Dubai: Al Tayer Motors unveiled the new Range Rover 2013 in Dubai late on Wednesday evening, marking the first regional launch for the car in the UAE.

“The Range Rover has been and remains a very popular car and we are achieving double digit growth as compared to the previous year,” Ashok Khanna, chief executive of Al Tayer Motors, said in an email to Gulf News.

The importer-dealer’s showroom in Sharjah is scheduled to open in the first half of 2013 to cater to demand from new customers in the surrounding area, he said.

Four trim levels of the latest Range Rover—the HSE, Vogue, Vogue SE and Autobiography—will be available in the UAE with bookings already started, Al Tayer Motors said. The starting price for the model is Dh399,000.

The event at Meydan Beach in Jumeirah Beach Residence (JBR) was attended by Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive Emirates airline and Group, as well as Ahmed Al Tayer, Chairman of Emirates NBD bank. Also, existing clients and prospective buyers of the Range Rover gathered at the launch to check out the new model.

Al Tayer Motors Land Rover showroom on Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai is the highest selling Range Rover showroom in the world, according to Khanna.

Asked about expectations for future growth, Khanna said that Al Tayer Motors is “optimistic” about future growth in 2013 as new models from the brands it represents across small cars, sedan, sports car and SUV categories are scheduled to hit the showrooms shortly.

Prospective buyer Asmahan Al Mazam, a telecom employee, was looking to switch from her seven-year old Mercedes car to a four-wheel vehicle and the Range Rover was the only one that appealed to her, she said.

“I found out the price and I was hoping it would be less,” she said, but her mind is already made up. “I’m definitely going to buy.”

Asked if there was still a consumer appetite to buy luxury products at this time she observed: “It’s a wise decision to be careful. I don’t think I’m wise enough,” she said, with a laugh. “When I like something I have to have it.”

Mohammad Al Salami, Chairman of the Department of Civil Aviation in Fujairah, owns more than one Range Rover car already.

“I wanted to take a closer look at it and examine its features. I am passionate about Range Rovers: The luxury, the four-wheel drive, the power. I heard the new ones are lighter, faster and stronger… I hope the prices are good,” he said. Further, with its lightweight all-aluminium body structure, the new model is 39 percent lighter than the steel body of the previous model and saves up to 420kg of total vehicle weight, the company said.

The fourth generation of the Range Rover line has some evolutionary changes in the design. It has already been launched in Abu Dhabi earlier this week.