the turbo petrol up from 32.5 to nearly 36mpg.

The new ‘box is a compact unit – only 6mm longer than before despite the three extra ratios – and some 7.5kg lighter. Some of that weight loss is because two dog clutches are used instead of conventional clutch packs.

There’s no word on cost as I write – other trim adjustments will likely be made for the 2014 model year, too - but I wouldn’t rule out a very modest increase.

It’s like a six-speed Evoque and, without a back-to-back test on precisely the same route, if you’re cruising around and letting the car do its own thing, you’d not know a great deal of difference, because the Evoque auto is fairly painless at low speeds anyway. It certainly, to me, feels no less smooth and slick while dawdling.

Ask a bit more of it, and make the decisions yourself – though time and space to do either were limited on our test drive, it’s fair to say – and you might notice a bit more of a difference betwixt current car and new, largely because there is less gap between the gear ratios.

Quite simply, that reduced rev-drop makes it easier to slush between ratios because it’s a quicker rev-match. ZF claims the changes are quick enough to be imperceptible - 150 milliseconds - which is mostly true, depending on what you’re doing: in Sport mode, on a heavy throttle and picking the changes yourself, it lets you feel the upshifts.

Likewise on a slow incline across speed bumps, in D, we found the occasional quick hunt before the car settled on a gear, although without doing the same exercise a few seconds later in a six-speeder it’s hard to know if it would do the same.

The gearbox software has been tweaked, too, and the ‘box’s design allows it to swap more than one ratio at a time, and remember what changes the driver has asked for. So, if you’re approaching a corner in seventh and you think you’ll want third, hit the paddle four times and, when the rev-range allows third, it’ll give it to you. Likewise, in auto modes, it’s more inclined to hold a gear mid-corner so you can accelerate away more easily. None of this makes any difference to the cabin controls, which remain unchanged.