The latest member of the famous Range Rover family will be built at the manufacturer's plant in Solihull.

Called Velar and first teased last week, Range Rover has confirmed today the new car will be built exclusively at the Lode Lane plant, reaffirming the group's commitment to its West Midlands operations.

It is the fourth member of the Range Rover group and sits between its Evoque and Sport models.

The origin of the Velar name - pronounced 'vel-ar' - dates back to the first Range Rover prototypes of the 1960s.

When development engineers needed to hide the true identity of the 26 pre-production Range Rovers, they chose the name Velar, derived from the Latin velaris which means to veil or cover.

Since going on sale in 1970, the Range Rover family has grown and now accounts for 85 per cent of all premium cars produced in Britain, contributing £10 billion to the UK economy every year.

New Range Rover Velar will be built in Solihull
New Range Rover Velar will be built in Solihull

Chief executive of Jaguar Land Rover Ralf Speth said: "The expansion of our product range and building this British designed and engineered car in the UK is a sign of our confidence in British manufacturing.

"We are leading the global premium car industry with our commitment to our home market and our heart, soul and headquarters will always be in the UK."

The Velar is the third model to be launched at the Solihull manufacturing plant in two years and follows an injection of £1.5 billion in new facilities and technologies at the plant which began with the Jaguar XE and F-Pace.

Production of all Jaguar Land Rover models at the four UK manufacturing plants directly supports more than 40,000 British jobs and a further 250,000 in the supply chain.

In the past six years, the company has more than doubled its workforce to support global demand for its products and last year Jaguar Land Rover sold 583,313 cars, 44 per cent of which were Range Rovers.

The Velar will be sold in more than 100 markets globally and is available to order from this summer.

The car will also form the centrepiece of a new exhibition documenting 45 years of Range Rover - called 'Velar to Velar' - which opens at the Solihull manufacturing plant on March 28.