2020 Range Rover Evoque Luggage Test | How much fits in the cargo area?

The 2020 Land Rover Range Rover Evoque represents a complete redesign, and although certainly an evolution of the compact crossover it replaces, the new Evoque is sleeker, sexier and far more premium in appearance and substance. Indeed, if you're looking to make an automotive fashion statement and stand out from the SUV crowd, the Evoque is a terrific way to do it.

But what about that whole "utility" bit in the SUV equation? The Evoque used to be considered a compact luxury crossover, but that was only because there wasn't really a segment below "compact" to dump it into. Today there is, and in fact, the Evoque is actually smaller than an Audi Q3 or BMW X1, and about the same as a BMW X2. Of course, it's more expensive than those (the loaded R-Design HSE you see here stickered at a whopping $67,190), meaning it's still likely to be considered alongside those bigger models. And how much bigger are they? The Porsche Macan, one of the smallest examples, is 8 inches longer than the Evoque and boasts 3 extra cubic feet of maximum cargo space.

OK, so the Evoque is small, but how useful is it? How much cargo capacity does its 21.5 cubic feet of space behind its back seat translate to? Well, let's find out using the luggage in my garage.

To begin, I removed the rigid cargo cover, which is typically necessary for hatchbacks and smaller SUVs when trying to fit as much as you can inside. The cover itself, and indeed the space below it, are pretty comparable to what you'd find in a BMW X2.

OK, luggage time. As a refresher from my similar tests in the Hyundai Palisade and Mazda CX-9, I use two midsize roller suitcases that would need to be checked in at the airport, two roll-aboard suitcases that just barely fit in the overhead, and one smaller roll-aboard that fits easily. I also include my wife's fancy overnight bag just to spruce things up a bit. 

Would you look at that! Everything but the fancy bag fit. It took several attempts at Tetrising it all together, but it could be done ... barely. Nevertheless, the main collection of suitcases also fit with greater ease than in the X2 (with its flip-up floor in place) and none of the bags go to the roof. For further comparison, most sub-compact crossovers usually have to leave one bag at home. 

Hopefully you don't have a middle passenger so fancy bag can double as an armrest. 

Here's another configuration with one of the big bags left behind, as admittedly, had just one of my carry-on bags been a bit bigger, everything wouldn't have fit in terms of length, width or height. Nevertheless, the Evoque performed better than I expected and can actually hold quite a bit of luggage. Just know that most competitors (even ones in the smaller, cheaper segment) hold more. 

And finally, should you need to put the bags to the roof, Land Rover offers a rearview camera mirror for the 2020 Evoque. Using it in normal driving still weirds me out, but it's nice to have in this situation. You can see the difference below between the conventional mirror (left) and camera display.