NEW YORK MOTOR SHOW: Disco Sport concept

Land Rover has announced it will preview the first in a new family of Discovery models at the New York motor show on April 16.

The Discovery Vision Concept, a teaser interior image and video of which has also been released, is believed to provide the first official look at the successor for Land Rover’s Freelander.

No further information has been announced, but Jaguar Land Rover says it will also preview pioneering new technology from its advanced research unit for the first time.

The news follows the effective launch of the Freelander replacement’s drip-feed reveal campaign at last month’s Geneva show, where LR revealed a basic graphic of the model we expect to be called ‘Discovery Sport’.

The ‘baby Disco’ has been snapped numerous times during testing, including in top-shelf ‘RS’ performance form.

While the production ‘Disco Sport’ is expected to be revealed at the Detroit motor show next January, the all-new Discovery 5 – which will be built alongside the Rangie and Rangie Sport at JLR’s Solihull plant in the UK – is likely to follow at the 2015 New York show.

Both new Discovery models, which form the ‘leisure’ pillar of Land Rover’s model range, will go on sale globally next year. Land Rover’s three Range Rover models comprise the ‘luxury’ division, while the Defender – which is itself due for renewal in 2015 – forms the ‘dual purpose’ part.

“The Discovery Vision Concept car will showcase the essence of a future family of SUVs built on Land Rover's key principles of emotive design, unrivalled capability and ultimate versatility, taken to new levels using new customer-focused advanced technologies,” said Land Rover.

Land Rover Australia says it will reveal more details of the concept before its world debut in two weeks, via its Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages, and that fans can join the conversation using #ReadyToDiscover.

“Discovery has been pivotal in helping to build the foundations of the Land Rover brand,” said Land Rover Design Director and Chief Creative Officer Gerry McGovern, who confirmed to motoring.com.au at the 2012 Sydney motor show that the next Freelander would be badged as a Discovery.

“It is admired all over the world and loved by its strong customer base. We have created the Vision Concept to share the essence of Land Rover's new age of Discovery and to debut a new, compelling, relevant design direction that connects on an emotional level with customers of today and tomorrow.”

Although they will be based on different chassis architectures, McGovern has promised the ‘baby Disco’ will “do all the things the current Freelander will do and more”, while the larger Disco 5 will move dramatically upmarket in terms of luxury.

Entry-level models will continue to offer five seats but the Discovery Sport, like its larger namesake, will be big enough to come in seven-seat form, thanks to a 150mm longer wheelbase than the Evoque, with which it will share its LR-MS steel platform – which in turns was developed from the Ford EUCD platform that underpins the current Freelander.

The full-size Discovery 5, meantime, will ride on the same aluminium platform as the latest Range Rover and Rangie Sport.

As the teaser video shows, the baby Disco will feature up to three rows of seats, including individual rear and centre pews -- the latter sliding and folding independently of each other. It also reveals a classy T-shaped dashboard with large central touch-screen and a BMW iDrive-style central system controller on the centre console.

Like the graphic presented at Geneva, the moody trailer video reveals a much rounder shape than any other Discovery, including a rearward-sloping roof with a traditional step up at the rear.

Expect the Freelander’s successor to be powered by the same new ‘Ingenium’ family of 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol and diesel engines as Jaguar’s all-new mid-size XE sedan, while the top-shelf RS version could pack a supercharged V6 from the Jaguar F-TYPE.