Land Rover has embarked on a massive new model blitz that could more than double its annual sales by 2020. It is almost certainly the biggest investment that the UK car industry has ever seen. Land Rover’s future model line-up will fully cover the three main areas of the booming global SUV market — luxury, leisure and utility.
According to Land Rover’s design director Gerry McGovern, the brand is set to expand all three of its model families. The plans include additional models for the Range Rover line-up, a new Defender family and a radical expansion of the Freelander range that will create four new ‘leisure’ SUVs during the next seven years.
Land Rover sources refuse to estimate the potential size of the car-maker once the seven-year plan has been introduced. However, market data suggests the global SUV market will reach 22 million units by 2020. If, by radically expanding its line-up, Land Rover captured around three per cent of that market, it would be close to producing 600,000 vehicles annually.
Hilton Holloway: What is Land Rover chasing?
According to what McGovern describes as a “holistic approach” to its future range, Land Rover plans to extend the Range Rover line-up to six models, including an ‘Evoque XL’, which slots into the hole that currently exists between the Evoque and the new Range Rover Sport and a convertible Evoque. A baby three-door Range Rover just 4m long is also being considered.
The new Land-Rover-badged ‘leisure’ line-up will have at least five new models, kicking off with an entry-level Freelander similar in size to today’s Evoque. The Freelander itself will be reinvented in five-seat and seven-seat forms. The range will be topped by a new Discovery, which could switch to an aluminium platform, and be offered as a flagship to rival the successful BMW X5.
In the ‘dual purpose’ or ‘utility’ segment, Land Rover’s plan indicates that a production version of the Evoque-based DC100 is heading for the showroom, as well as the long-discussed replacement for the Defender.
McGovern’s plan shows outline drawings for five-seat and seven-seat new Defenders as well as a crew-cab pick-up.
This dramatic expansion will put a huge strain on the investment and engineering capabilities of Jaguar Land Rover. JLR boss Ralf Speth has already spoken about 40 new JLR product launches in the next five years. He has pledged £2bn a year to underpin this, with the £10bn investment funding at least one new platform, plus increased capacity in the UK.
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This is old info and no longer accurate
I'm not at liberty to say how, but there is a major change to this plan.
Bad To worse?
The DC100 streched over an Evoke running gear shows its true colours, Nice looking car that i can see being successful for a year or two, but no way a Defender replacment, and as lanehogger say's not sure where it fits and what it stands for.
The other designs i just hate, I have yet to see an estate/staion wagon design where the "C pillar" is made the dominant eliment rather than the D, the estate part of the car just looks like a lazy aferthought, bodged on to a saloon design. ughhh.
The odd thing is they realy do know how to buid the RR which is a briliant car
Bling! Bling!
Maybe it's just me, but I really don't like where Land Rover is heading with it's styling. The Evoque "Posh Spice" is just so Chavvy, Bling and "in your face", that surely no one with an ounce of sophistication and taste would want to buy. Looks like they're after the 20 year old "Hooray Henry" and "Essex Girl" market. Can't wait for the Silver and Gold foiled ones! It seems they're heading that way across the range. What a shame.