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NEWS
AIMS: Land Rover confirms Baby Discovery!
All-new Freelander replacement to be reinvented as Disco's little brotherThe all-new replacement for the Land Rover Freelander will be reinvented as a junior Discovery when it goes on sale around mid-decade.
The abandonment of the Freelander name, which first appeared in 1997, was confirmed to motoring.com.au by Land Rover’s global design boss Gerry McGovern at the Sydney motor show yesterday.
“The next-generation Freelander will be a Discovery,” Mr McGovern promised.
The repositioning reflects a concerted attempt by Land Rover to view its range of cars more holistically, rather than developing different models in isolation.
Essentially, it is splitting the line-up into the luxury Range Rover stream, the versatile Discovery family and the next-generation dual-purpose Defender range, which as we reported from Paris could spawn five or more variants.
“That (Freelander replacement) fits into that the Discovery pillar,” Mr McGovern explained. “It will be a next-generation Freelander and worthy of being one, but we will probably badge it as a Discovery.
“Freelander has a lot of the cues in terms of its useability and versatility that a Discovery has, so we want to bring clarity there. So next-generation Freelander - which will be totally new – will be one of those Discoverys in that pillar.”
Moving Freelander in under the wing of Discovery will also allow its full-size big brother to move up when its all-new replacement – based on the same aluminium platform as the new Range Rover - arrives in 2014.
“The next-generation Discovery needs to become quite luxurious, quite premium,” McGovern said. “We have to be aware of that.”
The junior Discovery will not just bear that name. Mr McGovern said it might become the Discovery Sport or Explorer, although decisions that specific decision had yet to be taken.
Giving Freelander a new identity makes sense because it will bear no mechanical relationship with the current car, as the intention is to migrate it onto Jaguar Land Rover’s high scalable and modular PLA (Premium Lightweight Architecture).
“It will do all the things the current Freelander will do and more,” Mr McGovern promised. “There are customers who like their Freelanders, but I would suggest if you give them a car that is better they are not going to worry too much if the name has changed.”
The renaming will also allow the entry-level Land-Rover to move out from the shadow of the similarly-sized Evoque, which has been a smash hit for JLR. In Australia, Freelander 2 sales are down 28 per cent in 2012, impacted by both Evoque and supply constraints.
An updated Freelander 2 arrives in December with a new turbo-petrol engine and top-spec luxury diesel model.
There is a certain irony in the fact that Mr McGovern is in charge of reinventing the Freelander, as he was responsible for the design of the original back in the mid 1990s and even attended the Australian launch on the Sunshine Coast in 1998.
That car, developed when BMW owned Land Rover, was lauded for its exterior and interior design but reviled for poor performance, unreliability and expense. Much ground was regained with the current Freelander 2, which was developed when Ford owned Land Rover.
India’s Tata now has control of JLR and the company has committed to a five-year 10 billion pound development program. For Land Rover, that means a complete redevelopment of the range that started with the Evoque and has been followed up with the Range Rover launched at the Sydney motor show.
Expected next are a long-wheelbase Range Rover and the Sport in 2013, while an Evoque convertible (seen in Geneva earlier this year) appears very close to sign-off.
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Written byBruce Newton
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