Well, we recently hinted an announcement was imminent, and now Land Rover has finally obliged by announcing its LRX Concept is production-bound.
The showroom-ready article will go on sale in 2011, wearing Range Rover badges. That latter fact alone means it won't be a budget-priced offering, and it'll be costlier than the Land Rover Freelander, even though physically smaller than the entry-level Landie.
Land Rover has complemented its latest announcement by issuing a rendering of the upcoming small Rangie, and what it shows is a vehicle that appears little changed from the LRX Concept.
Among the alterations are Range Rover badging on the clamshell bonnet (in lieu of the Land Rover badge worn by the LRX), and a few minor tweaks to the bumper/spoiler assembly.
However, the company has been careful enough to say the design drawing only "hints" at the style of the new Range Rover, which means the finished product could end up looking quite different.
Hopefully it won't go down the path of the Range Rover Sport, which represented a very tame successor to the bold Range Stormer concept that preceded it in 2004.
Crucially, its maker says the new Range Rover will be the smallest, lightest and most efficient vehicle the company has ever produced,
Although designed and engineered at Land Rover's state of the art Gaydon facility, the new vehicle will be built at the company's plant in Halewood, on Merseyside -- subject to quality and productivity agreements -- and will be sold in over 100 countries around the world.
"The production of a small Range Rover model is excellent news for our employees, dealers and customers," said Land Rover managing director Phil Popham.
"It is a demonstration of our commitment to investing for the future, to continue to deliver relevant vehicles for our customers, with the outstanding breadth of capability for which we are world-renowned."
"Feedback from our customer research also fully supports our belief that a production version of the LRX Concept would further raise the desirability of our brand and absolutely meet their expectations."
The new compact Rangie will target a burgeoning niche, as Popham had been quoted at the Frankfurt motor show as saying: "the compact premium segment is the fastest growing in the world, bar none."
"The small premium SUV segment is ahead of all the other car segments around the world, in established markets and in growing markets like China, Russia and Brazil. What the trends and research we've done show is that people want the performance, the capability and refinement that comes in a Range Rover package," said Popham.
Land Rover design director Gerry McGovern added: "The new vehicle will be a natural extension to the Range Rover line-up, complementing the existing models and helping to define a new segment.
"It will be true to the concept and have many recognisable Range Rover design cues including the signature clamshell bonnet, the floating roof and the solid 'wheel-at-each-corner' stance."
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