Jaguar Land Rover to introduce three new models

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is secretly developing three new models to be introduced over the next five years and will begin gradually migrating all its vehicles over to a new single modular platform to help slash costs.

In a presentation to investors back in June, senior JLR execs confirmed that the first vehicle to kick off the company's expansion will be the long-awaited new Defender that will arrive in the 2020-2021 financial year.

It's now known that two more models will launch between 2021 and 2024, increasing the total number of JLR models on offer from 13 to 16.

This has led to wild speculation about the identity of the two remaining vehicles, with some media outlets reporting that the new Land Rover Defender will grow into a family of SUVs to rival Jeep, including an entry-level model.

Others have suggested that JLR has green-lit Land Rover's plans for a luxurious car-like crossover that could be called the 'Road Rover', and approved a flagship Range Rover SUV to rival Bentley's Bentayga.

In order to boost its efficiency, the Indian-owned British car-maker is planning to radically reduce the number of platforms it uses to slash development and engineering costs.

JLR currently has six platforms, including the expensive D7U aluminium-intensive architecture for the Range Rover, Range Rover Sport and Discovery SUVs, and the closely related D7A structure for cars like the Jaguar XE, XF and F-PACE, and the Range Rover Velar.

Then there's the D8 steel platform JLR inherited from Ford and uses on cars like the Jag E-PACE, Discovery Sport and Rangie Evoque. But complicating matters and adding huge costs, the Jaguar XJ limo, F-TYPE sports car and I-PACE electric SUV are all based on unique platforms.

From 2020, JLR will start migrating all of its vehicles over to the car-maker's new Modular Longitudinal Platform (MLA) and it's rumoured the new Defender could be the first recipient of the flexible MLA underpinnings.

MLA was developed and engineered to incorporate mild-hybrid, plug-in hybrid and full-electric powertrains, but it's not known if it will see the car-maker abandon its investment in aluminium architectures to save costs.

According to sources, the imminent next Range Rover Evoque narrowly misses out on the new MLA platform. Instead, it will be based on a highly evolved version of the old D8 platform, which will be renamed the Premium Transverse Architecture (PTA) and has been adapted for both plug-in hybrid and 48-volt mild-hybrid technology.

With pressure on for JLR to drastically reduce its current fleet average emissions of 178g/km of CO2 to just 135g/km by 2021, it's thought the car-maker's new hybrid tech will help reach its goal.

JLR will begin manufacturing at its new assembly plant in Slovakia from September. Initially, Discovery production will shift to the new factory, which has capacity of around 150,000 vehicles a year. Later on, it's thought Defender production might also be added.